Automatic For The People

I unashamedly love this album. A lot of folks point to Document as R.E.M.'s best album but I would argue that it was simply the album that brought them into the mainstream spotlight. THIS is the best R.E.M. album. The songwriting, production, and performances are all on point. Sharp, emotional, layered and complex, it's just a damn good album from every angle. Even on the slow jams, there's an ENERGY that pulses behind the music that is just compelling. Back when I was doing critical listening as part of my degree, this was one of our reference albums—basically, an album that was SO well recorded and mixed that you could listen to it on super high-end audiophile equipment and pick it apart to understand what was going on.

"Find The River" is a song I want to be played at my funeral. And that's probably because "Try Not To Breathe" would be considered in bad taste by some (they'd be wrong, by the way). Although my close friends would understand and appreciate if I requested "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" instead. For my money, "Find The River" is the definitive album closer. Especially for THIS album, with themes like mortality, suicide, aging, and Andy Kaufman. This is one of those albums that shaped me and got me through a few turbulent moments. I know every song like I do scenes from a favorite movie I've seen multiple times. It's Stipe, Berry, Buck and Mills at the peak of their powers. "Drive" is something of a response to the David Essex classic "Rock On" with incredible string arrangements by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones of all people. "Sidewinder" is a similar riff on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight. One of the most known songs," Everybody Hurts" is REM's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and destined to be covered endlessly for generations to come. Stipe's moments of clarity and levity flow together seamlessly. The Mike Mills backup vocals standout even more than usual here, again underlying REM's secret weapon. This is one of those Desert Island albums. It's timeless. But it can still take me back to the Fall of 1992, the spring of 1998, or most of 2017. And it's far and away my favorite album of the 117 I've listened to so far on this list.

more like automatic five the people

Not my cup of tea completely but happy to drink it anyway

One of the best albums, all-time. And best closing 3 songs ever. Sweetness Follows is underrated.

Drive is such a great track on this record. The strings add a lot to the feel of melancholy and sadness. One of my favorite REM albums.

R.E.M.'s best, imho, and a formative album for me. My father had it and I hadn't listened to them before. Going thru his collection, I pulled it out while looking for something else (probably Pink Floyd or Van Halen or Depeche Mode (which, boy, that was a weird group for a conservative cop to listen to or Roger Water's solo stuff, you get the idea) and he told me I could have it. It was this album and, oddly enough, Chris Isaak's Heart Shaped World. I asked my dad why he didn't want it and he said it was "faggoty shit". Now, at this point, I was young and still only vaguely aware that my orientation might be different than my peers. Well I took it, only vaguely guessing as to what Faggoty Shit could refer to when he never made the same gestures at Elton John (who my mother loved). What I think he meant by that was 'sensitive'. Automatic For The People is a remarkably empathetic, deeply personal feeling album that doesn't get buried in itself and instead decides to thread those personal anxieties, loves and thoughts through a warm and lived in sonic space. Nostalgia, politics, mortality, romance and sexuality all mesh together in a sweet sort of late summer dusk-to-autumn cycle of Queer Americana. As time would go one, I'd deeply appreciate how much I see myself in this record. The popculture-to-political focus of Man on the Moon. The intimacy, excitement and rush of Night Swimming. The strokes to find yourself in bigger pictures with haunted melancholic undertones of Find The River and Sweetness Follows. The interpersonal spaces of impossible to ignore politics by the way of Ignoreland. It's a chronicle. It's tragic and beautiful. But sonically it's tight. A refinement of ideas explored in early R.E.M. records and represents a culmination of their sound before they'd experiment further. This is their best album. But that's what I love about R.E.M., their best is still equally good as other albums which could call their best (Document, Murmur, Reackoning, Monster, Hi-Fi, you could make a case for any of these).

Boring!

One of my favorite albums of all time. I somehow love it more each time I listen to it. Maybe not the most representative of R.E.M. as a whole, but goddamn, what a gorgeous emotional piece of work.

I was already a giant R.E.M. fan when this came out... and this is clearly one of their best. A spectacular album.

quality + nostalgia = 5 stars

Wow, did not expect this but this is a masterpiece.

The sound of my youth. Almost perfect album.

Best album by one of the all time best bands.

