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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
After REM's somewhat ambitious 1996 album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, failed to light up the charts, you might have figured the band would return to the rock-solid bombast of Monster or the consumer-friendly pop of Green. But REM 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 colour 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, REM continue to challenge and inspire. Things are definitely looking up. --Jon Wiederhorn
Product Description
Warner Bros. Records, 9362-47112-2, 1998 14 Track
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
R.E.M. are always at their best when making music that is brave and unexpected, and this is their second bravest album. Only the "we hate our new fans" album Monster was braver, but this one is far superior.
Deprived of drummer Bill Berry after New Adventures, R.E.M. were unable to mix in classic rock songs on this album. But rather than try anyway, without drums, as they have done on Reveal, R.E.M. instead opted for an album of pure melancholy and beauty. It starts with Airportman - Stipe murmuring "great opportunity awaits" over eerie keyboard sounds, and if you can stomach this you will love the rest.
More than any other R.E.M. album, this a journey for the listener and an experience. It's an album about maturing, about troubled times and about coming out the other side. It's sad, mournful, reflective and incredibly uplifting. It makes Automatic For The People seem dry and emotionless by comparison. It's a response to all their previous work, full of references to earlier songs. There are 14 tracks, yet there are no weak ones; the album never sags. Each is beautiful and conveys a mood perfectly.
If Monster was a rejection of their new fans at the zenith of their fame, this (coming at perhaps the low point of their stardom) is a real treat for all the fans who follow the band because they love what they really are: unique, emotional, unpredictable.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
'Up' ended up being not only my favourate of Rem's but also the most listended to record for the last 4 years. At first I remember thinking all the tracks sounded the same and the whole album was a bit annonymous (compared to previous offerings). However, it soon started to clear, like mist rising from the oceon, into one of the most beautiful records ever.
Highly reccomend listening to tracks like 'Hope' and 'Why not Smile?' on a very highquality walkman or hi fi, as the depth and texture of the sound is so amazing its almost edible (I still hear new layers of sound when I listen to it now). The beauty eminates from the lyrics original, expressive nature and in the experimental sounds that work so brilliantly, its hard to imagine how anyone could not love this. Not forgetting that each track has a distinctly subtle-yet powerful tune, prime example being Diminished, or Parakeets. This is a truly great record, and don't believe people who think Automatic For the People is the only good album, you'll miss out on this and other masterpieces like 'Out of Time'
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Be patient because it might take a while.
Obscure electronica and a woozy, sleepy jaded feel pervades this album. And mostly, nothing on here will grab you straight away. Certainly the stunning "At My Most Beautiful" might take your attention and the charming but REM-by-numbers lead off single "Daysleeper" will shake you by the hand and offer you tea and biscuits. But "Airportman" might just ignore you. Completely ignore you. But don't worry you'll be on speaking terms at some point.
There is something quite stunning about this album once you've spent time with it.
"Walk Unafraid" is defiant and mesmeric. "Parakeet" is beautiful. "Diminished" is paranoid and claustrophobic but perversely has a charming little chorus in the middle. This gives way to a sweet little acoustic hidden track which leaves as quickly as it arrives.
"Why Not Smile?" is simple and winsome. The closer "Falls To Climb" is somber and stately - the kind of track that would normally have Mr Buck's jangly Rickenbacker but this time is covered in electronic bleeps and synths. And it works well.
Down-sides? You need persistence, sunbeam, and if you've got 16 million tracks on your I-pod you can wade through at choice you might not want to cultivate it.
But if you appreciate the whole concept of an album then you'll stick with this.
There is a little bit of sleepyness - "Suspicion" is comatosed. Not at all offensive, just very sleepy.
But all in all, accomplished, intelligent and convincing. Worth a re-visit.
Obscure electronica and a woozy, sleepy jaded feel pervades this album. And mostly, nothing on here will grab you straight away. Certainly the stunning "At My Most Beautiful" might take your attention and the charming but REM-by-numbers lead off single "Daysleeper" will shake you by the hand and offer you tea and biscuits. But "Airportman" might just ignore you. Completely ignore you. But don't worry you'll be on speaking terms at some point.
There is something quite stunning about this album once you've spent time with it.
"Walk Unafraid" is defiant and mesmeric. "Parakeet" is beautiful. "Diminished" is paranoid and claustrophobic but perversely has a charming little chorus in the middle. This gives way to a sweet little acoustic hidden track which leaves as quickly as it arrives.
"Why Not Smile?" is simple and winsome. The closer "Falls To Climb" is somber and stately - the kind of track that would normally have Mr Buck's jangly Rickenbacker but this time is covered in electronic bleeps and synths. And it works well.
Down-sides? You need persistence, sunbeam, and if you've got 16 million tracks on your I-pod you can wade through at choice you might not want to cultivate it.
But if you appreciate the whole concept of an album then you'll stick with this.
There is a little bit of sleepyness - "Suspicion" is comatosed. Not at all offensive, just very sleepy.
But all in all, accomplished, intelligent and convincing. Worth a re-visit.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The best that could be expected.
After the departure of founding drummer Bill Berry, many predicted the end for REM. Instead they bounced back as a 'three legged dog' in Michael Stipe's words, releasing the album... Read more
Published 22 months ago by dynamitekid156
Are you sure REM wrote this. I will say sorry now.
Where do I start, well to start with judging by the 38 reviews that have been done before me I am only going to upset 34 people. Read more
Published on 16 May 2010 by Stephen
'Up' against it
A more ironic album title it would be hard to imagine. 'Up' captures REM at a low ebb, reeling from the sudden departure of drummer Bill Berry after 17 years' service. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2008 by Kevin Clarke
reverting to type
referring to my title for this review, when i say 'reverting to type', i mean that this band have returned from the great back to the very ordinary again. Read more
Published on 3 July 2008 by the lone voice of reason
Experimental Tripe!
I see the used ones are avalible at 0.29p. Thats a fair reflection on a dyer album. If your a regular fan of good indie/americana/rock&roll steer well wide of this. Read more
Published on 25 July 2007 by King of pain
Their last great LP is their most experimental
REM's last great LP, certainly everything since pales into its shadow. Experimental with shimmering soundscapes, gone is the punch and jangle and in comes the fuzz and shimmer and... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2007 by Mrs. S. J. Smith
R.E.M.'s Lost Classic
Initially underwhelming, ultimately astounding - the unfairly maligned "Up" is a sweet mystery indeed. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2006 by patrick o'leary
The Same but Different
Up has recieved a fair amount of bad press since its release in 1998. Creating a viable follow up to the stripped, harsh tones of 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi without recently... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2006 by Petay
One of their best albums - beautiful
Although hard to get into, this is, in my opinion, one of the greatest R.E.M. albums. The Apologist, Walk Unafraid, Lotus and Daysleeper are probably the easiest to get into but... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2006 by Peta L. Parsons
One of the strongest REM albums
This was the first REM album without the original drummer and I remember the TV documentary when the band explained how difficult this album was to make. Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2005 by "spikeydave"
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