ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

R.E.M.

[#] Automatic for the People (1992)

Reviewed July 16, 2020

Death is the great sleep, after all.

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read a wordier and possibly less accurate version of my feelings on this album.)

I cannot begin to tell you why Automatic for the People is so beloved. Early R.E.M.--no, pretty much every IRS-era R.E.M. album--delights in songs that sound completely timeless. Mike Mills' background vocals, the dark, melodic bass, the chiming guitars that felt more creaky and eerie than bright, the oblique lyrics that painted with words and told of small town Southern tales, environmental concerns, the doldrums of travel, and an inability to communicate clearly all spoke to this strangely mystical-yet-buoyant feeling that gets completely tossed out the window circa Automatic. Automatic is so dull, you wonder if they just happened to fluke it for seven records straight. (Monster and New Adventures prove otherwise, thankfully, but that just makes this one all the more perplexing.)

One by one, each song fails to develop, fails to go anywhere, fails to feature a contrasting part that gives the song any movement whatsoever. Flat verses, occasionally cool refrains ("Drive", "Sweetness Follows"). Everything is steeped in this suffocating, deathly boring mourning and maturity, leading to even the rockers like "Man on the Moon" feeling overly serious and leaden. None of R.E.M.'s sonic trademarks are present. It's competent! It's not a complete trainwreck. It just sounds like a band that cast off everything that was interesting about it, not even in the pursuit of success, just because, and not only managed hits, managed to make everyone's favorite R.E.M. record in the process. At least "Shiny Happy People" was stupid fun--"Everybody Hurts" wants to deliver you a message while being a godawful fruity pop song. I'm good, Michael.