Classic roots rock. It sounds big, it really takes up space. And Michael Stipe has such an iconic voice. “I’m not scared, I’m out of here” is a great closing line for an album that spanned so far

I already know it, I already loved it. This was part of the soundtrack of my early 20s, that weird hectic messy growing-pains time where I was newly graduated from college and heady with possibility - and giddy with relief that the Cold War had ended and I was NOT going to blow up at any moment without warning; but that just paved the way for finally looking at all the OTHER ills of the world and wanting to do something about them. Of course I was doing so under the shadow of a whole horde of media looking at us and wondering "goodness what is Generation X going to do and what are they all about," and meanwhile the Boomers were hanging on to their own jobs and positions of power and not letting us actually do anything to explore what we COULD do or find what we WERE all about. But a lot of us tried where we could in small ways. Oh, and "Ignoreland" is still my favorite condemnation of the Reagan/Bush years. "TV tells a million lies, the paper's terrified to report anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon, I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this, so fuck you, man...."

This album sounds huge. The strings and acoustic guitars are lush and warm, the electric guitars scream, the drums pop like they're in a cave and everything else (keys, organ/synths, horns) is produced incredibly. Coupled with the vocals, this album is a soundtrack to a revelation

Forgot how amazing this was. Certified BANGER.

in my top 20 of all time

A work of genius and after 30 years I still listen to it regularly. My favourite track has changed several times over the years. Starting with Nightswimming, then moving on to Everybody Hurts (once described by Peter Buck as an example of Michael Stipe "polishing a turd") but lately it's been the amazing and still prescient Ignoreland. And John Paul Jones arranged the strings. This is up there with Graceland and Led Zep II (of what we've heard so far) with a serious claim to be in the top 10 of best albums ever recorded.

For an embarrassingly long time, I thought I didn't like R.E.M. because Losing My Religion sucks. I was right about that song, but I've seen the error of my ways when it comes to the band. This album was a huge part of that. There's something to like about nearly every track. It's just a bunch of thoughtful, well executed jams. Best track: Man on the Moon

Love this album!

Hi: Drive, Monty Got A Raw Deal, Ignoreland, Star Me Kitten Lo: NONE Thanks for eating my review, generator! Anyways, this is an important album, one of the best from '92 (a year that birthed ton of excellent music) and almost 30 years later still holds up. If you don't love this album, you're an idiot.

The album that saw REM confirm their place as global megastars. An album packed full of melancholy and beauty.

This is my favorite REM album. The lyrics, the acoustics, and Stipes' voice just speaks directly to my soul. It has a very special place in my heart.

Awesome

Why no 6 star option. Clearly one of the all time greatest albums.

Classic!

Love this album ❤️

Loved it, best album we've listened to

One of the best of all time. Mix of styles, pacing, and just all round greatness.

Pretty much exactly what I expected, which isn't a bad thing.

Just perfect in almost every way.

Incredible- correlation between the America we are living in currently, my dad loves this band and I think I finally do too

So good, the highs are extremely high, and the lows are fairly high too, to be honest.

Being the first R.E.M album Ive listened to, seems like a high mark to me. Everyone hurts and Man on the moon! Being their eighth album im not entirely sure where that lands in their discography but it was a great standalone album.

That’s me in the corner, thats’s me in the spot-light…trying to figure out why I love one era of REM, but loathe another.

Boring

What a fuckin classic… Michael stipe ruminating on all his sad boi feelings Top 3 songs: man on the moon, nightswimming, everybody hurts

Incredicle

The closing 1-2-3 of Man on the Moon, Nightswimming and Find the River are unmatched

REM sells out and we all benefit.

One of my favorite albums of all-time. I bought this album on tape (a yellow transparent tape) and absolutely wore it out. There's nothing that I dislike about this album, even the instrumental. The first four songs and last three songs are classics and help make this album as great at it is. I was one of the people who was waiting for the REM rock album, but through this life-changing album I got the REM I really needed. The ruminations on loss, death, Dr. Suess (haha) and one angry screed about politics that has many of my favorite lines in it. What I love most about this album is the ruminations on death & loss are not trite and even the fast songs are tinged with a sense of longing and the feel of aging. I don't like dreary albums as a whole, but this album is an exception. It should drag, but it doesn't. I thought I would feel as exhausted as Stipe sounds on "Sweetness Follows," but I feel energized by each song (even Star Me Kitten). I saw on Wikipedia there is criticism from the band and the public regarding some of the recording and vocals, but for me the lack of perfection only serves to reinforce why I like it.

