Jun 2006

Automatic For The People remains REM's commercial peak over a career spanning 25 years. This was the 3rd album into a deal with Warners Brothers which had spawned 'Green' and 'Out of Time.' While 'Out Of Time' had strong folk, country and pop influences, the follow up was often bleak. John Paul Jones, former bassist with Led Zeppelin, influenced this album greatly with the string arrangements on the tracks "Drive," "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite," "Everybody Hurts" and "Nightswimming." Drive is a string laden opener, slow and dark, setting the tone for the rest of the album. Track 3, 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' is one of the few lighter spots in the album. Although not well regarded by the band, it remains an important track between the much heavier 'Try Not to Breathe' and the classic 'Everybody Hurts', a song written for those who have ever considered committing suicide and tries to comfort them. The band felt it was so important that it became one of the few songs up to that point to have lyrics printed with it.

Other great tracks include 'Nightswimming', a song about someone reliving their youth and lamenting the fact that they can't go skinny-dipping any more! There is of course the Andy Kauffman tribute track 'Man on the Moon', the song that gave its name to the biopic starring Jim Carrey. Few of their later albums have come close to topping this release. It remains amust have for any fan, or any first time buyer.

Andrew Robinson, HMV Coleraine

• Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.52) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."
  Spin (9/99, p.140) - Ranked #40 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s."
  Q (12/99, p.74) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
  Q (10/01, p.102) - Ranked #6 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"
  NME (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #23 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
  NME (8/12/00, p.28) - Ranked #11 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums"
  Village Voice (3/2/93, p.5) - Ranked #3 in the Village Voice's list of the 40 Best Albums Of 1992.
  Q (1/93, p.68) - Included in Q's list of the 50 Best Albums Of 1992.
  Rolling Stone (10/29/92, p.68) - 5 Stars - Classic - "...R.E.M. has never made music more gorgeous....shimmers with new, complex beauty....musically irresistible....finds the band gaining a startling emotional directness..."
  Q (11/92, p.117) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a lively form of bliss is readily available from the sounds of AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE....Big emotions, big ideas....it's about life. Without embarrassment and via sundry dark metaphors, it enquires `What's it all about, if anything?'..."
  Musician (10/92, p.102) - "...These quiet songs, so sure of their honesty that they are unafraid of risking musical corniness, can be heard as an indictment of the Republican era, a lament for the AIDS years, or simply a consideration of roads not taken..."
  NME (10/3/92, p.36) - 10 - Classic - "...They've created an LP you can gain a lot from in times of trouble....In their hands, music is no longer wallpaper, but a living, breathing organism as old as the hills..."
  Entertainment Weekly (10/16/92, p.74) - "...deeply moving and entirely idiosyncratic....[the songs] tend to be rich and subdued, full of lush strings and deep feeling....show[s] the band moving into more personal territory than ever before....the band's greatest triumph..." - Rating: A

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE is a classic of "alternative" rock. Released soon after OUT OF TIME, it shows R.E.M. on a creative roll with no shortage of original ideas. Bold songs such as ominous "Drive" and the empathetic "Everybody Hurts" demonstrated that the band were not reluctant to experiment, while the Karl Denver opening on "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" and the elegiac Andy Kaufman tribute "Man On The Moon" were as good as anything they had ever recorded. Even with the departure of original drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. are still very much alive here, setting a high bar for their subsequent recordings.

R.E.M.: Mike Mills (vocals, keyboards, bass); Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin); Bill Berry (drums).
Additional personnel: Lonnie Ottzen, Denise Berginson-Smith, Jody Taylor, Sou-Chun Su, Sandy Salzinger, Patti Gouvas (violin); Paul Murphy, Reid Harris, Heidi Nitche (viola); Elizabeth Proctor Murphy, Kathleen Kee, Knox Chandler, Daniel Laufer (cello); Deborah Workman (oboe); Scott Litt (harmonica, Clavinet); Bertis Downs (keyboards).
Recorded at Bearsville Studio, Bearsville, New York; Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, Florida; John Keane Studio, Athens, Georgia; Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, Louisiana; Bosstown Recording Studios, Atlanta, Georgia.
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE was nominated for 1994 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year and Best Alternative Music Album.
A classic of modern rock. Released soon after Out Of Time it shows the band on a creative roll with no shortage of original ideas. Bold songs such as 'Drive' and 'Everybody Hurts' demonstrated that the band were not reluctant to experiment, while the Karl Denver opening on 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' and Stipe's magnificent hair-lip Elvis on 'Man On The Moon' were as good as anything they have recorded. Even with the departure of Bill Berry R.E.M. are still very much alive, but it would be asking a lot to expect any future album to match this.

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into the money-making "alternative rock" sound, the group refused to stand still, constantly changing and developing without ever abandoning their underground principles. Somehow they became superstars along the way, but it's never affected their commitment to their music. In 1997, drummer Bill Berry left the band, but Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills soldiered on in his absence.