R.E.M. - Up
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Free Music Notes for Up
Free Music Review: Not the R.E.M. I know & love
Hit: 1 Stars
Look I'm all for the ability of artists to change, mature, and evolve over time. Indeed, I don't want artists to keep churning out the same record, again and again. Green is not Life's Rich Pageant; Out Of Time is not Reckoning. And that's a good thing. But this, this is just awful. Whether you like the earliest REM (Murmur, Reckoning), REM at its hit-making prime (Automatic for the People, Monster), or their most current incarnation (Accelerate), this one is just a clinker. Even the best of artists occasionally produce bad stuff (see young, Neil: Trans, re-ac-tor, Everybody's Rockin', Arc). This is that disc for R.E.M. A song by song review is overkill & unnecessary. I paid $2 for this on a whim at a used record shop. I wish I had my $2 back. Avoid. Free Music Review: An uneven transitional effort where truly strong songs are pulled down by kitchen sink noodling
Hit: 3 Stars
When drummer Bill Berry left R.E.M. in the wake of a brain aneurysm, the remaining three members vowed to go on. UP, released in 1998, was the first album featuring this new reduced lineup. In many respects, it marks the end of R.E.M. as we knew it. On some songs, namely "Suspicion" and "At My Most Beautiful", Michael Stipe adopted a new vocal style, subdued and cutesy. It may have won the band a whole new fanbase of teenagers (one recalls the band performing "At My Most Beautiful" on the television show Party of Five), but it's about as far away from the hipster college rock of the band's early days or even the exuberance of their first major label recordings. The departure of Berry left the band without a timekeeper, and though a session drummer is present in some places, in the main rhythm is held through sequencers and other electronic effects. There's little in the way of jangly guitars here.
Stipe's lyrics had become progressively clearer over the years, and UP was the first album where they are even printed in the liner notes. Two songs, "Sad Professor" and "Daysleeper", are first-person vignettes from the life of an alcoholic academic and night-shift stockbroker respectively. The latter works, and was even issued as a single, while the former just grates. "Walk Unafraid" and "Falls to Climb" both deal with the difficulties of peer pressure, whether rebelling or sacrificing oneself for the greater good, and stand as two of the high points of the album. "Lotus", a tongue-in-check paean to hallucinogens, is the band's only psychadelic effort, and is catchy enough. While it is often no suprise that few songs here became radio staples, the powerful "Dimished" deserved more attention than it gone.
UP has always seemed to me an album where the band had grand designs, but ultimately didn't succeed in fulfilling them. The distribution of those songs with traditional instrumentation and those with new electronic gadgetry is fairly random, and the 14 tracks here include dead weight that could well have been trimmed.
Free Music Review: Criminally underrated
Hit: 5 Stars
Undermined by expectations, R.E.M.'s first post-Bill Berry album had fans and critics who were expecting another "Monster" or "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" wondering where their favorite Alternative Rock icons had disappeared to. I'll grant that "Up" isn't an album that reveals its deepest rewards upon first listen, but allowed to breathe over time it has become my favorite R.E.M. album since "Automatic For The People". The overall mood of the album is decidedly more dreamy and chamber-pop oriented than its immediate predecessors, so this one is going to appeal more to fans of songs like "Nightswimming" than "It's The End Of The World (As We Know It)". As an R.E.M. fan since the "Chronic Town" EP (and who shared nachos and conversation with Michael Stipe once during the Reckoning tour (!)), I predict that this album's reputation will only improve with time.Free Music Review: Ignore The Naysayers - This Is Truly One Of Their Very Best Albums!
Hit: 5 Stars
UP is a beautiful album and the sound of a more mature band. It has a certain feel to it, a very modern sound. Part of that sound is due to losing drummer Bill Berry and often relying on electronics for the beat.
Only "Lotus" sounds like a full-on pop/rock song with its live drums. It sounds like floating . . . and it stands as one of their best ever songs. The first song, "Airportman," sets the relaxed mood with quiet synths. "Suspicion" is softly sensual while "At My Most Beautiful" is one of their prettiest and most heartfelt songs, featuring orchestration, Christmas bells, piano and 60's style "do-do-dos." A very strong set of songs, but "Diminished" may be my favorite here. That or the last one "Falls to Climb" which can bring a tear to my eye if I'm not careful.
This isn't R.E.M. rocking out like they have in the past. This is much more of a quiet album and it's brilliant. Those who can't hear that might only appreciate R.E.M. at their most rocking. Either that or they just aren't paying attention to this brilliant music. Dig this album - ignore the nay-sayers!
Free Music Review: I feel sorry for anyone who can't see all five of these stars
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is a gem. An excellent effort from R.E.M. Michael's words are poetic in his abstract, sarcastic at times kind of way. The music is a breath of fresh air for R.E.M. Wonderful electronic experimentation mixed with R.E.M's rock foundation. The music is a great compliment to Stipe's words and imagery.
I read a review for this that mentioned Radiohead's Kid A and after listening to this more, I'd have to say there's some definite validity in that reference as far as being the band's adventure off into another world, one they've flirted with before but never quite landed on.
From top to bottom, every song hits you a different, yet consistent way. It's just good. It's the kind of album that each time a new song starts you smile. "Walk Unafraid" was the only song that took some time to grow on me.
To anyone who would try to argue that this album is not good, I'd just have to look at them and say, "Well, I guess I'm looking like an idiot, and I no longer care".