Why “Up” is the best REM record
“Up,” while being the most mature sounding REM record to date, is also the most mature recording they’ve made lyrically. While all the REM records have been socially and politically challenging—albums such as “Monster” explored sexuality as well as the distance between people while “Automatic for the People” explored the universal and emotional connections between people—“Up” probes a transcending spiritual freedom in spite of the mistakes and limitations of human character and reason. It is a record that recognizes the physical, relational, and material boundaries of being human. REM distinguishes, perhaps as a result of losing a band member, that though not all is right with the world, or even their world, there is more. There is a freedom that despite what happens, despite what people do to you or what you may even do to yourself, you can be separate from it. You can “walk unafraid,” free from internal pressure to conform, free from a need to impress others, or even to be recognized by them in a clear light. There is more, there is something further up.
Perhaps REM leaned into “Up,” hinted at with “Everybody Hurts,” a song that portrays the sadness that takes over individuals in the wake of failure or pain, whether that be relationally or otherwise. “Up” follows in its footsteps in terms of the innate compassion of the record. The characteristic irony still remains with lines like “the concrete broke your fall” from the song “Why Not Smile,” but there is an exposure of the soul of REM in way new to the group. When Michael Stipe sings “I’ll trip, fall, pick myself up and/ walk unafraid/ I’ll be clumsy instead/ hold my love me or leave me/ high,” you know that he’s singing the song as much for himself as for those who will hear it.
Perhaps REM leaned into “Up,” hinted at with “Everybody Hurts,” a song that portrays the sadness that takes over individuals in the wake of failure or pain, whether that be relationally or otherwise. “Up” follows in its footsteps in terms of the innate compassion of the record. The characteristic irony still remains with lines like “the concrete broke your fall” from the song “Why Not Smile,” but there is an exposure of the soul of REM in way new to the group. When Michael Stipe sings “I’ll trip, fall, pick myself up and/ walk unafraid/ I’ll be clumsy instead/ hold my love me or leave me/ high,” you know that he’s singing the song as much for himself as for those who will hear it.
REM takes the listener on a journey from the guilty to the defiant to the peaceful and fulfilled ending. While the world fires “into [its] own ranks,” Stipe sings “my actions make me beautiful/ and dignify the flesh,” ending appropriately with the long, glorious notes “I am free/ free.”
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