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R.E.M. – “Automatic for the People” Reviewed and Revisited

“Automatic for the People” (1992)

R.E.M. was one of the biggest, if not the top, alternative rock bands, not only because the band took massive risks. It’s also because that chance-taking produced undeniably great songs like the ones found on “Automatic for the People.” The alternative-rock album reinvented the group from Georgia yet another time and, unexpectedly, grew its fame at an even greater level than it had stood before.

But is “Automatic for the People” really such an important album in a discography filled with them? This is what I’m looking at now.

R.E.M. Albums Ranked

The Road to Making “Automatic for the People”

R.E.M. was, if such a thing could exist, the people’s indie/alternative-rock band. The band’s success in the early 1990s was forged through old-fashioned cycles of touring and releasing albums. In Michael Stipe, R.E.M. had a singer who was mysterious. However, few could accuse the group of being arrogant.

Sure, the band’s songs had always been filled with passion and the group showed great daringness in altering their sound often. Still, unlike their contemporaries the band had displayed no willingness to sell out.

It’d happened gradually, naturally and through hard work. The debut by R.E.M. was aptly titled “Murmur.” It had been a sensation on college radio and very few other places. Four years later, by the time of 1987’s “Document,” the band’s sound had landed hits and had made the group a minor national sensation. By 1991, an odd pop ditty featuring the mandolin as the lead instrument, “Losing My Religion,” had become a global hit.

R.E.M. wasn’t looking to change or even capitalize on the success of “Losing My Religion.” It wasn’t like Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry were stubborn. The musicians were confidently following their muse.

By 1992, that muse was leading them in more shadowy places than ever before. While the world that had just discovered them waited for the sound R.E.M. to become more polished and pop-friendly, the group was about to make its most melancholy-tinged album yet.

A Review of “Automatic for the People”

R.E.M. always took great gambles. For the better part of their career, these worked. The Georgia-born group wasn’t just some eccentric indie-avantgarde band. The quality of their best songs was undeniable as far as most listeners were concerned, and their live shows were firey affairs.

And, since R.E.M. is an artistic project at its core, not a commercial enterprise, the group dares to change once again on the sombre, beautiful “Automatic for the People.” Ironically, this would help them reach more fans and secure the others who’d been acquired with the band “Out of Time.”

Album opener “Drive” was written and recorded during the height of New Orleans celebrations. But the song is led by an acoustic guitar riff by Peter Buck, and Micheal Stipe’s lyrics deliver a warning to kids who still put all of their hopes in rockstars rather than themselves.

Stipe had rarely been the one for penning party anthems. Still, there’s more outwardly revealed anguish than ever before on songs like “Try Not to Breathe” or the mournful odes to lost lives, “Monty Got a Raw Deal” and “Find the River.”

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An Alternative-Rock Masterpiece

While the autumnal atmosphere of this alternative rock album is powerful, the songs never blend into one another. By this stage, the songwriters in R.E.M. were far too proficient with melodies and with getting the right sound in the studio.

“Nightswimming” is one of the pretties songs that the band ever wrote. But this reminiscing about life as a teenager is also full of painful nostalgia. “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight” sounds like a Syd Barrett song, given the punk rock, but the chorus is undeniably pleasing.

As for the album’s most successful song, “Everybody Hurts,” it captures the band at an honesty and admission of fragility that few in their position could’ve revealed. The crescendo, created with the aid of John Paul Jones, of all people, helped make the song grandiose-sounding and turned it into a hit.

R.E.M. was a band of winners. But their world had been one populated by marvellous and weird characters that rarely got all that they deserved. The defining moment on the album is “Man on the Moon,” an uncharacteristically upbeat number about comedian and provocateur Andy Kaufman.

The Legacy of “Automatic for the People”

Like many other times before, R.E.M. refused to do what was most typical. The band could’ve crashed after the success of the album “Out of Time.” Most bands would have. R.E.M. didn’t.

“Automatic for the People” ended up selling 18 million copies and launching five hit singles. Best of all, the band had sacrificed none of its creative freedom to do it. The alternative rock and grunge bands, like Nirvana, were most impressed.

The indie-rock credentials of R.E.M., along with the unexpected success the band had received through years of hard work, provided the blueprint. It’s no wonder why nearly every band and critic, as well as Alt77, thinks of R.E.M. as one of the greatest alternative bands of all time.

About author

Eduard Banulescu is a writer, blogger, and musician. As a content writer, Eduard has contributed to numerous websites and publications, including FootballCoin, Play2Earn, BeIN Crypto, Business2Community, NapoliSerieA, Extra Time Talk, Nitrogen Sports, Bavarian FootballWorks, etc. He has written a book about Nirvana, hosts a music podcasts, and writes weekly content about some of the best, new and old, alternative musicians. Eduard also runs and acts as editor-in-chief of the alternative rock music website www.alt77.com. Mr. Banulescu is also a musician, having played and recorded in various bands and as a solo artist.
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