Takes me back to playing roller coaster tycoon

What a great album! Up until now, I have only really listened to R.E.M when it appears in a party playlist. I think it's a much better listening experience in album form, i.e. not such a mood killer. This album is going on the replay list. 5/5

Great songs

Everybody Hurts

I’d never describe myself as an R.E.M fan but this album is undeniable. Classic track after classic track, I don’t really see how anyone could give this less than 5

Probably REM's best album (and that's saying a lot, given the "competition"). Made even better through John Paul Jones' arrangements on some of the songs, which renders them pure magic.

Probably the pinnacle of their production. R.E.M. don't get better than this record, for me.

awesome love it

Seminal album for me.

Love this album! Poignant lyrics, endearing ennui, wistful storytelling.

Nightswimming, The River, Man On The Moon, EVERYBODY HURTS. What a list of tracks! R.E.M is just one of those artists that can get you feeling every type of emotion throughout their music, and it's a beautiful thing because so. Incredible vocals of the 80s/ 90s.

Doesn't get much better than that!

Clásico.

Easy 5. Even the non singles are ace. Monty got a raw deal...

Loved it, played it multiple tomes

R.E.M. is an incredible band and this might be my favorite album of theirs. I'm usually quite reluctant to apply labels like "favorite" or "best," or to rank an artist's or group's output, so I use "favorite" here in lower-case letters or parenthetically, mostly to indicate how I gravitate towards it. I don't want to diminish my affection for their other work. All that being said, there's a depth and texture to this album that makes it stand out for me in R.E.M.'s impressive catalog. It's odd to say this, but I actually believe this band is underrated, as are the four individual members as musicians and songwriters. I am particularly fond of Peter Buck (my view: because he didn't rip massive solos, even though he was more than capable of it, he is not talked about as much as other rock/pop/alt guitarists, but he's fantastic) and Mike Mills (quiet and cerebral, so not a limelight guy, he's an amazing bassist, pianist, singer, and writer). What I learned from the Wiki entry that's linked to this album is the John Paul Jones (yes, as in Led Zeppelin's JPJ) contributed string arrangements to four tracks on this album. That is super-cool (JPJ is another way, way underrated musician).

Phenomenal.

The second repeat! Much more welcome than Kate Bush. Going from R.E.M.'s debut to their 8th album is a huge jump. The band is more confident, more powerul, and more in the groove. This album has a bunch of hits on it, and the non-hit tracks still slap. Very, very enjoyable. Hung out for a while listening to live cuts and demos. I'm not sure if this deserves a straight 5, but it's miles ahead of Murmer, which I gave a 4.

Fourth R.E.M. album that's come up on this thing, which seems like too many. Regardless, this was good, a lot less rocking and more of a crawling deliberate record with some great standout songs.

I hated out of time and put off listening to REM for a long time after that. Shiny Happy People being possibly the worst song ever written. This album is a different beast entirely.

Michael Stipe has an iconic voice. I really like it, though sometimes I find he becomes a bit of an American Morrissey, just warbling and rambling out of time on certain tracks. 'Ignoreland' and 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' is where it's most prominent, though both tracks are among the best on the album. 'Everybody Hurts' is still amazing. A bittersweet sound which is prominent on most of the album but nowhere moreso than on this track. I like the more happy sounding songs too, a fun jangly pop sound. I enjoyed this a lot, but there was something missing. Just that extra piece of the puzzle that would have made it incredible, but I'm not sure what that is.

this is probably the album that convinced christina to go to school in athens. thanks REM!

OK, but needs a bit more jingle and a lot more jangle.

