This is a 1999 documentary following R.E.M. during the recording of ‘Up’.
Up reached #3 in the U.S. (with 16 weeks on the Billboard 200) and #2 in the UK, but didn’t have the staying power of the band’s more-recent albums, and thus the band’s lowest sales in years. “The things that we have to do creatively for the band may not be the most commercial things,” Mike Mills observed. “That isn’t the point. The point is to keep it fresh and interesting and alive.” R.E.M. subsequently admitted that they came close to breaking up while recording the album.
Although R.E.M. initially intended not to tour for the album, after many successful promotional concerts upon the album’s release, the band quickly arranged a four-month arena tour of Europe and America during the summer of 1999. In 2005, Warner Bros. Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of Up which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes.
The Fat Angel Sings 