Because R.E.M.’s I.R.S. period covers the years before the band entered the other I.R.S.’s highest tax bracket, what constitutes the band’s best is highly subjective. But if you’re one to complain about omissions (no “Harborcoat”?), you probably already own them. The included rarities disc is hit-and-miss, but its highlights — part of a raucous ’83 concert and the original version of “Radio Free Europe,” their debut single — reveal musicians much looser and more raw than they were on their carefully dissected albums. If Michael Stipe sounds like a college-rock hippie when he invokes the Reformation (“Begin the Begin”) and advocates starting “a new country” (“Cuyahoga”), remember that he’s talking about deposing Poison as much as Reagan. It was a more innocent era, when selling out meant hiring John Cougar’s producer — actually, when “selling out” was a phrase that had any meaning at all.

Download: “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry),” “Radio Free Europe” (Hib-tone version), “We Walk” (live ’83)