Word: stipe
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...repeatedly been used to describe the nearly twenty-year-old band since the release of Monster in 1994. After the departure of Bill Berry, R.E.M.'s drummer for the past 18 years, the idea of another "new" R.E.M. seemed inevitable. The departure left Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe as the remaining core of '80s indie-rock's greatest band, despite their previous promises that the band would break up if one of the members left. The absence of a real-life drummer has opened the band up to critics who have ragged on the new album for using...
...braced myself for the first single "Daysleeper," thinking it would be some sort of techno-rock mix with Michael Stipe's cross-gendered tendencies accentuated. But to my surprise, a very melodic track with an intricate acoustic feel rose from the ashes of R.E.M.'s past two albums, and captured me as "Everybody Hurts" had all the way back in 1992. This is a good song--a really good song. Even more surprising is that Up is a really, maybe even really, really good album...
...Daysleeper" is reminiscent of "Try Not To Breathe" from Automatic For The People, and the entire album seems to lament lost love even in its most upbeat moments, just like in Automatic For The People. Stipe's upbeat chorus on "Walk Unafraid" challenges love with the words "I'll trip, fall, pick myself up and/walk unafraid/I'll be clumsy instead/hold my love me or leave me/high." Stipe even goes into obsessive love on "Hope" with lyrics like "At my most beautiful I count your eyelashes secretly...
...Daysleeper" proves the album's number one hit, but some songs come out of the woodwork after casual listening. The keyboard riff in "Lotus" gives the feel of a sixties song with the almost chanted lyrics of Stipe, with his lower voice dubbed over kind of like "Drive" from Automatic. The descending guitar gives a raw edge that shows the change over the course of the past two albums, but unlike their previous raw guitar pieces, "Lotus" blends the raw sound into the fabric of the song in a way that neither accents it nor leaves...
...missing one. Up is R.E.M.'s first album since the band's longtime drummer, Bill Berry, left the group; his absence is present on more than a few tracks. The remaining three members try to make do with drum machines, but the results often lack kick. Nonetheless, singer Michael Stipe is in fine form, and his lyrics are typically haunting and nuanced (a complete lyric sheet is included for the first time). The focus here is on delicately constructed ballads, and several of the songs have the soft, fresh feel of just-showered skin. R.E.M. is still a great band...