Album of the day (#824): 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.
Overall rank: 44.
Average rating: 85/100 (from 656 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.

[Guest]

Worse than most of what came before, better than most of what came after (with exceptions in both cases).

[Puncture Repair]

It's my favourite album of all time.

Like I say on my chart, that may just be because it came at the right place and time, but this album means the world to me. We're all stupid when we're 15, and I'm still stupid now - but this album helped shaped who I am. It's dumb stuff like remembering when me and my mum where driving home after visiting my brother's Uni and just as Find the River came on it started absolutely pouring it down with rain, so much that you couldn't hear the music; instead we turned it up full blast in the car and screamed the lyrics as loud as we could in face of the rain.
One my worse days this album offers me a sense of purpose and connection, it reminds me I am where I am because of my actions in the past, and that I'm still in control of everything around me.

[Happymeal]

I enjoyed this particular album.

[Jasonconfused]

Fantastic album. To me the best part is how emotional it kicks off with Drive.
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[Bach]

Great, their best album.

Best tracks: "Drive", "Find the River", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite".
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"De gustibus non disputandum est"

[RFNAPLES]

Best track: Everybody Hurts
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

[Guest]

I have quite a story with this album. I grew up not liking R.E.M. I had really only heard a handful of their songs ("End of the World", "Losing My Religion", "Orange Crush", etc.) and didn't like any of them. So naturally, when I saw that this album was ranked so highly on this site, I was pretty skeptical at first. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot.

So I looked up "Try Not to Breathe" on Youtube. The review in particular that I read said that this was one of the better songs on the album, so I figured it was a good start. Anyway, I didn't get very far. My long-standing biases against the band held true and I couldn't make myself like it. So I stayed away for a while.

And then, about a year ago, I started listening to a lot of full albums on Youtube. This one reoccurred to me, and I figured I'd give it a shot. After all, I gave The Joshua Tree a full listen, so I figured anything deserved a chance. I enjoyed it, but not a whole lot. Either way, I decided I would buy it at some point, though certainly not any time soon.

And then I stumbled across it in a used CD store for $0.95. Yes, I'm not kidding. One of this site's highest-rated albums for barely over a dollar with tax. I couldn't pass it up. So I started listening to it, and it quickly grew on me. Before long it was at #7 on my chart. And then, one day, I listened to it really intently, and it occurred to me that this album was deserving of the #4 spot on my chart (A Night at the Opera, Superunknown, and Doolittle had been pretty well-established as my top 3 at this point). And there it stayed, until about a week ago when I listened to it again and decided that it outmatched Doolittle and even Superunknown. It's now in my #2 spot, and will probably be there for a while.

My personal favorites are Find the River, Ignoreland, and Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, but there really isn't a less-than-stellar song on the entire album.

[MrFrogger]

I group up listening to this album, and although I do love it, it's has fallin off my chart.

[KinkyAfro]

Fantastic album, bought it the day it came out and thinking about it now, over the years I've probably listened to it more than any other album in my collection. Find the River is one of my favourite songs ever. I like R.E.M. but they never recorded anything near the quality of this again, and i've already said it in my chart notes but with hindsight I wouldn't be too bothered if they gave up after recording this album. In my opinion, If you took all the songs from the 7 albums that followed it, you could just about put together one decent albums worth af material.