#96 R.E.M., 'Automatic for the People' (1992)

Previously #247

A worthy jump into the Top 100 by one of the ’90s most influential Alternative bands. ‘Automatic For The People’ was born immediately out of the sessions of previous release, ‘Out Of Time.’ While mixing that album at Prince’s Paisley Park, the quartet would record demos for ‘Drive,’ ‘Try Not To Breathe’ and ‘Nightswimming.’ Following the promotion of ‘Out Of Time,’ Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry went to work on new music sans vocalist, Michael Stipe. Their intention was to make an album of faster rock songs, but they came up short. Instead, they managed to put together 12 mid-tempo songs with one exception, third single, ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight,’ the band’s take on ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight.’

Despite failing on their intent, R.E.M. gave us some of the best songs of their career. Opening with the brooding ‘Drive,’ it goes into the stunning ‘Try Not To Breathe,’ the aforementioned single and then one of the most haunting songs of all time, ‘Everybody Hurts.’ The song references the style of old Stax artists such as Otis Redding. It’s a song about suicide, a song convincing those that need to hear it that everybody hurts sometimes but they should hang on. The cherry on top of the song is the incredible string arrangements by none-other than Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. In fact his fingerprints are all over the strings on this album. The long player also includes ‘Man On The Moon, R.E.M.’s tribute to fallen comedian, Andy Kaufman. Other highlights on the record are ‘Sweetness Follows,’ ‘Monty Got A Raw Deal,’ ‘Ignoreland’ and ‘Nightswimming.’ ‘Automatic For The People’ would go on to sell in excess of 18 million copies worldwide and was nominated for Album Of The Year at the Grammys. It would lose out to the soundtrack to ‘The Bodyguard.’ This record is a major departure from the jangly Alternative Pop they had come to be known for in the late ‘80s, cementing them as one of the major bands of the ‘90s.

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