#10 R.E.M. – Up
The period after the Monster tour ended up being a huge transition for the band. They lost their longtime manager Jefferson Holt, released New Adventures in Hi-Fi, with many songs that were recorded during the Monster tour and as the band was in plans for recording Up, their longtime drummer Bill Berry had left the band.
On the surface, some might have questioned the move that the band had decided to carry on since the band had always been defined as a four-piece, however, Berry did not want it any other way as he did not want to be the one that broke up the band.
Thus, the process of making Up had considerable growing pains as the band had tried to redefine themselves in the studio. The challenges of the album had almost made it their last. After signing one of the richest record contracts in history, Up is not a single’s rich affair and was a huge commercial and critical disappointment. That being said, I have embraced the record as one of their best. It’s muddy, it is not sure what its personality wants to be and that might add to the romance. In a similar way that ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’ brought it’s own sense of mood throughout, Up does as well. It’s a band with a personality crisis, only understanding themselves as being a four-piece and attempting to morph into a three-piece. The choices they make are in some ways charming, not attempting to replace Berry with a human but an instrument, in many situations it was a drum machine. Instead of a band trying to keep things familiar, they ventured into deep waters, making an album that is unlike anything that they made before this.
The first song, “Airportman”, in its Eno-like trance suggests right from the beginning that it is a transition, if only from what the title would suggest.
I have often compared the album to that of the movie “Lost in Translation” and will suggest that if you play the album while watching the movie the album makes complete sense. On a more serious note, the movie deals with Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray, Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson, who are both not only lost in an foreign culture but in their lives as well.
The album often feels a bit unsure of itself, feeling a bit like a hangover. The subjects of the album are all over the place. In some ways, it is like a relationship going ridiculously wrong.It captures different moods almost to the extreme, with the Beach Boys inspired “At My Most Beautiful” to the downright scary “Apologist”. There are characters that are sexy such as “Lotus” and “Suspicion” and drunks, as in “Sad Professor”. There is a desperation to them all, a feeling of despondency or being lost. even the saccharine “At My Most Beautiful”, as in a person sitting there and listening to a voicemail over and over and over and over.
The sounds that are exhibited throughout at times feel a bit foreign. Peter Buck lends more feedback, and droning guitar sounds building into this mood.
When the album was released, there had been comparisons to Radiohead’s ‘Ok Computer’, however, thematically it’s a stretch as I believe that ‘Ok Computer’ is wrestling less with personal issues and more with social issues. Sonically, the only thing that they do is create their own environments but the way that they get there is much different. In many ways, the scenery in Up is derived from the song ‘Daysleeper’, ‘Florescent flat caffeine lights’. Sure, I would imagine that in both situations that the characters are lost in their worlds, but both bands are well known for their depressing subject material.
Up was R.E.M.’s last great record. It was a four-piece that made an album while their drummer was on a permanent vacation and they used whatever resources to make sure that Berry could not just be replaced and that to me was the charm. For me, it’s an easy album to defend even though it has it’s detractors. You need to make an investment into it as well, giving it a good 20-30 listens to start to understand it’s flawed beauty.