When R.E.M.’s 1998 album Up, their first without drummer Bill Berry, was met with mixed reviews, Michael Stipe said this in an interview: “If this record dropped out of the sky by a three-piece band that nobody had heard of, people would be in the street shouting at the top of their lungs, naked, about it.”

He was being overly defensive, but I could see his point. Established bands — especially great ones — are always measured against their own legacy, their finest moments.

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