Automatic for the People is the eighth studio album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on October 5, 1992, in the United Kingdom and Europe, and on the following day in the United States, by Warner Bros. Records. R.E.M. began production on the album while their previous album, Out of Time (1991), was still ascending charts and achieving global success. Several tracks include strings arranged by John Paul Jones and conducted by George Hanson.
Yielding six singles, the album reached number two on the US Billboard 200 and received widespread acclaim from critics upon release. Rolling Stone reviewer Paul Evans concluded of the album, "This is the members of R.E.M. delving deeper than ever; grown sadder and wiser, the Athens subversives reveal a darker vision that shimmers with new, complex beauty." Automatic for the People has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, and has been listed as one of the greatest albums of all time, with Rolling Stone ranking the album number 96 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020.
Background and recording
What would become Automatic for the People had its origins in the mixing sessions for R.E.M.'s previous album Out of Time, held at Paisley Park Studios in December 1990. There, demos for "Drive", "Try Not to Breathe", and "Nightswimming" were recorded. After finishing promotional duties for Out of Time, the members of R.E.M. began formal work on their next album. Starting the first week of June 1991, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry met several times a week in a rehearsal studio to work on new material. Once a month they would take a week-long break. The musicians would often trade instruments: Buck would play mandolin, Mills would play piano or organ, and Berry would play bass. Buck explained that writing without drums was productive for the band members. The band, intent on delivering an album of harder-rocking material after Out of Time, made an effort to write some faster rock songs during rehearsals, but came up with less than a half-dozen prospective songs in that vein.
The musicians recorded the demos in their standard band configuration. Stipe described the music to Rolling Stone early that year as "[v]ery mid-tempo, pretty fucking weird [...] More acoustic, more organ-based, less drums". In February, R.E.M. recorded another set of demos at Daniel Lanois's Kingsway Studios in New Orleans.
The group decided to create finished recordings with co-producer Scott Litt at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, starting on March 30. The band recorded overdubs in Miami and New York City. String arrangements were recorded in Atlanta. After recording sessions were completed in July, the album was mixed at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle. Seattle-based McCaughey spent time with the band while they were at Bad Animals Studio.
Music and lyrics
Despite R.E.M.'s initial desire to make an album of rocking, guitar-dominated songs after Out of Time, music critic David Fricke noted that instead Automatic for the People "seems to move at an even more agonized crawl" than the band's previous release. "Sweetness Follows", "Drive", and "Monty Got a Raw Deal" in particular expressed much darker themes than any of the band's previous material and "Try Not to Breathe" is about Stipe's grandmother dying.
The songs "Drive", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", and "Nightswimming" feature string arrangements by former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Of the fourteen classical musicians, eleven were members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which had also been used on Out of Time. Fricke stated that "ballads, in fact, define the record", and noted that the album featured only three "rockers": "Ignoreland", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", and "Man on the Moon".
"Song by song [...] the whole album is referencing the 1970s," recalls Stipe. "Everybody Hurts" was inspired by Nazareth's cover of "Love Hurts". "Drive" was an homage to David Essex and "Rock On", especially that song's early glam rock production style.
Packaging
thumb|right|"Neo-Lectra" ornament in Vaughn, New Mexico, similar to the one in Miami that was photographed for the album's cover.
The album name refers to the motto of Athens, Georgia-based eatery Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods. The photograph on the front cover is not related to the restaurant; rather, it shows a star ornament (a so-called "Neo-Lectra" or "Sputnik star" that was common in the 1960s) that was part of the sign for the Sinbad Motel on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, near Criteria Studios, where the bulk of the album was recorded. The motel is still there, but the star has not been since it was damaged during Hurricane Andrew. The slanted support where it was once attached is still present. "The album was going to be called Star at one point, hence the object on the cover that Michael had photographed and really dug," Scott Litt told Mojo. "It helps to have some kind of focus in the studio, so the photo was stuck up." The album reached No.1 in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Albums Chart on four separate occasions. Despite only making a handful of promotional appearances and conducting a short mini-tour for Out of Time, R.E.M. drastically scaled back their live appearances even further for Automatic for the People, and did not do any tours whatsoever. Automatic for the People has been certified four times platinum in the US (four million copies shipped), six times platinum in the United Kingdom (1.8 million shipped), and three times platinum in Australia (210,000 shipped). The album has sold 3.52 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan sales figures . In 1993, the album has sold 1.7 million copies in the US, according to Billboards lists of 1993's best-selling albums domestically.
Automatic for the People yielded six singles over the course of 1992 and 1993: "Drive", "Man on the Moon", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", "Nightswimming" and "Find the River". Lead single "Drive" was the album's highest-charting domestic hit, reaching No.28 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other singles charted higher overseas: "Everybody Hurts" charted in the top ten on the United Kingdom singles chart, Canada, and Australia.
