Automatic For The People R.E.M.

• 1 Drive 04:31
• 2 Try Not To Breathe 03:51
• 3 The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite 04:09
• 4 Everybody Hurts 05:20
• 5 New Orleans Instrumental No.1 02:16
• 6 Sweetness Follows 04:21
• 7 Monty Got A Raw Deal 03:18
• 8 Ignoreland 04:27
• 9 Star Me Kitten 03:17
• 10 Man On The Moon 05:14
• 11 Nightswimming 04:18
• 12 Find The River 03:53
• Total Runtime 48:55

Info for Automatic For The People

Automatic For the People is probably REM's most beautiful record. It's mostly subdued but the songs are very good. It's also a reminder that Michael Stipe is one of the best singers in pop music. Everybody Hurts is genuinely touching and eloquent. Stipe abandons his normally indecipherable lyrics for a fairly clear message, urging a suicidal person to 'hang on'. The austere music lets Stipe express the message. On Automatic For The People, REM use strings well to complement the lush music. When they rise at the end of Everybody Hurts as Stipe sings 'hold on', the effect is moving. Sweetness Follows is a nice, simple song where Stipe instructs us to live a life full of joy and wonder. The record ends with two great ballads. Nightswimming is a gorgeous, evocative memory tale where the music is only piano and strings and, at the end, a wistful oboe. Find The River is another excellent showcase for Stipe's poignant vocals. It has a nice unrushed feel and good atmosphere created by dreamy keyboards and backing vocals from Mike Mills. Automatic For the People is not all introspective ballads. Ignoreland is filled with Stipe's anti-government venting but it's also a kickass rocker. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight is giddy fun. Stipe has a good, relaxed time with their riff on the Lion Sleeps Tonight and his goofy lyrics, including the fast, obscure chorus (come in and try to wake her up?). Man On The Moon is one of REM's best singles ever. It has a nice easy rock mood with great Peter Buck guitar textures as Stipe sings his sweet tribute to Andy Kaufman. Automatic For the People is not as perfect as the REM record it most reminds me of, Life Rich Pageant, which is also generally low key but tuneful. I find Automatic For the People's version of Drive pointless and plodding and much prefer the beefed up version on the Greenpeace benefit record, Alternative NRG. But generally Automatic For The People is a great sounding record and one of the best from one of America's best rock bands ever. (www-all-reviews.com)

'...R.E.M. has never made music more gorgeous....shimmers with new, complex beauty....musically irresistible....finds the band gaining a startling emotional directness...' (Rolling Stone)

'...deeply moving and entirely idiosyncratic....[the songs] tend to be rich and subdued, full of lush strings and deep feeling....show[s] the band moving into more personal territory than ever before....the band's greatest triumph...' - Rating: A (Entertainment Weekly)

Mike Mills, vocals, keyboards, bass
Michael Stipe, vocals
Peter Buck, guitar & mandolin
Bill Berry, drums

Additional personnel:
Lonnie Ottzen, Denise Berginson-Smith, Jody Taylor, Sou-Chun Su, Sandy Salzinger, Patti Gouvas, violin
Paul Murphy, Reid Harris, Heidi Nitche, viola
Elizabeth Proctor Murphy, Kathleen Kee, Knox Chandler, Daniel Laufer, cello
Deborah Workman, oboe
Scott Litt, harmonica & clavinet
Bertis Downs, keyboards

Recorded at Bearsville Studio, Bearsville, New York
Criteria Recording Studios, Miami, Florida
John Keane Studio, Athens, Georgia
Kingsway Studio, New Orleans, Louisiana
Bosstown Recording Studios, Atlanta, Georgia

Rolling Stone 'Essential Recordings of the 90's.

R.E.M.
were an alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, United States in 1980. The band originally consisted of Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin), Mike Mills (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Bill Berry (drums). Berry retired from the band in October 1997 after having suffered a brain aneurysm in 1995.

R.E.M. released its first single, 'Radio Free Europe', in 1981 on the independent record label Hib-Tone. The single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the band's first release on I.R.S. Records. In 1983, the group released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single 'The One I Love'. The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed as a pioneer of the genre and released its two most commercially successful albums, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 release, Monster, was a return to a more rock-oriented sound. The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three band members. In 1996, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history. The following year, Bill Berry left the band, while Buck, Mills, and Stipe continued the group as a three-piece. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Work on the group's fourteenth album commenced in early 2007. The band recorded with producer Jacknife Lee in Vancouver and Dublin, where it played five nights in the Olympia Theatre between June 30 and July 5 as part of a 'working rehearsal'. R.E.M. Live, the band's first live album (featuring songs from a 2005 Dublin show), was released in October 2007. The group followed this with the 2009 live album Live at The Olympia, which features performances from their 2005 residency. R.E.M. released Accelerate in early 2008. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard charts, and became the band's eighth album to top the British album charts. Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke considered Accelerate an improvement over the band's previous post-Berry albums, calling it 'one of the best records R.E.M. have ever made.'

In 2010, R.E.M. released the video album R.E.M. Live from Austin, TX—a concert recorded for Austin City Limits in 2008. The group recorded its fifteenth album, Collapse into Now (2011), with Jacknife Lee in locales including Berlin, Nashville, and New Orleans. For the album, the band aimed for a more expansive sound than the intentionally short and speedy approach implemented on Accelerate. The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, becoming the group's tenth album to reach the top ten of the chart. This release fulfilled R.E.M.'s contractual obligations to Warner Bros., and they began recording material without a contract a few months later with the possible intention of self-releasing the work.

On September 21, 2011, the band announced via its website that it was 'calling it a day as a band'. Stipe said that he hoped their fans realized it 'wasn't an easy decision': 'All things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.' Long-time associate and former Warner Bros. Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology Ethan Kaplan has speculated that shake-ups at the record label influenced the group's decision to disband. The band members will finish their collaboration by assembling the compilation album Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011, scheduled for release in November 2011. The album will be the first to collect songs from R.E.M.'s I.R.S. and Warner Bros. tenures, as well as the group's final studio recordings from post-Collapse into Now sessions.

On 21 September 2011, after over 30 years together, R.E.M. announced that they had split up. (Source: artists.letssingit.com)

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