Automatic for the people was actually a really solid album. The songs here definitely left quite the impression on me especially the last few songs which could be legitimate tearjerkers at times. The sound of this album isn't really anything too special, different or unique but for what it does sound like, it manages to sound pretty good. The songs here were a bit similar sounding to each other but i didn't find that a huge issue since the style was all still good. This album is one that doesn't break new grounds but still manages to be a solid listen. Best Song: The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite Worst Song: Sweetness Follows

As with Garbage, I realised that actually I know this album quite well, even though I probably wouldn’t have known it. I just can’t get past Stipe’s voice. I hate it. It’s like broken glass. It’s just grindy and annoying and urgh. I suspect the songs might be ok - but I just can’t get past the vocal.

Man, I am NOT an R.E.M. fan, so I'll get through this one, I guess... My old roommate's dad was in a bunch of Savannah bands back in the 70's and 80's, and he used to tell us that his band played in Athens one time, and they had to open for some shitty house band named REM. I guess they aren't so shitty, because they've sold a ton of albums. Good for them. Maybe Jeff's dad was just jealous. It just isn't for me. I'm actually upset, because now the Spotify algorithm will try and infuse this into my recommendations... There is a nostalgia to some of these tunes. I watched MTV a lot back when this came out, so I was inundated with the "hits." If I had to pick, I like the album before this one, and I like Orange Crush off of their 88 album Green. Favorite song on here, Man on the Moon.

This one starts off a little slow and stays that way for really the whole album. It's not bad, just not what I would expect I guess. I also think it sounds a little thin, guitars in particular, but I feel like thin sounding guitars are kind of an R.E.M. signature. That's one of the problems I've always had with R.E.M. - I always feel like they need to fill out the sound spectrum a little. I felt myself kind of drifting out of attention throughout this whole record. Does that make it background music? I hate to use the word 'boring' but it kind of was. I was excited when this record came up for the day but left a little disappointed. There are certainly songs I like on this record, Everyboy Hurts, Drive, Monty Got A Raw Deal, Man On The Moon. But I wouldn't play this whole album again. 2.5 stars

Overall, a fairly boring album. Nothing about the song composition anywhere in this album is notable. The saving grace for this album (and band) is Michael Stipe's voice which is unique and memorable. I had heard "Everybody Hurts" and "Man on the Moon" before. None of the songs were notable. "Ignoreland" is a predictable, dull, angsty uninformed rant against Republicans, which is just so classically predictable for musicians and out of touch celebrities. This album isn't difficult to listen to necessarily. It's not Queen Latifah levels of bad. It's just dull and predictable.

Fine music, but I don't really vibe with it. I think it's a little too mellowed out, and flat. It doesn't really do it for me.

I hate REM

I truly dislike everything about REM. Couldn’t finish.

R.E.M. at their peak. After "Out Of Time" a back-to-back masterpiece.

Ein großartiges Album. Für mich das Beste von REM. 5/5

Fantastic album. Everybody hurts and Night swimming are 5 stars on their own.

