Black Sheep Hit: "Daysleeper", despite topping the Adult Alternative Songs chart, is far closer to R.E.M.'s typical Jangle Pop sound than the experimental Electronic Music that dominates the rest of Up.
Creator Breakdown: The band were immensely overwhelmed with stress caused by Bill Berry's absence, to the extent where they nearly broke up, and this is reflected in the dour tone of the music.
Continuing the band's penchant for this trope, the limited-edition release of Up came packaged in a corrugated cardboard longbox with a 48-page, spiral-bound book of liner notes, full-color photos, a black and white poster, and "the key to your soul."
The album was given a two-disc reissue in 2005 along with every other album in the band's Warner Bros. catalogue up to that point. Like those reissues, this one came with an expanded booklet and a DVD-A that featured the entire album done in a 5.1-channel surround sound mix courtesy of acclaimed audio engineer Elliot Scheiner.
Refitted for Sequel: "Daysleeper" was originally written during the sessions for New Adventures in Hi-Fi, but was held off until Up, which may at least partly explain why it sounds so different than the rest of the latter album.
What Could Have Been: While the electronic rock direction had been planned out well before Bill Berry left, the fact that his absence had such a major effect on the material raises the question of how Up would've sounded had he stayed on board at least for that one record.
General trivia
This is the first R.E.M. album where the lyrics to every song are included in the liner notes, a choice that would remain in place on all future albums. Green ten years prior had included the lyrics to "World Leader Pretend", but nothing else.
This is the only R.E.M. studio album to use an all-transparent jewel case in all regions. Other releases use either a black-tray case, a case with a uniquely-colored tray (translucent yellow for Automatic for the People, metallic orange for Monster, and white for Reveal), a digipak, or a digisleeve in the US. Accelerate and Collapse into Now used clear jewel cases in Europe, but the US releases would sport digisleeves.note The European release of Around the Sun followed Reveal's example in using a jewel case with a white tray, but the US release would sport a digipak.
