R.E.M. - Reckoning (2009 Deluxe Edition)

Digitally remastered and expanded deluxe two CD edition of the Alt-Rock band's sophomore album featuring a bonus disc that contains a previously unreleased concert recorded during the band's Little America tour at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom on July 7, 1984, and broadcast on WXRT-FM. On the live disc, the group not only performs eight of Reckoning's 10 songs but also new songs that had yet to make it onto tape: 'Driver 8' would later debut on R.E.M.'s third album and 'Hyena' on its fourth. The inclusion of the live concert is particularly appropriate for Reckoning. Whereas Murmur had been complex and painstakingly deliberate, the band's Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, along with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, saw Reckoning as a ''chance to turn up the volume, tear up the rule book, and capture instead R.E.M.'s on-stage mojo,'' according to the liner notes by author Tony Fletcher.