ITEOTWAIKI: Automatic
Fifteen years ago tomorrow, the history of R.E.M. took a major turn. “Automatic for the People” was released.
The band’s eighth album and the followup to the hugely successful “Out of Time,” Automatic is probably one of the most acclaimed album’s in the foursome’s history. Not only has it made a ton of lists as one of the best albums ever or for the 1990s, but it was also nominated for a Grammy and produced memorable songs like “Man on the Moon,” “Everybody Hurts,” and “Drive.”
Yet I’m not that big a fan of the album.
Let’s start with my biggest complaint. “Everybody Hurts” sucks. I am so grateful they have stopped playing it. Yes, it’s a powerful message on suicide and the video was compelling before MTV showed it 5,000 times. But it’s a shame that “Nightswimming” is an afterthought when it has much more compelling lyrics (even though the subject matter is much lighter) and holds up time and time again.
On the album, “Nightswimming,” bookends two of the only other worthy tracks on the album – “Man on the Moon” and “Find the River.” Both of these are great examples of how the band could click by producing a song that had great value in the studio and on the stage without getting too preachy.
That can’t be said for the rest of the album. “Drive” was one of the biggest hits from the album, but I can take it or leave it. I think the band destroyed the song when they totally re-arranged it for live show a few years later. Thank God they went back to the original version in recent years, but it still leaves me unfulfilled.
And please don’t tell me “Star Me Kitten,” “Ignoreland,” “Monty Got a Raw Deal, “and “Sweetness Follows” are examples of R.E.M.’s best efforts.
“Automatic” gets raised in lore because of the emotional response to “Everybody Hurts” and the timelessness of “Man on the Moon.” In fact, the compelling videos for those two songs probably have more to do with the album’s historical standing than anything else.
I’d take “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” above this album any day if we’re talking latter-day R.E.M.
Wings For Wheels » Blog Archive » Automatic Turns 15
October 6, 2007[…] at Regular Guy, Brian dedicates his (mostly) weekly R.E.M. feature to talk about the 15th anniversary of the release of Automatic For The People. I was surprised to read the following: I’m not that big a fan of the […]
brian
October 7, 2007You can’t make me like it, Dave. 🙂
Jinx
October 10, 2007I have to disagree, as a huge REM fan, I may be a bit biased, but one of the things that I think Automatic did was show the band’s versatility and the ability to stay mainstream with the change (at the time at least). After Out of time, the sound and progression on Automatic was radically different along with the feel for the album in general.
While I agree that Everybody Hurts was way overplayed and Nightswimming never sniffed radio play, in my opinion it’s not a grievious mistake. Nightswimming was a nice song and probably should have deserved some airtime, but a bit of that is subjective as is the view of the other songs from the album, Ignoreland, Monty, Try not to Breathe, Sidewinder sleeps.
The album itself as a collection in my opinion showed a versatility that hadn’t been seen previously on their albums especially from the sound standpoint. Adventures in Hi Fi was nice, but in my opinion not as good a compilation as Automatic. I thought the album as a whole felt a bit disjointed.