REM - 'Up'. A new adventure in music.
Welcome to the classic album Glimpse by Ian Sharp of ‘LP’
Think back to a time before streaming. To a time when it was possible to be aware of new music, even when it wasn’t played on the radio much (or at all); awareness through reading, recommendations from friends, or a suggestion from your friendly local record shop owner. It was even heard to REM to get listeners.
This week’s Glimpse is ‘Up’ by REM.
Early REM albums didn’t get much play in the UK and they always received good reviews, the kind of reviews that suggested REM music would be my kind of thing. Yet, how to know? Somehow - and I’m aware this doesn’t really make sense - the reviews were too good. They provoked suspicion. So, my friends and I discussed and wondered about REM but didn’t really listen to REM.
Then ‘Out of Time’ offered a more commercial REM, even to the extent of hit singles. I was given a copy for my birthday and I played it often. The gate was now open, so I explored the REM back catalogue and added each new album to my collection as it was released. I became a fan.
I’m writing about ‘Up’ this week because it’s just been reissued in a 25th anniversary edition, which seems impossible but then the rate of time passing always seems impossible. Blink and today’s current favourite record is being celebrated as an artefact from the archive.
The title ‘Up’ brings a smile because Peter Gabriel had already announced his next album with that title. We thought Gabriel’s LP was imminent and REM would follow in its wake. Yet when REM released their ‘Up’ there was still no sign of the other ‘Up’. Shania Twain was in the ‘Up’ club too.
Through the hits from ‘Out of Time’ we were used to shiny happy REM. ‘Up’ was different, less exuberant, more thoughtful, a somewhat different band. Of course, they were a different band. Drummer Bill Berry had left, to look after his health, but only on condition the other three would carry on. He didn’t want to be responsible for breaking up the band formed by existing friends all those years ago. So the core REM line-up of Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe completed ‘Up’ - begun while Berry was still in the band - with the help of Joey Waronker, Scott McCaughley, and Barrett Martin and some drum machines. A more electro-music approach.
Key songs
Possibly to introduce us to the change right from the off, ‘Up’ begins with a drum machine and ambient sounds, with Stipe mumbling low down in the mix. ‘Airportman’ wouldn’t be out of place on Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’; perhaps not surprising as the album is engineered by Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich.
‘Up’ fully kicks into life with ‘Lotus’. This is full-on REM with Stipe randomly repeating words before reaching a slight but earwormy chorus.
Later comes ‘At My Most Beautiful’, which is played and constructed like a beautiful Beach Boys song; the Beach Boys of ‘Surf’s Up’. At this point, REM have come a long way from their indie rock sound of ‘It’s the End of the World’, not to everyone’s delight, but we need our bands to progress. Keep swimming or die.
‘The Apologist’ (I included the live version in this week’s ‘Gems’ playlist) has a more typically latter-day REM sound, with some heavier (yet not heavy) guitar and deep bass percussion.
‘Walk Unafraid’ begins with a blaze of guitar before the vocal develops the song. This does sound like ‘old REM’, with a swagger leading into the chorus underpinning the notion of walking unafraid. This is REM expressing defiance - we’re different, we’re moving forward, we still have something to say. Walk with us? Yes, please. Neatly, the track ends with another burst of guitar feedback.
In terms of pure songwriting, ‘Daysleeper’ is a gorgeous slice of reflection about the odd nature of life for people who work at night. “Staff cuts have socked up the overage” isn’t a line you’ll find in any other rock song - any other song of any genre. I’ve no idea why I like that line so much. This song is about the same character who features in the earlier track ‘The Lifting’ (from ‘Reveal’). Recurring characters should be more of a thing in songs, across multiple albums. What are other examples? Not many come to mind as I write - has Springsteen done this?
Finally, ‘Falls to Climb’ and it all comes together (unless you like your REM with plenty of guitars, which many do). Here’s a ballad with synth washes and downbeat lyrics: “Who has to take the fall? Why not me?”
Stipe said of ‘Up’: “What I really wanted was more of that automatic, unconscious stuff… greatly inspired by
and various others… Bert Downs (REM’s manager/advisor) said the record's about people falling down and getting back up again. He said there's a lot of that imagery. I'm like, 'Really?'" 1Well, yes, ‘Falls to Climb’.25th anniversary additions
For the anniversary, the album comes with an eleven-song live set recorded for the US TV programme ‘Party of Five’. Some REM fans have described this recording as the REM holy grail - a selection of ‘Up’ tracks and some REM classics such as ‘Losing My Religion’, ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’, and ‘Man on the Moon’. There’s also a Blu-ray available, with some extras such as the electronic press kit.
REM in Hyde Park, London
While REM have made some great records, they come into their own as a live band, as can be heard in the rough-and-ready, yet brilliant, live set attached to this new edition of the album.
I didn’t catch them live until they were touring the ‘Around the Sun’ album in 2005 and they played London’s Hyde Park. We had a long drive to London from our home in Wales. Nearing the capital, the motorway information signs lit up: “Do not enter London. Leave the motorway at the next junction.” WTF? We ejected the tape and put the radio on. There had been a deadly terror attack. We were able to divert to a relative’s house and await news. It was rapidly announced the gig was postponed for a week.
Naturally, it was worth the wait and we were treated to Patti Smith singing with the band on ‘E-Bow the Letter’. The mood was part defiance and part celebration. We knew, in our hearts, REM was in the first stage of a long goodbye, even though two new studio albums were to follow.
So, what of ‘Up’?
So, then, ‘Up’. Is it a classic album? Well, it’s REM so yes, but listening back now it’s far from the best REM album, which is understandable. At it’s finest - ‘Lotus’, ‘Walk Unafraid’, ‘Daysleeper’, ‘Falls to Climb’, it’s spine-tingling.
The world is a bit better for the existence of REM’s ‘Up’, and what more can we ask, really?
What are your thoughts about ‘Up’, or REM in general?
‘Falls to Climb’ official visualiser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_(R.E.M._album) - accessed 12/11/2023
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I don;t know if I would place this as high as some other albums in the catalog (maybe mid-pack?), but it's far and away my favorite of any of the post-Bill Berry records. 'Airportman' in particular resonates with me, as I happen to work at one, and few songs have ever convyed the vaguely disorienting, washed-out flourescent feeling of a terminal at 0330 quite like this track does.
Pretty great that you got to see Patti Smith perform with R.E.M.