Automatic For The People - REM (1992)

Ideated from: I write this about a month before anyone reads it, so it’s still August, but I thought I’d do some Fall music, things that make me think of the autumn for one reason or another

REM was already a pretty great band by the early 90s. They’d even shown their “serious side” already with the acoustic, country-tinged Out Of Time. I was expecting something good when Automatic came out, but I don’t know if most of us were prepared for the shimmering, polished gem this album was.

I think polished is an appropriate term, because they really shaved off all the rough edges. The band has always been melodic, but they often embellished that with jangly guitars and slightly dissonant arrangements so that everything sounded “serious” in an underground rock band sort of way. If they learned anything from making their more mainstream-oriented previous two albums, maybe it was that they didn’t need to hide behind those trappings to be taken seriously.

Here they made a record that doesn’t sound like much else, and yet is exactly in line with what they do. It’s a fantastic achievement.

Tracks I Liked

Drive - an ominous, beautiful, shimmering opener

Try Not To Breathe - a song literally as serious as life and death, with so much to say.

Nightswimming - one of those amazing songs that you understand more of the older you get.