Up

R.E.M.

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 27, 1998)
• Original Release Date: October 27, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B00000DD54
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (455 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,542 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Jangle Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After R.E.M.'s somewhat ambitious 1996 album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, failed to ignite Billboard's Hot 100, you might have figured the band would return to the rock-solid bombast of Monster or the consumer-friendly pop of Green. But R.E.M. have enough cash not to worry about commercial failure, and they've already been to the top of the mountain, so for now they'd rather explore its lush valleys and secret caves. Up is an atmospheric journey as impressionistic as Enya and as evocative as John Barry. Some critics have compared it with the band's delicate and emotionally revealing gem Automatic for the People, but Up is more ambitious and creative. Sure, most of the songs are pastoral, but they're undercut with drama and sonic experimentation. The melodies are generally spare, the beats sparse. Guitars flicker in and out, providing tension and dynamics, while quivering strings, layered keyboards, and washes of feedback color the songs like textured lines of paint in an oil portrait. The only blatant pop song is the single "Daysleeper." The rest of the album ebbs and flows, each song a separate component of a complete artistic expression. The sound may be influenced by guitarist Peter Buck's cinematic jazz side project Tuatara or by Michael Stipe's celluloid excursions, but its source doesn't matter. What's important is that more than a decade after their sell-by date, R.E.M. continue to challenge and inspire. Things are definitely looking up. --Jon Wiederhorn

New Musical Express

For all the promised adventuring, it's a strangely cautious record, Peter Buck oddly restrained, any sudden guitar flash sounding like he's surreptitiously crept up behind songs and wrestled them to the ground. It feels like an REM compendium, a virtual reality "Best Of" picking and mixing their past.... They play it bad, they play it sad, they play it again and again--hell, sometimes they even play just like a bunch of guys in a room. But after [all these] years, REM can still play with divine fire.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A successful sonic experiment for true fans, February 11, 1999

By A Customer

When REM signed it's monumental $80 million contract, executives at Warner Brothers were probably hoping for more Losing My Religions and Man on the Moons for years to come. These songs were huge singles for the band but don't expect any hits off Up!

The first post Bill Berry album finds the (now) trio in an experimental mood. From the first hypnotic synthesizer tones of Airportman to the subdued ballad closer Falls to Climb, Up is a maudlin, slow paced effort. It also contains some of the most ambitious music this amazing band has made to date.

Only Daysleeper (the already failed single) and Lotus recall earlier work by the band. The driving Bill Berry beat has been replaced by drum machines and occasional real drums. Outstanding tracks include the Beach Boys tribute "At my most beautiful", the driving Hope (to the tune of Leonard Cohen's Susanne) and the almost positive "Walk Unafraid".

One final warning. Unless you are prepared to sit down and spend some time absorbing this album, don't expect it to grab you by the neck like Out of Time. However if you do love this band and appreciate their past uncommercial efforts, you will find a cornocopia of amazing music on Up.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars substance over style, November 29, 1999

By	Andrew Welsh (dallas) - See all my reviews

Reviewers are all over the map here. And I think I know why: This disc is hard to peg, doesn't necessarily grab you on the first listen, and is such a radical change of pace for REM.

But if you really LISTEN to this all the way thru and pay attention to the lyrics, backbeat, and subtle genius of the musicianship, you will learn what many already know: It is another REM masterpiece.

Most bands don't take the chances that REM does. It would be so easy for them to crank out radio-friendly jangle pop that they essentially wrote the book on. But this a band that believes you have to take risks to grow artistically. We should all be grateful they have this integrity.

So take 55 minutes out of your busy day, turn off the idiot box, stop multitasking, grab something cool to drink, and do something seriously lacking in our current culture: Listen.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another ESSENTIAL release, August 12, 2004

By	J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Difficult for casual fans to get their heads around, UP is a very rewarding listening experience for those willing to forget about the "old REM" and open themselves up to something new. The departure of Bill Berry seems to have thrown the band into a bit of a tail-spin , but this collection of songs are some of the best REM have ever recorded. There are only two songs on this cd I don't like ( I don't even know what they are called, I always skip them ) but 12 out of 14 songs is a pretty good average in my opinion. The first 5 or 6 songs are simply brilliant. And Sad Professor is THE SADDEST SONG ever written. Period. A radical departure for REM, "UP" barely went gold in the US, if I'm not mistaken, where their commercial clout has been decreasing for about a decade. They continue to be critics' darlings, however, like they always have been. And I suppose that's enough for them. They will probably never make another album as straightforwardly "pop" and as commercially succesful as Out of Time , but I'm not sure I'd want them to.