Critical reception and legacy
The album received widespread acclaim from critics upon release. R.E.M. biographer David Buckley wrote, "Automatic for the People is regarded by Peter Buck and Mike Mills, and by most critics, as being the finest R.E.M. album ever recorded." Rolling Stone gave the album five stars. Reviewer Paul Evans wrote, "Despite its difficult concerns, most of Automatic is musically irresistible." Ann Powers, reviewing the album for The New York Times, noted that only three of the songs on the album went beyond mid-tempo and said, "Only 'Man on the Moon' shines with a wit that balances R.E.M.'s somber tendencies." Powers finished her review by saying, "Even in the midst of such disenchantment, R.E.M. can't resist its own talent for creating beautiful and moving sounds. [...] Buck, Mills and Berry can still conjure melodies that fall like summer sunlight. And Stipe still possesses a gorgeous voice that cannot shake its own gift for meaning." Guy Garcia, for Time, also noted the album's themes of "hopelessness, anger and loss". Garcia added that the album proves "that a so-called alternative band can keep its edge after conquering the musical mainstream" and that it "manages to dodge predictability without ever sounding aimless or unfocussed." The Village Voices Robert Christgau later gave the album a three-star honorable mention rating, indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1994, but lost to Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard. It was later ranked number 247 in Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, 249 in a 2012 revised list, and 96 in a 2020 reboot of the list. Rolling Stone also ranked it at number18 on its 100 Greatest Albums of the 90s list. It was also voted number 6 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums and NME organised a poll of which, 40,000 people worldwide voted for the 100 best albums ever and Automatic for the People was placed at number 37 on the list. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
"I'm not so crazy about 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite'," Buck reflected in 2001, "but overall I think it sounds great." Buck added in 2003, in regard to the song, "We included this song on Automatic in order to break the prevailing mood of the album. Given that lyrically the record dealt with mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family, we felt that a light spot was needed. In retrospect, the consensus among the band is that this might be a little too lightweight."
According to Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger, R.E.M.'s achievement on Automatic for the People "was to wear their craft on their sleeve, making everything Michael Stipe sang sound both homespun and hard-won – a distillate of a decade making music and a lifetime hearing it."
Track listing
Original release
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe
Side one – "Drive side"
- "Drive" – 4:31
- "Try Not to Breathe" – 3:50
- "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" – 4:06
- "Everybody Hurts" – 5:17
- "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" – 2:13
- "Sweetness Follows" – 4:19
Side two – "Ride side"
- "Monty Got a Raw Deal" – 3:17
- "Ignoreland" – 4:24
- "Star Me Kitten" – 3:15
- "Man on the Moon" – 5:13
- "Nightswimming" – 4:16
- "Find the River" – 3:50
Note
- "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" contains an interpolation of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
Personnel
Sources:
R.E.M.
- Bill Berry – drums, percussion, backing vocals, electric piano on "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1"
- Peter Buck – electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, dulcimer on "Try Not to Breathe", bouzouki on "Monty Got a Raw Deal"
- Mike Mills – bass guitar, backing vocals, organ, accordion, piano, double bass on "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1", fuzz bass on "Ignoreland", acoustic guitar on "Find the River"
- Michael Stipe – lead vocals
Additional musicians
- Scott Litt – harmonica and clavinet on "Ignoreland"
- Knox Chandler – cello on "Sweetness Follows" and "Monty Got A Raw Deal"
- Deborah Workman – oboe on "Nightswimming"
String section on "Drive", "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite", "Everybody Hurts", and "Nightswimming"
- John Paul Jones – orchestral arrangements
- George Hanson – conductor
- Denise Berginson-Smith, Lonnie Ottzen, Patti Gouvas, Sandy Salzinger, Sou-Chun Su, Jody Taylor – violin
- Kathleen Kee, Daniel Laufer, Elizabeth Proctor Murphy – cello
- Reid Harris, Paul Murphy, Heidi Nitchie – viola
Production
- Scott Litt – producer, mixing engineer
- R.E.M. – producers
- Clif Norrell – recording engineer, mixing engineer
- Stephen Marcussen – mastering engineer (Precision Mastering)
- Ed Brooks – second engineer (Seattle)
- George Cowan – second engineer (Bearsville)
- Adrian Hernandez – second assistant engineer (Hollywood)
- John Keane – recording engineer (Athens)
- Mark Howard – second engineer (New Orleans)
- Tod Lemkuhl – second engineer (Seattle)
- Ted Malia – second engineer (Atlanta)
- Andrew Roshberg – second engineer (Miami)
Artwork
- Anton Corbijn – photographs
- Tom Recchion – art direction, design
- Michael Stipe – art direction, design
- Fredrik Nilsen – back cover photos
- Cecil Juanarena – computer imaging
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
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! scope="col" | Chart (1992–95)
! scope="col" | Peak<br/>position
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! scope="row" | Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 27
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! scope="row" | Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)
|6
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! scope="col" | Chart (2000–01)
! scope="col" | Peak<br/>position
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! scope="col" | Chart (2017–21)
! scope="col" | Peak<br/>position
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Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1992)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 81
|-
! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 31
|-
! scope="row" | UK Albums (OCC)
| 18
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| 83
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1993)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Australian Albums (ARIA)
|22
|-
! scope="row" | Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| 11
|-
! scope="row" | Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)
| 26
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 17
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 5
|-
! scope="row"| Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
| 43
|-
! scope="row" | Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
|13
|-
!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)
| 2
|-
! scope="row" | US Billboard 200
| 27
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1994)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 70
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (2021)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row"| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)
| 194
|}
Decade-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! scope="col" | Chart (1990–99)
! scope="col" | Position
|-
! scope="row" | Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
| 42
|}