The members of R.E.M. consider the recorded album representative of the band at their peak, and fans generally regard it as the band's last great record before a perceived artistic decline following Berry's departure. It has sold around seven million units, and has grown in cult status in the years after its release, with several retrospectives ranking it among the band's best work.
New Adventures in Hi-Fi was recorded during and after the band's 1995 tour in support of Monster. The material on the album mixed the acoustic country rock feel of Out of Time and Automatic for the People with the rock sound of Monster and Lifes Rich Pageant. The band cited Neil Young's 1973 album Time Fades Away as a source of inspiration. The album has been labeled as "folk rock-jangle" by critic Robert Christgau.
Mike Mills said: We got into the studio feeling very happy and relieved that everyone was okay, especially Bill. It brought us all much closer and made us realize how important we are to each other. Once we'd been through a crisis like that [Berry's collapse from a brain aneurysm on tour], making a record was a piece of cake. We discussed making an album of on-the-road stuff a year and a half before we went on the Monster tour. We wanted to get some of the looseness and spontaneity of a soundcheck, live show or dressing room. We used all the good songs.
The band noted that they borrowed the recording process for the album from Radiohead, who had recorded some of the basic tracks for The Bends while on tour and who supported the band in 1994 and 1995. R.E.M. took eight-track recorders to capture their live performances, and used the recordings as the base elements for the album. As such, the band's touring musicians Nathan December and Scott McCaughey are featured throughout, with Andy Carlson contributing violin to "Electrolite".
After the tour was over, the band went into Seattle's Bad Animals Studio and recorded four additional tracks: "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us", "E-Bow the Letter", "Be Mine", and "New Test Leper". Patti Smith contributed vocals on "E-Bow the Letter". Mixing was finished at John Keane Studio in Athens and Louie's Clubhouse in Los Angeles, with mastering undertaken by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine.
The photograph used on the album cover was shot by Stipe along U.S. Route 95 in Nevada during a road trip to Georgia from Los Angeles. Other parts of the packaging were done by Chris Bilheimer.
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