20 YEARS AGO: R.E.M. - Lotus

Taken from their 11th album 'Up', the irresistible 'Lotus' is a classic R.E.M. rocker. The song was released as a single in December 1998, reaching number 26 in the UK charts. 'Up' entered the UK album charts at number 2, but wasn't as well received by the public as their previous, more high profile releases. In both the UK and the US, 'Up' resulted in 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," said bassist Mike Mills. "That isn't the point. The point is to keep it fresh and interesting and alive.
"There are certain things I set out to do," Michael Stipe said. "Rough ideas that I wanted to play around with. One of them was the religious-spiritual versus science-technology-modern-age. There are several songs on the record that, to me, address that. I don't know how other people are going to take them. It's taking off a little bit from 'Undertow' and 'New Test Leper', with the freedom of 'E-Bow the Letter' and 'Country Feedback' – songs that just come out. What I really wanted was more of that automatic, unconscious stuff… greatly inspired by Patti Smith and various others… Bert Downs said the record's about people falling down and getting back up again. He said there's a lot of that imagery. I'm like, 'Really?'"
Three years later, R.E.M decided to take a step backwards with the more commercial 'Reveal'. More albums would follow, until the band's split in 2010.