R.E.M. - Automatic for the People

I’ll make an admission that the internet will likely roast - I held a long, powerful dislike of REM for years. It’s undoubtedly been over ever since I listened to Out Of Time as an adult many years ago, but I still think back on that time with interest. Listening to this album made me think a little deeper about why I missed out on REM as a kid - and I think I have the answer.

I grew up with no internet, a desire for new music, and a $5 a week allowance. So I had to make judicious decisions about what music I bought. This led to a massive collection of greatest hits CD’s, including REM’s greatest hits, which I recently dug out of the closet as I thought about my relationship with the band more deeply.

I listened to every CD I owned on repeat. For the most part this led to an appreciation of the artists I chose - best-of CD’s often led to my enduring love for bands whose albums, while great, don’t appear on any best-album lists, like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Boston and the Marshall Tucker Band. Some of these bands, I’d argue, are almost better appreciated through greatest hits than their individual albums. Or at least, if you have a time or money constraint like I did, you’re not missing out on as much as you could be. 

The best of REM, however, had the opposite effect on me. You’ll note that the disc above has a few songs from Automatic For the People, which is widely considered one of the band’s best albums, but they’re in totally random order, with Man on the Moon and Nightswimming totally separated to the first and last songs on this compilation as if just for fun. Maybe there’s a designed flow to this greatest hits thingy, and maybe it’s just a collection in whatever order the producers thought would sell the most. 

Either way, this greatest hits album made me think I didn’t like REM very much. Their silly poppy songs were at the forefront, with zero context that their full albums would have provided. For example, I still can’t stand the song “Everybody Hurts” thanks to this CD. In a vacuum it sounded so inane and silly and cheesy - its sound was totally ruined to me because of endless listens to this CD. I can’t explain it further, honestly. It just didn’t sound good in this greatest hits context - remember, this was my first exposure to the band ever - and I think the format is to blame. It’s similar with “Man On The Moon” - you have to hear the band’s other songs to know how tongue in cheek the song is. “Stand” has a similar out-of-context feel on this disc that makes it frankly annoying. 

To my credit, I got over my misguided lack of enthusiasm for REM pretty quickly after actually digging into their discography as an adult. But man, I wish someone had told me back then just to buy their dang albums and skip this best-of nonsense.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - Automatic For the People is great, and is helping me recover from my greatest-hits-induced trauma.

Jams

• “Drive”

• “Try Not To Breathe”

Songs I can never listen to again thanks to Warner Bros Records:

• “Everybody Hurts”

From the roundup Jamwise #39 - Best of 1992, Pt. 1.