R.E.M. is reissuing its 1998 album Up, ira first following the departure of original drummer Bill Berry, for its 25th anniversary. The collection, arriving Nov. 10 through Craft Recordings, features the band’s previously unreleased 11-song set from a 1999 guest appearance on the Fox TV show Party of Five. A version of “Daysleeper” from that taping is available now.
The reissue also features a Blu-Ray disc with HD music videos (“Daysleeper,” “Lotus,” and “At My Most Beautiful”), a six-song performance titled Uptake recorded in London, and a 32-page book written by Josh Modell featuring new interviews with the band. The set was remastered by Bob Ludwig and is being released as a two-CD/one-Blu-Ray, as well as as a vinyl and two-CD versions.
Up found R.E.M. struggling to overcome the loss of Berry, who left the band in 1997 after suffering a brain aneurysm two years earlier on stage in Switzerland. “Bill said that if he was going to be the guy who made R.E.M. break up he would stay and be miserable, but it was clear that wasn’t what he wanted,” frontman Michael Stipe told SPIN in 2004. “We’ve always said R.E.M. was the four of us; now there’s three, so what the hell do we do? We had this intense chemistry that we had to find as a three-piece. It took us the better part of one and a half records. And we fucked it up a lot. With Up, I couldn’t even sing because my chest was so tight. I was really in a complete freak-out mode.”
R.E.M. made four additional studio albums before splitting for good in 2011, and its members have not performed under that name since.
R.E.M. Up 25th anniversary track listing:
Deluxe Edition (2-CD/1-Blu-Ray):
Disc 1 – Up (remastered audio)
1. Airportman
2. Lotus
3. Suspicion
4. Hope
5. At My Most Beautiful
6. The Apologist
7. Sad Professor
8. You’re In The Air
9. Walk Unafraid
10. Why Not Smile
11. Daysleeper
12. Diminished
13. Parakeet
14. Falls To Climb
Disc 2 – Party of Five Recording
1. Introduction
2. What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
3. Lotus
4. Daysleeper
5. Country Feedback
6. Walk Unafraid
7. Losing My Religion
8. Parakeet
9. The Apologist
10. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
11. I’m Not Over You
12. Man On The Moon
Disc 3 – Blu-ray
1. Up – 5.1 Surround Sound
2. Up – Hi-Resolution Audio
3. This Way Up (press kit)
4. Uptake (six-song performance)
5. Daysleeper (music video)
6. Lotus (music video)
7. At My Most Beautiful (music video)
