R.E.M. – Up – 1998
For years I’ve always felt that Michael Stipe wanted REM to be the American Radiohead. Employing the latter’s engineer for Up cemented that idea.
I’ve owned this CD since 98 when it came out. I’ve never, ever, ever listened to it. Wish me luck.
By the late 90s rock music was changed. The aggressive, post-punk, angst ridden grunge had been swept aside by the hive mind of raves. The Prodigy, The Orb, Moby, Madonna’s Bedtime Stories, this was the place where rock bands were going. Edged out of the spotlight by rap, even Bowie was biting on the MDMA-laden scene (Earthling, anyone?)
Radiohead really took the mantle of disaffected alienation with OK Computer, U2 had foraged in this idiom as well. Guitars were over. ababcab songs were dead.
It was only a matter of time before REM joined the party.
With the departure of Bill Berry to his farm, the cohesive, driving center of REM was gone. The quartet who had once declared that should one member leave they would break up completely, didn’t. Although rumor has it they almost did during the making of this record.
Up starts off with “Airportman” a song that predates but echoes Kid A in almost every way. It’s all ambience and soundtrack, which was wonderful on Bowie’s Low, but not so great here. With the next track, “Lotus” it should be obvious to even the most casual REM listener that this is not the band they grew up with. There’s no chance for the goofy humor of “Bandwagon” here. There’s not the heart of Automatic for the People. It’s all post-modern soundscapes and mood. I once wrote, in my review of No Line on the Horizon (here): Imagine you are in a spacious apartment. It’s a high rise above a metropolitan city. The carpet is grey, the furniture modern and black. The appointments are metallic and the windows are floor to ceiling.
Guests arrive but barely make small talk. The men are all dressed in fine linen and silk suits, the women are all in flowing haute couture.
The host snaps his fingers. Clothing is removed and the apartment is transformed into a hedonistic orgy.
Music comes on over the speakers.
It is U2’s No Line on the Horizon.
When it is over everyone is finished copulating. They dress, barely acknowledging each other and everyone goes on their several ways.
That is about the emotional depth of this album and all it’s good for.
The mood is almost the same for Up save for the orgy. The people who would populate a party thrown by hosts who soundtrack it to this album would not think about sex. They’ve just forgotten about it. They would rather take a nap.
Up is all about naps. Dreams and naps.
The song “Hope” is credited to Leonard Cohen as well as the trio. This is because they had basically stolen the melody and chord progression from Cohen’s Suzanne and had to give him credit. or chose to give him credit. Whatever. It’s a blatant steal. And all it does is remind me that I really like that other song and this is obnoxious. And I’m not really sure what to make of “At My Most Beautiful” with it’s homage to The Beach Boys. I barely need an homage to that group and when I get it I want it to be fun like Super Furry Animals or interesting like Animal Collective.
I do enjoy the hynotic qualities on “Airportman” and “The Apologist” and would happily put them on in a playlist of some of Bowie and Eno’s most ambient. The unfocused meanderings of “You’re in the Air” should get you to turn this record off, if you haven’t already.
I wonder what sessions the lovely and evocative “Daysleeper” was left off of. It has a distinctly Automatic for the People feel to it. And it works in the palette of that record, I think. it’s not really about death but anyone who’s had to work at night and sleep through the day knows what being a zombie really is. It’s lonely and sad and feels like death. It would work there. It really saves this album from the junk pile.
I shant do the playlisting myself, but if you want a primer on how to make Up listenable, go here: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/playing-god-with-rems-up.htm
If you like your music served up by robots with programmed drum machines (by people less talented than the ones who programmed The Cars’ records over a decade earlier) then Up is for you.
I was just as well off having never heard it.
Grade: D-
ASide: Lotus, Daysleeper
BlindSide: Airportman, The Apologist, Parakeet
DownSide: Hope, Suspicion, At My Most Beautiful, You’re in the Air
