R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People came out in 1992 and remains a high point in their storied career. I seesaw between this album and Fables of the Reconstruction when filling the top spot on my ‘Favorite R.E.M. Albums’ list (something I’ve compiled on more than one occasion — here’s the latest).
I’ve chosen this song because, if you ask Alex, it is the album’s title song. Here’s a typical conversation:
Alex: Why don’t you play Drive.
Me: You mean Automatic for the People?
Alex: Yeah, Drive. That’s a good album.
Me: It’s called Automatic for the People.
Alex: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Could you just put Drive on?
And so on. She likes to mess with me. To be fair, I like to mess with her, too. Ask her sometime about Texas Toast or Al Roker.
Drive, er, Automatic for the People was on constant rotation in my room and car that summer and fall. I remember listening to ‘Ignoreland’ during the run-up to the election, where I cast my first presidential ballot for Bill Clinton (Alex and I had Clinton-Gore bumper stickers, too). I remember listening to ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite’ with my parents and everybody offering up their own interpratation of the chorus… “Call me when you wanna wake me up!” My mom’s was my favorite… “I think he’s saying ‘Call me in Jamaica’.” And I remember thinking ‘Nightswimming’ was about the prettiest thing ever put on a record. Still do.
Meet Me In Montauk 
I still do, too. As Dana revealed in a comment on an earlier blog, I wore even deeper grooves into my R.E.M albums my freshman and sophomore years of college, which was when I was first introduced to the band that would become one of my all-time favorites. For me, R.E.M. (and the two albums that I particularly love – Fables of the Reconstruction and Life’s Rich Pageant) will always be synonomous with college. Automatic for the People is a great album, as well, especially Nightswimming, which is a haunting and beautiful song, but I’m still a Fables girl.
As you’ll see on the list I linked up above, I’m a Fables girl (er, boy) too.
I love both albums, but give Automatic the edge–to me, it was the pinnacle of REM’s recording career, and, quite honestly, I don’t think they have put together a CD as great since. Admittedly, it scores major points with me because it is their most lush and produced album–with a more significant emphasis on melody and vocals over rhythm and guitars. I suspect Fables might rank higher with Clay and Amy because it was more of a “first love,” though a great love for sure.
So let’s hear the stories of Roker and Texas Toast.
I agree that Automatic was R.E.M.’s peak. Yes, they have put out some great music since then, but nothing that hit on every cylinder the way that one does.
The ‘first love’ theory is a good one, probably worthy of its own blog post at some point.