I Ate The POLLtus: REM's "Up"

Hmm. Up has so many keyboards

I'm pretty sure it was Up only because I was taken aback for that reason - it's the one post-Berry album I like in its entirety - but if I can remember where I saw it, I'll post a link. It's tough because I've read way too many articles on R.E.M.

I'm quite used to being the solitary Reveal lover wherever I am. And while it isn't as strong as Up their constant talk about it being a summer record lines up perfectly with my own liminal R.E.M. nostalgia from many, many moons ago.

(Like Up it is also soaked in keyboards and synths, but more in the sense of bubblebath dressing. Cosy lite-psych sfx sprinkled throughout folky soft rock was a spring 2001 aura, cf. Travis' likely-very-despised-here Sing.)

Here's the perfect Up bonus disc (79 minutes, even fits on a single CD):
Emphysema
Surfing The Ganges
Why Not Smile (Oxford American version)
Sad Professor (live in the studio)
Lotus (Weird mix)
Suspicion (live in the studio)
At My Most Beautiful (radio remix)
Suspicion (live in Ealing Studios)
Walk Unafraid (Peel session)
Daysleeper (Peel session)
Lotus (Peel session)
At My Most Beautiful (Peel session)
Passenger (live on Jools Holland)
Country Feedback (live on Jools Holland)
So. Central Rain (live on Jools Holland)
Electrolite (live on Jools Holland)
Man On The Moon (live on Jools Holland)
Perfect Circle (live on Jools Holland)

Man, I love Reveal and I’m so sick of seeing it casually dismissed as a piece of trash not worth debating. It’s great. No skips. The Lifting, All the Way to Reno, Imitation of Life - all fantastic.

Sequencing was R.E.M.'s biggest foe for a while there I think - the whole stretch from Monster through Reveal (not sure about Around the Sun, never actually heard the whole thing) falls into the "great album, kind of wants to reshuffle and lose 2-3 songs though" category.

Below is my long-time Up edit; to my surprise, the four songs I've omitted are among the top six in this poll, so it may displease.
The singles are frontloaded on side 1, which ends with an epic. Side 2 slows down with each subsequent song til it reaches stasis (I was thinking of Before and After Science as a model).

Daysleeper
Lotus
Suspicion
Sad professor
You're in the air

Walk unafraid
The apologist
Diminished (sans "I'm Not Over You")
Parakeet
Airportman

I mostly like Reveal and what particularly impresses me is the production, it makes me think of heat making the air shimmer

Below is my long-time Up edit; to my surprise, the four songs I've omitted are among the top six in this poll, so it may displease.
The singles are frontloaded on side 1, which ends with an epic. Side 2 slows down with each subsequent song til it reaches stasis (I was thinking of Before and After Science as a model).

Great edit, I think you nailed Side A. I'd start Side B with "Hope" and end with "Falls to Climb".

Not that I would change the final album but I think Why Not Smile would make a great opening song