Saturday, October 25, 2008

719. R.E.M. - Automatic For the People (1992)
















Track Listing

1. Drive
2. Try Not To Breathe
3. Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
4. Everybody Hurts
5. New Orleans Instrumental No 1
6. Sweetness Follows
7. Monty Got A Raw Deal
8. Ignoreland
9. Star Me Kitten
10. Man On The Moon
11. Nightswimming
12. Find The River

Review

This is likely to be the best album song for song that R.E.M. ever produced or ever will. It it so very good because it is the point in which the band find a comfortable place in their flirting with the mainstream.

Before this album R.E.M. had produced Out of Time, which was basically going into the mainstream with a bang, it was a bit too much, songs like Shiny Happy People really did not endear them to their fans. However, they toned it down the right amount in order to follow it up with this pretty nifty thing.

There is not one track here that is in anyway forgettable, and to me this is one of those comfort albums that you can come back to, again and again. It's like an old friend, at the same time quite depressing but comforting. I can't recommend it highly enough... but I also think I don't need to. You probably know it already. However, if you are mainly aware of the big singles you still need the full album.

Track Highlights

1. Nightswimming
2. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
3. Everybody Hurts
4. Man On The Moon

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

John Paul Jones, the bassist of Led Zeppelin, in his string arrangement role, scored the strings for "Drive," "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite," "Everybody Hurts," and "Nightswimming."

The ultimate "think twice before you slit your wrists" song, Everybody Hurts:


2 comments:

Matthew said...

Your choice tracks were the singles; the R.E.M. tracks (besides losing my religion) that get the most play over-all, here over in the states. I'm sick of all of those songs, aside from maybe Nightswimming. It's a shame the average person hasn't heard songs like Try Not to Breathe or Monty Got A Raw Deal.

This is probably R.E.M.'s most meaningful album, and it's a shame that they'll never write another one with the same impact.

Anonymous said...

Hey, great blog. I read it almost every week.
Take care of the numbers, Automatic for the People should be number 719, not 718.