Automatic for the People is probably my favorite REM album, it has such a consistent and beautiful mood, Stipe’s heady yet strangely uplifting ruminations on life and death, really interesting sonic textures in stuff like “Star Me Kitten” and “Sweetness Follows,” some of their best and prettiest tracks (“Man on the Moon” rules and it’s my favorite REM song and their best song, fight me), deservedly their best selling and most critically acclaimed album in a career that’s full of all-time bangers
And then there’s this goddamn horseshit
Guess it wouldn’t be an REM album without a well-intentioned yet clunky political song but, eesh. i don’t even hate it in isolation, really, it’s just such a mood-killer on the album proper and sounds so dated