While I've long considered myself a fan of R.E.M., it's only just now occured to me how little of them I've actually heard. Before starting this list, it really boiled down to just DOCUMENT, a few spare singles, and Weird Al's pastiche of the group. And even after starting on this journey, my experience with them had only just evolved to "I'd heard their debut a couple of times." I wouldn't say I was lying in calling myself a fan, but surely that would imply I've dived a bit deeper into them than I have, right? I hadn't even heard today's album besides "Everybody Hurts" as a needle drop in ZOOTOPIA. So I finally come to AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, which is apparently considered the best album R.E.M. has ever done. Consider, on the 2020 ROLLING STONE 500 list, this album jumped 163 spots from 259 to 96, surpassing MURMUR as the highest-rated R.E.M. album on the list. Meanwhile, DOCUMENT went from 462 to not being on the list at all. I gotta wonder, what is it about this album that gets people hyping it up like this? A brief search told me it was because this is R.E.M.'s "serious album." largely about nostalgia, mortality and grief. Heck, it's largely made up of ballads, with only three songs that could be considered "rockers." And on its face, before listening to this album, I won't lie, there'd be something that'd bother me about that. As if being "big serious" is automatically the key to being considered "THE GREATEST EVER," while something like DOCUMENT gets dismissed for being a little lighter. It's a bit of a petulant reaction, I'll admit, but it's not coming from nowhere. I suppose I do have an issue with "intelligent types" who'll tell you that serious ballads pondering mortality are better than... Well, if not "joyful" music, then music that isn't such a "downer," to use a word like that. I suppose my problem is really just that I don't have much of a place for music like this, and that there's still this reactionary part of me that reacts to disagreements like this with hostility rather than genuine engagement. Despite how much time I've spent on this just now, I don't wanna act like I'm **that** bothered by this, but again, it's something that's been on my mind. Getting back on topic, though, to the point that I don't have a place for music like this... OK, I need one more digression, then I'll talk directly about the album itself, I promise. See, I recently had a revelation about myself and music. I tend to latch on to songs way better if there's some kind of overarching story I can connect them to. It's why I like rock operas and narrative concept albums as much as I do, and why I like jukebox musicals in spite of their many faults. This album was the first where I tried listening to the songs as if they were scenes in a story — multiple stories, if not just one — and listening to the lyrics and understanding them in that light... Y'know, this won't replace DOCUMENT as my favorite R.E.M. album. It's generally more the kind of music I prefer, and, well, I've put too much time into it to just switch up like that. But in the conversation about what R.E.M.'s best album is... Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I can disagree. I'll tell you what it reminds me of: THE SOFT BULLETIN by The Flaming Lips, another album on this list, and another album (arguably serious) largely about mortality. I have a term I use to describe that album, and I'd use it to describe this one as well: "beautiful melancholy." I wouldn't say either of them are happy albums — far from it. You don't have songs like "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" and "Try Not To Breathe" and get to call yourself happy. But at the same time, they're not downers, or even all **that** sad. They strike a balance like... Like it's a winter night, and you're watching snow fall in the light of a streetlamp. That's the imagery. It's acknowledging the hardest parts of life, but still finding some beauty despite it all. It's not about wallowing about the end; it's about being empathetic about it. "It's happening, and it **will** happen, eventually and it's OK to be sad about it. But you have to keep going." That's my read on things, anyway. "Everybody hurts sometimes — so hold on. You're not alone." (And I also wanna shout out "Ignoreland", too. Way too precinct here in 2025, goodness... And I hafta appreciate a song that tells me that, yeah, vitriol by itself won't solve anything, but damn it, it just feels good to **scream** sometimes.) And that's all fine about the lyrics, but I'm still a "melody first" person, and even in that regard, "beautiful melancholy" would still apply. It's a gorgeous album — not as much as THE SOFT BULLETIN, I don't think, but still. All the props to John Paul Jones (yes, from Led Zeppelin) for the string arrangements. And it's like, even though this album is largely composed of ballads, it's not as much of a boring slog as that would imply? There's still an energy behind them that keeps things going. And also, I was reminded pretty often of the serious songs from the Barenaked Ladies album GORDON, and that's a huge compliment in my book, believe me. I think you can safely call me a stronger R.E.M. fan after this. Now that I have a stronger handle on the empathy and emotion they're capable of... Well, jeez, I should go back and listen to DOCUMENT under this light. And MURMUR, for that matter. Jus'... It's a lovely record, and I'm glad I took the time to understand it and what it's about. And anyway, it's nice to have a thought about "Everybody Hurts" beyond its status as a joke "sad needle drop." Maybe if I were Judy Hopps I'd've kept listening, I'unno...

A more folksy-focused album, but still brimming with that R.E.M. mystique that the group is known for. Solid 5 Stars.

