We're Not Who You Think We Are
Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992
. . .
File Under Ocean
“Find The River” just might be my favorite R.E.M. song.
At the very least, it’s on the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, R.E.M. Division.
That said, unlike the two titans that immediately precede it on the album, I don’t have all of the words memorized, instead, I just really love “Find The River” as an incredibly beautiful piece of music.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1739: R.E.M. – “Find The River”
Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992
. . .
File Under Recklessness
The final three songs on Automatic For The People — “Man on the Moon,” “Nightswimming,” and “Find The River” — represent if not the the peak of R.E.M.’s music, then for sure a peak of their music: a trio of pretty and poignant songs that would have never occurred to the band at any previous point in their existence.
Or any other band, for that matter. That was one of the joys of Automatic For The People: just how out of step, how out of time it felt in the autumn of 1992. After this, every R.E.M. album felt like a reaction to something: their stardom, their drummer, their sophistication, their break-up.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1738: R.E.M. – “Nightswimming”
Album: Automatic For the People
Year: 1992
. . .
File Under Sweetness
I guess the most surprising thing about “Sweetness Follows” is how long it took R.E.M. to write a song that sounded like “Sweetness Follows,” which sounds a lot like Big Star’s Third as filtered through Murmur.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1736: R.E.M. – “Sweetness Follows”
Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992
. . .
File Under Sometimes
R.E.M. may have written a more straightforward and sincere song in the R.E.M. but outside of possibly “World Leader Pretend,” I can’t think of one that has fewer levels of irony or metaphor than “Everybody Hurts.” It’s all right there on the page: everybody hurts, sometimes. So hold on.
Which, of course, in the irony-drenched early 1990s, might have a bit of a hard sell, but with its slow-burn to big build Stax arrangement and utter sincerity, “Everybody Hurts” kinda cut through, which is probably why there wasn’t as much of a backlash to it as what Space Ghost called “that shiny shiny people song.”
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1735: R.E.M. – “Everybody Hurts”
Album: Automatic For The People
Year: 1992
. . .
File Under Bushwhacked
It happens to just about everybody, with the exception of Neil Young, Robert Pollard and Prince: there comes a time when you just can’t crank out an album per year, especially if you’re successful. For one thing, success often means long tours, which are anathema to both writing and recording.
So after cranking out six albums in six consecutive years, R.E.M. took some time off between Green and Out of Time, and I figured that it was pretty much the end of yearly R.E.M. albums. And, in fact, that was kinda how the culture started trending in the late 80s / early 1990s: nobody was doing yearly albums anymore. Thanks a lot, Boston!