R.E.M. have shared a brand new profit EP titled Radio Free Europe 2025. The five-track mission features a new remix of the band’s 1981 debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” reworked by producer and longtime R.E.M. collaborator Jacknife Lee. The EP is out now digitally, and a vinyl version is out on September 12 by way of Craft. Proceeds from the vinyl will go to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the editorially unbiased, nonpartisan, and nonprofit 501(c)(3) company that impressed R.E.M.’s early single. Listen to the brand new EP beneath.
Radio Free Europe 2025 was overseen by the band’s authentic producer Mitch Easter, who first recorded R.E.M. at his Drive-In Studio in 1981. That session included recordings of “Radio Free Europe,” “Sitting Still,” and the instrumental “Wh. Tornado,” all of which seem on the brand new EP.
Radio Free Europe 2025 arrives as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty celebrates its seventy fifth anniversary, and simply forward of World Press Freedom Day on Saturday, May 3. The group presently broadcasts information to 23 nations in 27 languages, making crucial data obtainable in areas the place a free press is both banned or threatened by the presiding authorities. RFE/RFL is presently beneath menace amid President Donald J. Trump’s widespread funding cuts, although a federal choose not too long ago dominated that his administration must restore the $12 million that Congress had appropriated for the group.
Speaking on the significance of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in press supplies, R.E.M. bandleader Michael Stipe mentioned: “Whether it’s music or a free press—censorship anywhere is a threat to the truth everywhere. On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the brave journalists at Radio Free Europe.” Stipe additionally mentioned the brand new music on CBS Mornings, and you may watch his interview on Instagram.
Bassist Mike Mills continued the sentiment: “Radio Free Europe’s journalists have been pissing off dictators for 75 years. You know you’re doing your job when you make the right enemies. Happy World Press Freedom Day to the ‘OG’ Radio Free Europe.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s president and chief government, Stephen Capus, added: “To me, R.E.M.’s music has always embodied a celebration of freedom: freedom of expression, lyrics that make us think, and melodies that inspire action. Those are the very aims of our journalists at Radio Free Europe—to inform, inspire, and uphold freedoms often elusive to our audiences. We hold dictators accountable. They go to great lengths to silence us—blocking our websites, jamming our signals, and even imprisoning our colleagues.”
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