I’m at a 10. I’m also slightly emotionally exhausted. There’s something to be said about the brilliance of this album, and the ways in which it so earnestly portrays grief & pain, while still using it as a stepping stone to inevitable happiness, framed via the frustrations of a generation & shadowed by the plight of the Reagan years. If Nirvana’s “Nevermind” was the grungy anthem for Gen Xers pissed off at the world, this album is its more somber counterpart, made for those who really just needed someone to tell them it would all be OK. Honestly, you could write essays about this album and there would still be things left uncovered. However, flowery language fails me here. I really don’t have that historical soliloquy in me. At most, I can praise this album for everything it does right, because I don’t think it does a single thing wrong. Instrumentally, I love the shift to a more grunge-influenced soundscape, clearly influenced by the impact of Nirvana, yet still so recognizably being R.E.M. on all of these tracks. I think Michael Stipe’s vocals are as stellar as ever, & the slight anger that underlines a lot of these tracks is enhanced by some of the shakier tones in his voice. As far as the songwriting goes… I just can’t believe these are the same guys who wrote a bunch of vague nonsense on “Murmur”, you know? Don’t get me wrong, “Murmur” is a great album, but the lyrics there always nagged at me. “Document” does a better job than “Murmur”, but there’s still a few on that album that bite at me too. This one, though? Fucking hell. Just a bombshell lineup of well-written tracks. It’s the best stuff they’ve written so far, by far, at least for my tastes. Even when it feels sort of cheesy, like on “Everybody Hurts”, which has been overplayed to death (& perhaps ruined by Vine), there’s something in how earnest it all comes across that keeps each track grounded. Believe me, I’d love to go even deeper into how much I enjoyed this, but I’m already just drained. I’ll end on this note: apparently, this is the album Kurt Cobain was listening to when he committed suicide in 1994. Whether or not that’s real, or just urban myth, I’m not entirely sure; lots of conflicting sources on that. Either way, Michael Stipe’s relationship to Kurt is well-documented in its own right, and Kurt’s on record as saying this album’s tone is the direction he would’ve wanted to take Nirvana in. In that sense, iron sharpened iron here in a remarkable way. I really, truly loved this. It is one of the best albums we’ve gotten in this experience, and it’s an absolute 10. Just a stellar, stellar work of art.

Great album - fab nostalgic tuneful songs :))

I’m 43 - on the Xenniel cusp. My sister is 11 years older than I am. A true Gen-Xer. I don’t know if I would have been as into R.E.M. if it hadn’t been for her. And yet, we think of different points in time as the band’s peak era. And with that, we each have a different sense of what their definitive album is. For me, it’s this one. And I love the I.R.S. records - really most of their catalogue. There’s hardly an album until New Adventures that I wouldn’t give five stars. But for me, this is top of the heap.

Wow - simply wow. What a gem - and what a time since I last had a listen at this masterpiece.

Very emotionally moving album

4.5

I really enjoyed this album and it was one of the first I've listened to in this project where I felt that I would listen to it again myself.

REM has released a row of 5-star albums in the 80s and early 90s and Automatic for the People is probably the most well known gems in their catalogue. It is a fantastically arranged and produced album, the music is grand and lush, accompanied by Stipe's distinctive voice. It may not be the most classic sounding REM album but songs like Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon and the closing Nightswimming it is certainly one of the best albums they made - and one of the best albums in the 90s.

More of the REM I remember, but man, I really loved this. I don't know what it is but the music feels so comforting

Every song is amazing. Bought back teenage memories, somehow knew most of the words

I'm unable to disconnect this album from my freshman year of college. I will always think of my dorm room when I hear Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight. The entire album is so perfectly chill. I can't not give it 5 stars.

I pretty much love all of REM’s albums since first hearing their Document album (and then working back) but Automatic For The People is the pinnacle of their output in my opinion. Drive, Man on the Moon and Nightswimmimg are particular favourites, but Ignoreland is up there too.

absolute classic for a goddamn reason

Top of form here for R.E.M., everything is firing on all cylinders. Both Style and Substance, Hook and Groove. The entire album is filled with hits that are easily accessible and achingly beautiful. And so many have found their way in to the American musical background. Jon Stewart did a parody of the Everybody Hurts video on his MTV show in the early 90s that was hilarious and I wish I could find it again. I only wish they had used the version of Star Me Kitten that they did with William Burroughs singing(featured on the X-Files Songs in the Key of X album)

I already got this album.

This was my favorite REM album and since that time I have gone back and listened sooo many times over the years. Definitely one of my top 5 albums of all time

Excellent album. Beautiful with an aura of sadness. This is an album you should hear (more than once) before you die.

By 1992, R.E.M. were in an unusually enviable yet daunting position. As darlings of the Athens 80s indie wave, they had grown with the steps they were making, peak by mountainous peak; so that when they felt out of time with the trends, the music world was actually aligned with them. Automatic for the People portrays the band as both spokesmen and survivors, crafting exquisite yet weary songs that are amongst the most emotional in their catalog. R.E.M. have made several great albums but this is their absolute masterpiece.

Classic album that hits every note and each song is its own story.

Love it, love REM

one of the greatest of all time