‘Automatic For The People’ by R.E.M.

Released in 1992, ‘Automatic For The People’ was R.E.M.’s eighth studio album, and a continuation of the predominantly acoustic style of ‘Out of Time’. As such, it’s a gentle album of well constructed songs with only a few up-tempo tracks to vary the mood.

‘Drive’ starts the album off in subdued form, based around a repeating pattern of acoustic guitar over which the track swells and fades throughout. Repeating patterns are something of a trademark of this album - ‘Try Not To Breathe’ and ‘Nightswimming’ being other prime examples. The first half of the album is dominated by the singles ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight’ and ‘Everybody Hurts’, both instantly recognisable, but both very different. ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight’ has a melody that meanders from chorus to chorus via any means necessary, and a set of lyrics that are virtually indecipherable, and obtuse even by Michael Stipe’s standards. ‘Everybody Hurts’, on the other hand, is a beacon of clarity – a simple but beautiful backing track with an instantly accessible set of words. It’s a song that’s been dulled by familiarity over time, but it deserves to be listened to properly, as it’s lovely.

The second half of the album is more of the same, but this is no bad thing. ‘Monty Got A Raw Deal’ and ‘Man On The Moon’ are the rockier tracks on the album, though this is a relative state, ‘Nightswimming’ is a wonderful example of how to construct a great song out of very few components, and ‘Find The River’ allows the album to drift to a close.

‘Automatic For The People’ is generally regarded as the archetype R.E.M. album, and it’s hard to argue with this view. There are other great albums in their back catalogue, but this is pretty special.