R.E.M. - Up
This was a weird pivot for REM, post-Bill Berry, and they signpost it pretty heavily right out of the gate.
There’s always that tension between “what do the fans want” and “do we want to do”, and this tilts heavily towards the latter, with virtually no jangle, lots of keyboards, etc. (Nigel Godrich engineered nearly all tracks, which makes sense.)
Didn’t like it much on release, but with time and distance I appreciate it more.
@dnanian You never really appreciate drummers until they're gone. I'm reminded of when Spinal Tap lost Nigel Tufnel and they got around to humoring bassist Derek Smalls and indulging in his 3-piece jazz experiments at the county fair. Such a funny scene.
But I'm also a sucker for Nigel Godrich. His production on Terror Twilight made for my favorite Pavement record. OK Computer is my favorite Radiohead, etc.
@pabloniusmonk Godrich didn’t actually produce Up, he just engineered it (as that’s how he started). But you can hear his influence.
Terror Twilight is a great album… I probably haven’t featured Pavement enough here. :-)
