Amazon.com essential recording: Continuing to specialize in the art of curve-throwing, R.E.M. followed up its 1991 smash, Out of Time, with this fragile album of soft melodies and string arrangements. The sympathetic ballad "Everybody Hurts" must have prevented countless suicide attempts, while the Andy Kaufman tribute "Man on the Moon" (with Michael Stipe affecting an Elvis Presley imitation) and the rock-into-oblivion "Drive" are among the quartet's strongest hits. (The opening line, "Hey, kids, rock and roll," isn't so much a rallying cry as an expression of anxiety.) It takes a few listens for its charms to unfold, but Automatic is the gem between bigger hits Out of Time and Monster. --Steve Knopper
A Masterpiece The fact that U2's Bono called this 'the greatest country record never made' says enough. This album is incredible.
Every song on the album is a stand-out. The hits such as "Drive", "Everybody Hurts", and "Man on the Moon" speak for themselves.
The brilliant "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", may seem a bit out of place. Peter Buck says the following in the sleevenotes to The Best of REM: "We included this song on Automatic in order to break the prevailing mood of the album. Given that lyrically the record dealt with mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family, we felt that a light spot was needed. In retrospect, the consensus among the band is that this might be a little too lightweight."
Although not a major hit, "Find the River" is incredibly moving and amongst their best (my personal "#1 REM track"). The extra piano crescendo at 3:24 is still my favorite REM moment.
BAD SHIPPING It came smashed in the box HORRIBLY WARPED. but since I'm smart I left it out side to unwarp and it worked but I'm shocked AMAZON let this leave their inventory like that but hey i fixed the problem. FAST SHIPPING A*
Automatic For The People R.E.M.-Automatic For The People *****
Automatic For The People is widely regarded as the bands greatest album along side the genius Murmur, which I believe is better. This acclaim is not unworthy as Automatic is one hell of an album, and while it isn't the bands best effort, it sure is their most ambitious, and daring.
This remains the groups best selling and most popular album for one reason, and that is Michael Stipes ambitious lyrics. Songs like the bitter-sweet, almost too good 'Everybody Hurts' and the eccentric tribute of 'Man On The Moon' (which they do amazing live by the way) went on to drive this album in the psyches of every rock fan in the early 1990's gaining R.E.M. fans in the most unlikely of groups. 'Drive' should have been a bigger hit, and 'Try Not To Breathe' might be the best song Stipe ever wrote. But it is 'Ignoreland' that haunts me. It is with out the strongest song in the bands canon subject matter wise, as well as the richest. With a too good to be true chorus, and Michael Stipes' patent vocal lines this is easily one of the groups finest.
But where Stipe ends, Buck begins. Peter Buck is a genius and there is no taking that away from him. 'New Orleans Instrumental No.1' is vital, and stunning, and there is nothing to it. his acoustic guitar work through out the album rivals almost anything else he has ever done, except for maybe his work with The Replacements.
Automatic For The People was at the time R.E.M.'s most lush album, though looking back it was clearly just a sign of things to come. R.E.M. have released a number of amazing albums, but only three would I call essential. Accelerate, Murmur, and Automatic For The People.
sweetness follows Can it be 16 years since this brooding, sinister, insightful CD, opening memorably as it did with the softly sung lyrics to `Drive'?:
Smashed! Cracked! Bushwacked! Tie another one to the rack. Baby ....
Hey! Kids! Rock and roll! Nobody tells you where to go!
What if I ride? What if you walk? What if you rock around the clock? Tick ... Tock ... Tick ... Tock ...
The dark nature of the album finds deeper expression in the enigmatic (an adjective that seemingly always pops up when REM is in play) `Try Not to Breathe'. The haunting tune is graced with lyrics that make its title not an exhortation to someone else but rather a determined effort on behalf of the speaker himself:
I will try not to breathe. This decision is mine. I have lived a full life And these are the eyes that I want you to remember.
The song sets up to wonder about a theme that is primus inter pares in this album, that of death, its imminence, and the ability to choose its moment.
If `enigmatic' is the right word, `The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight' calls for it in all caps. Is the joke on the listener who looks for its inner logic, because there is none? Maybe. Good bands--and REM is a definitive good band--can get away with that kind of thing once or twice every second album or so. Lesser artists just look like posers. So one takes this track with a grand of sand because what follows is indisputably, memorably golden.
The precious ore in this album is concentrated in the mega-hit pondering called `Everybody hurts'. It would be difficult to exaggerate the enthralling comfort of this piece. Recalling at the outset Chicago's unforgettable `Colour My World', the song's simple lyrics channel powerful consolation to the listener who hurts. Really hurts. In the hearing, he discovers a comfort that is more like shared grief than denied pain:
When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone, When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on. Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes ...
Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends. Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone.
The insistent refusal of the last line quoted achieves the a realistic rather than an evasive confrontation with the wish to end it all. It is truth so sheer it seems almost apostolic in its quintessence: you are not alone.
There are lesser gems. They own a penultimate ranking not because of inherent deficiency but because `Everybody Hurts' is too damn good to brook much competition. Consider `Sweetness Follows', an exquisite look backwards at the absurdity of family. The conclusion is memorable:
It's these little things, they can pull you under. Live your life filled with joy and thunder. Yeah, yeah, we were altogether Lost in our little lives.
Oh. Oh. Ah.
Oh, oh, but sweetness follows. Oh, oh, but sweetness follows.
The band's odd and persistent narrative Jones gets some satisfaction in `Monty got a raw deal'. Without a context, this narrative stream may prove impossible to navigate. Still, the sound is gorgeous.
Similar things can be said of `Nightswimming' and `Find the River'.
'Enigmatic' goes a long way towards explaining R.E.M.'s deep and sturdy appeal. In their trajectory to date, this album was a milestone. It is still a remarkable musical moment these many years later.
Simple: A CLASSIC Very few albums are completely beautiful from beginning to end. This is one of those rare gems...
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