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REM

Automatic for the People

Warner Bros / Rhino | 1992 | Album

Biography

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When R.E.M. joined the Warner Bros. Records roster in 1988, it was a sign that the little college rock band from Athens, Georgia wasn’t so little anymore. It shouldn’t be any surprise since with each album after their debut Murmur (1983), the band’s profile had steadily increased. After the signing, it had all been but multiplatinum albums and arena tours for R.E.M.; for a brief moment, they were the biggest band in the world.

The group’s masterpiece during the ‘90s was Automatic for the People (1992). It was released a year after their commercial breakthrough album Out of Time and their smash pop song “Losing My Religion.” Thematically Automatic wasn’t as upbeat as its predecessor since it dealt with somber topics such as memory and mortality (although the album’s recognizable and pop-friendly songs were the unusually straightforward “Everybody Hurts” and the Andy Kaufman tribute “Man on the Moon.” Listen hard enough to the record and you can hear singer Michael Stipe make pop culture references “Rock On,” Montgomery Clift, and the board game Twister. Several of the album’s songs—“Drive,” the whimsical “The Sideswinder Sleeps Tonight,” and the lovely “Nightswimming” are given the lush treatment thanks to Led Zep’s John Paul Jones’ orchestral arrangements. The result is something pastoral and elegant—one of R.E.M.’s finest. This newly reissued version comes with a companion DVD-A featuring the entire album in surround sound, promo film, and photo gallery.

David Chiu