With the legendary Athens, Georgia band being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this month, I thought we would take a look at one of the more overseen albums of the bands three decade career. 1998's Up marks a milestone for R.E.M., a milestone that they unfortunately have not been able to live up to after, its the first album of their career without drummer Bill Berry and its the last great R.E.M. record, period. Since Up the band has releast 2002's unimpressive Revile and 2004's unlistenable Around The Sun. However, Up featured the band, who has always been successful at experimenting with new things for each record, saw them diving into the ambient world, something that bands like Radiohead, Air and Sigor Ros would master years later. Prior to Up, R.E.M. where at the top of their game 1994's Monster (an album I will look into in later months) and 96's New Adventures in Hi-Fi brought the greatest college band of all time to the greatest financial and global success of their careers. Up is and was the album that would calm them down, therapy in 14 tracks, a melodramatic effort that would show the bands more emotional side, something fans and critics had not hear since Automatic for the People. Dealing with the departure of good friend and drummer Bill Berry and trying to uphold the success that touring, acclaimed records and album sales brought forth. The result was one of the most overlooked records of the late 90's and the bands whole career. It was marked by two semi-successful singles "Daysleeper" and "Lotus." Yet, it was the deeper cuts from Up that would provide the motif and direction of the record, tracks like "Sad Professor," "The Apologist," "Hope" and many other tracks that would play as a guide to the band and listener in trying to escape some sort of depression and leading them into an upward emotional climb.
