Automatic For The People
★★★★☆
Preface
first R.E.M. album, I love the band, I acknowledge Stipe’s role in how the modern music sound like, his personal connections, and a rough idea of how they sound. I’ve heard a few songs from them, Losing My Religion (of course!), Everybody Hurts (featured in this album!) and one featuring Radiohead I can’t remember the title.
Automatic for the People is a rather melancholic album. I was hesitant to choose between this, Murmur (their most important work), and Out of Time (the “hit”, the one with Losing My Religion). for obvious reasons I chose Automatic for the People. I listen to the 25th anniversary edition that has several extra tracks, demo and live versions but I’m gonna list the standard release’s track list in my writing.
Review
Drive, the opener. the one that sets the tone does so by delivering a somber, given up, subtle, introspective and shadowed overall voice. the reverb gives the listener the feeling of being in a huge, empty room. the drums come in and the lyrics get evocative, while keeping a mask of simplicity.
Maybe I ride, maybe you walk, Maybe I drive to get off, baby
Hey, kids, where are you? Nobody tells you what to do, baby
it builds up to add compelling electric guitars and strings. Try Not To Breathe reveals richer layers of Stipe’s vocals. with a more hypnotic sound, hazy guitar effects, and faded backing vocals. it’s beautifully unsettling, and the textures feels comfortable and proportionate. the lyrics are a big vague. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (or Wake Her Up, as its demo was titled) is goofy. the music is simpler, less personal, and satirical. I love when Stipe actually cracks a laugh after these lines:
Baby, instant soup doesn’t really grab me
Today I need something more sub-sub-sub-substantial
A can of beans or blackeyed peas
Some Nescafe and ice
A candy bar, a falling star, or a reading from Doctor Seuss
it’s supposed to be “weird” and funny and I like it! it shows their willingness to embrace the strange and unusual. I probably won’t listen to it again but it’s a cute song. Everybody Hurts is a melancholic anthem. cathartic, sentimental, straightforward. I love it and hate it for what it is: simple. it lacks nuance like the other tracks, but it’s sincere, in a way that make it incomparable. vocals are unbelievable. honest and intimate with a heartfelt melody. New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 is an intermission piece. a sonic postcard. nothing much to talk about here. Sweetness Follows reintroduces the reverbed vocals I heard at the beginning. it has a pulsating rhythm with hopeful lyrics. Monty Got A Raw Deal sounds great after the second verse. I hear mandolins and it’s just as weird as when I hear them in Losing My Religion, I don’t understand the lyrics but it sounds good, will listen again. Ignoreland sounds chaotic. the lyrics are overwhelming. it’s heavily political, I specifically like when he just throws a long chain of words back to back.
Brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready, heartless and labeled
Super U.S. citizen, super achiever, mega-ultra power dosing
Relax. Defense, defense, defense, defense.
finally, it’s trying to say something, and he thinks you should too.
I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting
But I feel better having screamed, don’t you?
Star Me Kitten is a sweet change of pace, it’s slower. it’s not even Stipe singing, is it!? it’s a very weird song, the music is minimal and works merely as “background”, the lyrics are vague too. Man On The Moon is equally weird but I think this one only needs context, geographical and historical. it’s a bit unnecessarily long. no wonders for me in the text either, I can totally ignore this track.
the vocals on Nightswimming sounds a lot like that of what I heard in Everybody Hurts. Stipe’s nasal vocals shine here.
These things they go away
Replaced by every day
the atmosphere does reflect the retrospective tone of the lyrics. looking back at memories, themes of loss and cherishing the good times that despite being in the past, keep existing in our memories and photos, forever. a bit monotonic, and less risky than the more “fun” tracks.
Find The River seals the albums. it sounds nostalgic. it’s gentle and hopeful, with a familiar chord progression. I’m sure I’ve heard something similar earlier in this very album.
I have got to leave to find my way
Watch the road and memorize
This life that pass before my eyes
And nothing is going my way
but it turns upside down, shining once again a bright sunlight despite all the darkness going on.
There’s no one left to take the lead
But I tell you and you can see
We’re closer now than light years to go
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide, fall into the ocean
All of this is coming your way
I love how the album concludes, this track is truly touching, it has a sense of acceptance and moving forward. it feels like a gentle exhale.
the album is a joyride. sometimes a bit too nuanced and overwhelming like in Ignoreland, sometimes slightly boring and monotonic like in Nightswimming, sometimes goofy and surreally weird like in Star Me Kitten but these are only exceptions. the overall sound is nostalgic, cinematic, intimate, personal, hopeful, subtle, and emotionally deep.