R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 19, 2023

R.E.M. is often viewed at least in some ways as a forerunner to other bands like Nirvana, and one of the links between groups like this may be a certain morose quality to some of their music. That sadness is probably even more evident in the perhaps ironically named Up, since this eleventh studio album from R.E.M. was made in the wake of Bill Berry's departure from the band, an event which according to a documentary included on the Blu-ray disc in this set almost "broke" the guys. Somewhat interestingly according to the documentary Berry agreed to keep working with the band, "going through the motions" as their manager characterizes it, if his leaving meant that the band would break up. That may have put the rest of the guys in something close to a "no win" situation, but one way or the other they soldiered through making the album, despite what all of them in interviews state was a time fraught with bad (and sometimes no) communication. Does the album reveal the underlying tensions or even the absence of Berry? Surprisingly, not so much, though there is an ineluctable melancholy running through a number of the songs. This new release from Craft Recordings offers hi-res audio of the album, and also provides some video content as well, all packaged in an oversized DigiBook that has some interesting "liner notes" and other information included.

This is another one of those releases with both audio and video content where one fan's "main feature" may be another fan's "supplement(s)", so I'll simply utilize this part of the review to list the contents of the Blu-ray disc.

• Original Album in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0
  
  
  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
  
  
  
• This Way Up (HD; 59:07) is a Behind the Music-esque documentary about the making of the album, including some really interesting interviews with the guys and their manager discussing the departure of Bill Berry. This is listed as an "EPK" on the back cover of this release, but if it was utilized to promote the recording, it did so in an appealingly frank, "warts and all" manner.


• Uptake (HD; 28:59) features live performances of the following songs:

  Daysleeper

  Lotus

  Sad Professor

  At My Most Beautiful

  Suspicion

  Parakeet

• Daysleeper (Video) (HD; 3:55)


• Lotus (Video) (HD; 4:38)


• At My Most Beautiful (HD; 3:35)

R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

R.E.M. - Up is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Craft Recordings with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in a number of aspect ratios, but with the live performance Uptake in 1.78:1, and the This Way Up documentary in 1.66:1, and some of the older music videos in 1.33:1. While these are all showing as 1080p transfers, they certainly look like upscales to me, though in that regard the live performances probably look the best overall, which may be damning with faint praise. Despite the progressive presentation, there are combing artifacts that can be spotted, perhaps indicating an interlaced component at some stage of the workflow, and there are other signs of upscaling throughout, including aliasing, along with what looks like some pretty prevalent scanner noise. Detail levels are decent if never overwhelmingly sharp, but kind of hilariously potentially problematic issues like the huge plume of smoke Michael Stipe emits after taking a drag (toke?) resolve relatively well, all things considered (see screenshot 19). None of the video content is unwatchable, and by some of the "SD Blu-ray" standards of older labels like Eagle Rock (now Mercury Studios), things actually look pretty good.

R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If the video element leaves more than a bit to be desired, the audio department on this Blu-ray is pretty stellar all the way around, not just with regard to the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 iterations of the original album, but the video content as well, which offers the same audio options. The album sounds absolutely fantastic no matter which option you choose, but a simple toggling between the surround track and the stereo track may actually provoke a startle response, since the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is not just substantially louder, it also has an instantly more noticeable midrange and low end. There's some fun information in the "making of" documentary on the Blu-ray disc about the weird assortment of instruments the band assembled to use for this album, and some of the more distinctively bizarre elements are offered new clarity and separation in the surround mix in particular.

R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The non Blu-ray content on this disc begins with an oversized DigiBook that measures approximately 6" wide x 8" high x 1/8" deep. The DigiBook has a rather lengthy and very interesting essay by Josh Modell, who argues that this album really should be considered as being in the same quality ballpark as some of the band's more (no pun intended) notable efforts. The DigiBook also contains a number of rather fanciful illustrations, photographs and printed lyrics of all the songs. 2 CDs (see below) and the Blu-ray disc are all enclosed in their own sleeve "pages". The inside back cover contains credits for all of the video content on the Blu-ray disc.

CD 1 offers the original album (see above for tracklist)

CD 2 offers the band's 1999 set done for the then hot series Party of Five:

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

R.E.M. - Up Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not quite sure I totally buy Josh Modell's reevaluation of the album, but one way or the other Up has some really interesting material and frankly tons of subtext which some of the video content, especially This Way Up, explore. While the video quality here is a little iffy, the audio is outstanding, and even given some of the deficits in the video presentation, I for example found the live performance of Lotus a lot more appealing than the album version, since Michael Stipe doesn't do his "demonic rasp" vocal. This should pretty easily be an alluring release for any devoted R.E.M. fan, but even for the general public, Up comes Recommended.