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,Robbins, Ira. "R.E.M." Pulse!. October 1992 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.Fletcher, p. 208 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.Fricke, David. "Living Up to Out of Time/Remote Control: Parts I and II". Melody Maker. October 3, 1992.
The musicians recorded the demos in their standard band configuration. According to Buck, the musicians recorded about 30 songs. Lead singer Michael Stipe was not present at these sessions; instead, the band gave him the finished demos at the start of 1992.Fletcher, p. 209 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".Fricke, David. "The Rolling Stone Interview: Michael Stipe". Rolling Stone. March5, 1992. Retrieved on March 12, 2009 In February, R.E.M. recorded another set of demos at Daniel Lanois's Kingsway Studios in New Orleans.Black, p.190
The group decided to create finished recordings with co-producer Scott Litt at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, starting on March 30.Black, p. 191 The band recorded overdubs in Miami and New York City. String arrangements were recorded in Atlanta.Buckley, p. 216 After recording sessions were completed in July, the album was mixed at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle. "The countermelody I sing on "Try Not to Breathe" is one of my favorites because everybody else left," Mills explained in 2023. "I'm in the studio and looking in the control room — I know there's something that's going to be good in this spot of the song. I try all these different things and I'm not finding it. And then I hit the right thing and I locked eyes with Scott McCaughey from 40 feet away. We just both knew that was the direction. It was very thrilling to have that moment." 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. Peter Buck took the lead in suggesting the new direction for the album. The album dealt with themes of loss and mourning inspired by "that sense of [...] turning 30", according to Buck. "The world that we'd been involved in had disappeared, the world of Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, all that had gone [...] We were just in a different place and that worked its way out musically and lyrically."Buckley, p. 218 "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. "Monty Got A Raw Deal" is a song inspired by the life of actor Montgomery Clift. The song is unique for featuring Peter Buck playing bouzouki.
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".
"It pretty much went according to plan," Litt reported. "Compared to Monster, it was a walk in the park. Out of Time had an orchestral arrangement—so, when we did Automatic, judging where Michael was going with the words, we wanted to scale it down and make it more intimate."Mojo #21, August 1995
"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
The album name refers to the motto of Athens, Georgia-based eatery Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods.Thompson, Jim. "Weaver D's deemed 'American Classic' by James Beard Foundation". OnlineAthens. April 18, 2007. Retrieved on March 17, 2009. 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 star photograph is placed over an embossed image, which is also included inside the album's booklet, distorted on a white background.
The interior jacket shows a two- to three-story circular platform that was the sign for the old Bon Aire Motel on the former Motel Row on Miami Beach. The Bon Aire and other motel row establishments have mostly been demolished for new high-rise condominiums.
The back cover features a photograph of an old building with the track listing written over at the same angle from which the building is viewed. Other photographs, taken by Anton Corbijn, feature the band members on a beach and in the ocean.
The compact disc release was originally issued in a jewel case with a translucent yellow CD tray, traded out with a then-standard opaque black tray on later pressings; the cassette shell was also issued with the same color. The yellow was made to match the color of the CD. The band would later use a similar method for their 1994 album Monster, which was released with a metallic orange CD tray on early copies (though this matched the album cover).
Release
Automatic for the People was released in October 1992. In the United States, the album reached No.2 on the Billboard 200 album charts."[ Automatic for the People > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums]". Allmusic. Retrieved on March12, 2009. The album reached No.1 in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Albums Chart on four separate occasions.Buckley, p. 230 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).Buckley, p.358 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.
A live, harder, version of "Drive" appears on the Alternative NRG, recorded at Athens' 40 Watt Club on November 19, 1992, during an invitation-only concert supporting Greenpeace Action. A re-recorded, slower version of "Star Me Kitten", featuring William S. Burroughs, was released on Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files in 1996.
The music videos from the album were included in the 1995 video release Parallel.
In 2005, Warner Bros. Records issued a two-disc edition of Automatic for the People which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by Elliot Scheiner, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes.
A 25th anniversary edition was released on November 10, 2017, by Craft Recordings, featuring four discs of live recordings, demos, and the album remixed in Dolby Atmos, making Automatic for the People the first music release on this format.
Critical reception and legacy