R.E.M. - Automatic for the People (1992)

Dan:

I imagine that all fans of R.E.M. have opinions regarding their favorite albums. Some love the primitive Murmur; others have an affection for Up (1998) or Around the Sun (2004). I've declared my preference for Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) and Document (1987), based on their roles in my personal prog discovery journey. 

Favorites notwithstanding, I think it would be an oversight to omit Automatic for the People, which is R.E.M.'s most commercially successful album (with Out of Time (1991) ranked equally by Wikipedia). I'm not fond of Out of Time, which just goes to prove that it's hard to evaluate R.E.M. albums on anything but subjective criteria. That said, it's hard to argue against Automatic, unless you absolutely reject popularity as relevant. It yielded six singles, comprising half of the album's total. "Man on the Moon" is hummable by most people who may not even know of R.E.M.'s existence. "Everybody Hurts" is just as familiar.

A good portion of the credit for Automatic's success must go to producer Scott Litt who oversaw multiple recording locations and brought in John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame to arrange the orchestration of strings and a lone woodwind (oboist Deborah Workman). I wouldn't say that this puts R.E.M. in Steely Dan territory as far as production is concerned, but the band had obviously come a long way since Murmur.

Mainly I just like this album, even though part of me wants to rebel against commercial success, which is more how I felt in 1992 that I do now 31 years later. It's not that the album gets better with age, and it's not something I need to turn to very often. It's just an amazingly consistent album that deserves the attention it continues to receive. 

Steve: 

From what I've seen from reviewers who came of age on the world wide web, Automatic for the People is a consensus choice for best R.E.M. album among those who don't gravitate naturally to the IRS-label era (i.e., Murmur through Document). While I've always identified with the earlier era, I have familiarized myself with all of R.E.M.'s albums, even though few of them share characteristics of the IRS period that endeared me to the band in the first place.

I believe that the ongoing popularity of Automatic for the People has less to do with the prevalence of hits than it does with the overall sound of the album (which has aged very well) and the resonant themes that pepper the album. Contrast this to Out of Time, which had a similarly "unplugged" sound, and much bigger hits ("Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People"), which in my opinion have now far outworn their welcome. Those hits always sounded too contrived to me, as though the band’s popularity was going to their heads a little too much. (Incidentally, R.E.M. was the first band I remember having an "unplugged" special on MTV around this time).

On Automatic for the People, popular songs like "Man on the Moon" and "Drive" have aged much better. "Man on the Moon," in particular, still tugs at the heartstrings, especially because I still associate it with the Andy Kaufman biopic of the same name. But the song isn't empty sentimentality - Pete Buck's slide guitar makes for some really nice coloring in the arrangement, and the chorus of the song resolves the questioning verses like a good song should. Likewise, although I was initially turned off by "Drive" because of its simplicity, closer listening reveals a gradual build in the instrumental base, hitting some grungy guitar bits that really help move the song along.  

Aside from the singles, one deeper cut that I find interesting is "Sweetness Follows", a quiet but ominous song, with lots of atmosphere and chilling harmonies. It's not the kind of song that will grab you on first listen, but give it time. On the louder side, "Ignoreland" provides a welcome injection of rock power on an otherwise subdued album. 

Following Automatic for the People, R.E.M. made further attempts to experiment with their sound, but not always successfully. Monster, with its loud distorted guitars, is often cited as the weakest link in their discography, and R.E.M. never truly regained the popularity they enjoyed in the early 1990s. But for a few years, they occupied that coveted space overlapping both commercial and critical success.