Up (R.E.M. album)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Up
File:R.E.M. - Up.jpg
Studio album by R.E.M.
Released October 26, 1998 (1998-10-26)
Recorded January–July 1998
Genre
Length 64:31
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Pat McCarthy and R.E.M.
R.E.M. chronology
R.E.M.: In the Attic – Alternative Recordings 1985–1989
(1997)R.E.M.: In the Attic – Alternative Recordings 1985–19891997		 Up
(1998)		 Man on the Moon
(1999)Man on the Moon1999
Singles from Up
  1. "Daysleeper"
    Released: October 12, 1998
  2. "Lotus"
    Released: December 7, 1998
  3. "At My Most Beautiful"
    Released: March 8, 1999
  4. "Suspicion"
    Released: June 28, 1999

Up is the eleventh studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was the band's first album without original drummer Bill Berry, who left the group amicably in October 1997 to pursue his own interests. In his place, R.E.M. used session drummers and drum machines.

Details

Up saw R.E.M. move into electronic music-influenced territory after delivering New Adventures in Hi-Fi in 1996. Ending a 10-year relationship with co-producer Scott Litt, the band engaged the production assistance of Pat McCarthy, who was assisted on most tracks by engineer Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's producer. The single "Daysleeper" became a Top 10 UK hit, and "Lotus", The Beach Boys-influenced "At My Most Beautiful" and "Suspicion" were also released as singles.

"There are certain things I set out to do," Michael Stipe noted. "Rough ideas that I wanted to play around with. One of them was the religious-spiritual versus science-technology-modern-age. There are several songs on the record that, to me, address that. I don't know how other people are going to take them. It's taking off a little bit from 'Undertow' and 'New Test Leper', with the freedom of 'E-Bow the Letter' and 'Country Feedback' – songs that just come out. What I really wanted was more of that automatic, unconscious stuff… greatly inspired by Patti Smith and various others… Bert Downs 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?'"[1]

Breaking with a tradition that stretched back to the band's 1983 debut, Murmur, Stipe elected to have his complete lyrics included in Up's CD booklet, a practice he would maintain on all subsequent R.E.M. studio albums. "[Mike Mills] was reading the lyrics," he explained, "and he said, 'These are really great – we should print them on the record sleeve.' It was a really good night and there were eight or nine songs on the wall. I said, 'Yeah, we will'… I thought it was a nice way of saying that we are a different band now."[1]

R.E.M. subsequently admitted that they came close to breaking up while recording the album.

Sales and critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 2.5/5 stars[2]
Entertainment Weekly A–[3]
Houston Chronicle 2.5/5 stars[4]
Los Angeles Times 3.5/4 stars[5]
NME 7/10[6]
Pitchfork Media 6.1/10[7]
Q 4/5 stars[8]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[9]
Select 3/5 stars[10]
Spin 8/10[11]

Up reached #3 in the U.S. (with 16 weeks on the Billboard 200) and #2 in the UK, but didn't have the staying power of the band's more-recent albums, and thus the band's lowest sales in years. "The things that we have to do creatively for the band may not be the most commercial things," Mike Mills observed. "That isn't the point. The point is to keep it fresh and interesting and alive."[1]

"It will certainly sound strange to those who only own Automatic for the People and repeat-play the hits," wrote Danny Eccleston in a 4-star review for Q.[8] "Conversely, anyone who has a healthy number of R.E.M. records – let's say four – and plays them regularly, should manage to listen to Up without his head exploding or tossing herself off a tall building or any of the weird things people are meant to do when faced with music they don't quite understand. This is R.E.M. after all. We couldn't even hear the lyrics until album five."[8]

Although R.E.M. initially intended not to tour for the album, after many successful promotional concerts upon the album's release, the band quickly arranged a four-month arena tour of Europe and America during the summer of 1999. As of March 2007, Up has sold 664,000 units in the U.S.[12]

In 2005, Warner Bros. Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of Up which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes.

Track listing

All songs by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe unless otherwise stated.

Up Side
  1. "Airportman" – 4:12
  2. "Lotus" – 4:30
  3. "Suspicion" – 5:36
  4. "Hope" (Leonard Cohen, Buck, Mills, Stipe)1 – 5:02
  5. "At My Most Beautiful" – 3:35
  6. "The Apologist" – 4:30
  7. "Sad Professor" – 4:01
  8. "You're in the Air" – 5:22
Down Side
  1. "Walk Unafraid" – 4:31
  2. "Why Not Smile" – 4:03
  3. "Daysleeper" – 3:40
  4. "Diminished" – 6:01
    • Includes an hidden track entitled "I'm Not Over You" starting at 5:00, with Stipe soloing on acoustic guitar, after the song's conclusion.
  5. "Parakeet" – 4:09
  6. "Falls to Climb" – 5:06

Notes

1 Cohen was not directly involved in the writing of "Hope" but was given a writing credit by the band due to similarities in melody and lyrical pattern to his "Suzanne".

Studio B-sides

Two non-album tracks from the Up sessions appeared as single-only releases, as well as alternate versions of four album tracks.

  • "Emphysema"
  • "Surfing the Ganges" – 2:25
  • "Why Not Smile" (Oxford-American version)
  • "Sad Professor" (Live in the Studio)
  • "Suspicion" (live in the studio) (Toast Studios, San Francisco, 1998 – "Lotus"single)
  • "Suspicion" (live in the studio) (Ealing Studios, 29-10-1998 – Suspicion single)
  • "Lotus" (Weird Mix)

Personnel

R.E.M.
Additional musicians
Technical staff

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Australia (ARIA)[13] Gold 35,000
Austria (IFPI Austria)[14] Gold 25,000
France (SNEP)[15] Gold 103,300[16]
Netherlands (NVPI)[17] Gold 50,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)[18] Gold 7,500
Norway (IFPI Norway)[19] Platinum 50,000
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[20] Gold 50,000
Sweden (GLF)[21] Gold 40,000
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[22] Gold 25,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[23] Platinum 300,000
United States (RIAA)[24] Gold 664,000[12]
Summaries
Europe (IFPI)[25] Platinum 1,000,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Charts

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cavanagh, David: 'Come On, He Was Only The Drummer', Q #146, November 1998, pp96–104
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Gundersen, Edna. "R.E.M.: A 25-year rockin' role". USA Today. March 11, 2007.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter R.E.M. in the field Interpret. Enter Up in the field Titel. Select album in the field Format. Click Suchen
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Select R.E.M. and click OK
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Up in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Preceded by
Einfach geil by Wolfgang Petry
 German Media Control Chart number-one album
November 6, 1998		 Succeeded by
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis Morissette
Preceded by Austrian Chart number-one album
November 8, 1998		 Succeeded by
The Best of 1980–1990 by U2
Preceded by European Top 100 number-one album
November 14, 1998		 Succeeded by
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
by Alanis Morissette
Preceded by Norwegian VG-lista Chart number-one album
45 / 1998
Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Up_(R.E.M._album)&oldid=1479930"