Album of the day (#3480): Automatic For The People by R.E.M.

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Automatic For The People by R.E.M. (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1992.
Country:
Overall rank: 58
Average rating: 84/100 (from 1879 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Drive
2. Try Not To Breathe
3. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
4. Everybody Hurts
5. New Orleans Instrumental, No. 1
6. Sweetness Follows
7. Monty Got A Raw Deal
8. Ignoreland
9. Star Me Kitten
10. Man On The Moon
11. Nightswimming
12. Find The River

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[CharlieBarley]

A landmark 90's album and certainly the band's best.
One of my favourite albums from my teenage years.
It has so many good songs.
It's pretty hard to find too many albums with such a brilliant opening and closing song and sustained quality all the way through.
And Everybody Hurts is an all-time classic track.

[Spyglass]

I've got to be in a certain mood to get into this album. But when I'm in it, this is perfect.
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[babyBlueSedan]

My discovery of R.E.M. mirrored the order that I expect a lot of music fans go through with the band. Started with Document, then this, then Green and Out of Time (the last three in the same day IIRC). They had the well-known songs, so I figured they must be better. Only later did I learn big fans of the band prefer the earlier stuff, so it took me a while to get to their early stuff. Today I mostly agree that their first two albums + Chronic Town was their sweet spot, and this is the only one of their later albums I still listen to.

But that said, this is still my favorite. I've cooled on it a bit over the years - "Nightswimming" used to be my favorite song and now I think it's merely very good - but it's still a great listen. It's maybe a bit overproduced but I think the arrangements help set the moon nicely. "Sidewinder" and "Man on the Moon" are major highlights, with "Drive" and "Try Not to Breathe" a close second-tier.

"Everything Hurts" has always sucked for me though.
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[RoundTheBend]

I guess John Paul Jones did the arrangements you speak of. Didn't know that or cared who John Paul Jones was until like nearly 20 years after I fell in love with this album.

This used to be my favorite record and maybe still is... dunno. Song for song though I like Green more.

I did the same R.E.M. fan thing and later got to Murmur because I wasn't even born yet when that album came out. I actually disagree that was their sweet-spot. I mean I agree it was very good, but Murmur might be closer to my 3rd or 4th favorite R.E.M. record. I think late 80s through late 90s was their best period.

But alas, it's R.E.M. - one of my most cherished artists for many reasons. There's little they did wrong.

I agree Nightswimming is a top track, along with Sweetness Follows... actually the latter easily being top 5 R.E.M. songs of all time for me.

[DommeDamian]

This is one of those "instantly really liked but quickly started to lose interest in it"-kinda albums for me.
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[mickilennial]

Maybe the best R.E.M record in terms of production, arrangements, pace, and mood. And also the least fun, but god damn if songs like "Man on the Moon" don't make up for it.

[911Turbo]

There best.
Fantastic.
Love it.
Every song is amazing.

[Daydreamer]

I find it hard to believe there are people that actually prefer Murmur to this. This is just better in every possible way. The only minor flaw is that the middle section, while still pretty decent, it definitely a level below the first 4 and the last 3 songs.
Oh, and Nightswimming is obviously their best ever song.
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All time

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[Christelex]

Their best and most consistent album, imo.