I can't listen to Automatic For The People with other people around. I don't like to hear it on the radio. And it's the most popular, and therefore most overplayed, record of one of my favorite bands.
Yet I love this record.
It came to me at a very dark time. I was halfway through college, directionless, and searching for some answers. I may not have found the answers I was looking for, but Stipe was at least asking some of the same questions.
Lacking the choppiness of either of its major label predecessors, 1988's Green or 1991's Out Of Time, Automatic For The People fulfilled the promise first heard on early I.R.S. albums like Reckoning and Fables Of The Reconstruction. Intense, personal, organic, mellow. This was the 'little band from Athens that could' operating on the world stage, but not sounding like they knew that's where they were.
I caught my first glimpse of the album cover on the back of Billboard magazine in my college library. The unassuming album cover seemed a sharp contrast from the brash Our Of Time cover. In small print at the bottom of the ad were three words: Still no tour.
At the height of their popularity R.E.M. did what few bands had done since the Beatles. They said goodbye to the road. And it's a good thing they did. Coming just a year and a half after Out Of Time, Automatic might never have happened if R.E.M. had undergone a world tour. The last single off of Out Of Time had barely left the charts at the time of Automatic's release.
I was eagerly anticipating this record, but knew very little about it other than the single, "Drive". I had a friend who was working at the campus radio station. He knew what a big fan I was and brought over the only copy of the CD in the city to my apartment three days before it came out. I listened to it and was blown away by the time I got to the second song. R.E.M. had produced a classic. A masterpiece. A record that could stand along side the works of the masters.
I haven't listened to Automatic For The People in a couple years. Maybe even three or four. It remains an intensely personal album for me, and I know a time will come when I'll need something from it, and I'll find it. Some albums are like that. It may not be the most played R.E.M. album for me, or even my favorite, but it occupies a space that very few albums fill. A timeless place. A place I don't want obscured by over familiarity or too much repetition.
*Automatic For The People is best served in the dark. Alone. With a bottle of wine. On a cold autumn night.
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3 comments:
Todd, I really really like this album too. But for entirely different reasons. I remember back to 1992, it was my Freshman year. It took a lot but finally I convinced Neil Dunn to let me listen to this tape on our bus ride to high school. I loved the Man on the Moon song. I listened to the man on the moon song about 15000 times. So I know what you mean, it can be hard to listen to this CD sometimes. When I returned that day from school I either had my mom drive me to Exclusive Company, or consulted my newest Columbia House catalog to order this. But when I told my Mom what I was planning to get she informed me my Dad had just bought that the other day. Light went on in my head, Dad knows what's up. Well those days are gone now, but in 1992 my Dad had alright taste in music. I remember seeing 12 Songs in his collection, and he's always been a Dylan fan.
So anyway I barrow the CD from Dad, permanently and proceed to listen to it on my panasonic discman non stop. I call this CD a buried treasure CD. Sure it's got the Billboard hits, but the more you listen to it the more gems you find. Like originally I skipped right by Nightswimming, but then I got hooked and it still is probably my favorite song on the album. Or Ignoreland. Talk about a song that just speaks to you. So inspirational. Try not to breathe. Find the River. Man so many great great songs on this album.
Unfortunatley this CD was one of the causalities of college. Every music fan who brings their CD collection to school always manages to lose at least 20 CD's. This was one I lost. Probably should re buy it someday.
Nice story. That's pretty cool that your dad picked it up.
Sounds like you spent a lot of time listening to the Ride side of the tape. I like how they were never content (other than Murmur) to call the sides of their cassettes and albums A and B, or 1 and 2. They usually gave a clue as to what the album was about.
Chronic Town: Chronic Town, Poster Torn
Reckoning: L, R
Fables: A Side, Another Side
Lifes Rich Pageant: Dinner, Supper
Document: Page, Leaf
Dead Letter Office: Post, Script
Green: Air, Metal
Out Of Time: Time, Memory
Automatic: Drive, Ride
Monster: C, D
New Adventures: Hi, Fi
I don't know about Up, Reveal and Around The Sun
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