This year marks the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s Reveal, the richly layered 2001 album featuring favorites like “Imitation of Life,” “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)” and “I’ll Take the Rain.” To celebrate, Craft Recordings will release Reveal (25th Anniversary Edition) on November 20, expanding the original album with The Black Sessions Revealed, a previously unreleased 17-song performance recorded for Radio France in Paris on May 7, 2001.
Available as a deluxe 2-CD/Blu-ray set and expanded digital edition, Reveal (25th Anniversary Edition) pairs the original 12-track album with the complete Radio France performance, which finds R.E.M. moving between then-new Reveal material and classics spanning their catalog, including “The One I Love,” “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon.” All formats feature reimagined cover art by longtime R.E.M. designer Chris Bilheimer. The accompanying Blu-ray presents Reveal in high-resolution audio and 5.1 surround sound, alongside the music videos for “Imitation of Life,” “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)” and “I’ll Take the Rain,” plus the album’s original EPK. Housed in a 32-page hardcover book featuring archival photographs, the deluxe set also includes new liner notes by journalist Birgit Fuss, with fresh reflections from Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills.
The Black Sessions Revealed will also be available separately as a 2-LP set, bringing the intimate 2001 performance to vinyl for the first time. Additionally, REMHQ.com will offer exclusive Neon Orange vinyl of the original Reveal album and Neon Pink vinyl of The Black Sessions Revealed, alongside new anniversary merchandise. Pre-orders for all formats are available today, while the first single—the live version of “Imitation of Life” from The Black Sessions—is available now to stream/share.
Reveal marked a more settled creative period for R.E.M. following the departure of founding drummer Bill Berry and the more experimental terrain of 1998’s Up. “Everyone was in a pretty relaxed mood,” remembers Mills. “We had come to terms with all of the complications from Bill leaving the band, with all of the complexities of being a three-piece. Just finding the balance between us. We were in a good space.”
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