Had this song stuck in my head on Tuesday morning. Odd, because I learned that the man responsible for writing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” George David Weiss, had died the night before.
As I thought about it, I looked up Matt Perpetua’s exhaustive Pop Songs ’07-’08 and found this entry for the song. So maybe that’s not the most illuminating piece ever written about an R.E.M. song, but it reminded me that Automatic for the People was such a downer of a record.
I know I’ve said it before elsewhere, but I can’t even try to listen to this absolute pill of a record anymore. Maybe it puts me back in a weird spot, remembering all the awkward moments it soundtracked while I was a gawky teen, but it’s so one note that even tracks like “Sidewinder” and “Ignoreland” can’t shake me from my sleep. Going back to that place is one weird trip, let me tell you.
This album is to me what I think an album like Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road would be just six years later: a solid adult contemporary record that lulled people into a false sense of sophistication. (How I avoided buying that Williams record I may never know.) As much as I used to think Automatic was a profound meditation on death, I realize today that that had everything to do with me knowing nothing about the subject matter. It’s the muzak disc Stipe cursed the Beatles for making. How he can even sing “Everybody Hurts” with a straight face at this point in his career is beyond me.
Oh come on, Automatic for the People?!–I won’t go and say something is flawless again, but that is a flat out great record with song after song of gut-kicking simplicity. Everybody Hurts is among their best guilty pleasures. What’s with this revisionist history streak running through your music posts?
However, I will never quite understand the wide appeal of Lucinda Williams. I bought Car Wheels when I was nineteen (at the same time as Yo La Tengo’s Painful weirdly enough) back when I used to buy the 10 best Rolling Stone critics picks for the year. Although I liked some of the songs (i.e., drunken angel) I couldn’t have had less of an emotional connection to it. Not a record for the young. But it’s gotten to the point where I just cringe when I hear them now.
I’m all for revisionist history when it comes to music criticism. It’s hard
not to cringe at some of the stuff that outlets like the Voice canonized in
Pazz ‘n’ Jop sometimes. Remember Quad City DJs?
Here’s the thing about Automatic: “Everybody Hurts” isn’t a guilty pleasure
for anyone. That song is so earnest and maudlin it pains me to hear it. I
will admit a fondness for Side 2, but I just don’t hear “Nightswimming” in
the way I once did. My favorites now are “Star Me Kitten,” “Ignoreland” and
“Monty Got a Raw Deal.”
Not for nothing, Colin, but why do you comment as mufffin?
Ahhh, I’ve been exposed!
Do you not understand how comment moderation software works? All the same,
thanks for commenting. Seriously, this is good stuff.
I just think negative revisionism often either attacks genuinely great records or hauls out shit people already realized wasn’t so good. Like is it really productive to keep trying to find ways to assail the Beatles or to remind people those last couple U2 albums were actually terrible. Time is the perfect editor. Conversely, I really like it when forgotten/never known albums are re-examined and that sort of thing.
I think that “forgotten” albums can be somewhat misleading, which I’m
starting to see now with the waves of ’90s nostalgia crashing on these
shores. I feel like I’m staring into the used bin at Repo Records sometimes.
It’s easy to lionize things people generally ignored. It’s a good proxy for
sophistication.
As far as this bit about R.E.M. goes, I’d say that it has less to do with
tearing them down entirely as it does with me ruminating on the music I
genuinely loved as an adolescent. This is an album that got me through the
better part of high school, yet I can’t bear to listen to it now. One of
those can’t go home again kind of things.
Lastly, I’d contend that those U2 albums that I thought I hated ca. 2000 now
sound pretty good when compared to the pretentious new material. Rhyme “pie“
with “sky” all you want, Bono! End this Kings of Leon nonsense once and for
all!
Jeez…I’m not even that big an R.E.M fan. Look at what you have me doing! Yeah, I’ve been wondering when the 90s were gonna come back. I’ve been wearing a tribal print t‑shirt in expectation (seriously). They’re back now?
I can totally get into ruminating on albums from adolscence that are now unlistenable–maybe I was misreading your intentions. There’s definitely no reason for me to ever listen to Siamese Dream again for instance, no matter how much it made 8th grade bearable. At the same time, there are a couple albums that I loved in middle/high school that have only become more resonant. In particular, when I listen to Automatic these days I’m struck by this phenomenon. In Utero is another. What are some for you?
Also, isn’t that the definition of music blogging sophistication–exposing a lot of people to things they don’t already know? The newer the better, the older the better. It is true tho that people will completely lap up rediscovered old albums out of hand.
Apropos of underappreciated music getting a second hearing, check out Toby’s post on the aforementioned Spinanes http://www.yourbestguess.com/scowl/2010/08/26/welcome-returns/
Turns out they’re not reuniting, but rather venturing out on their own. I really wish that Girls Against Boys would get together again. That ATP Don’t Look Back concert was such a tease!
Late nineties came back first, with the reunions of No Doubt and Creed, but now we’re seeing everybody reunite. I just read that the Spinanes will be getting back together for a tour. It’s like looking into the used bin at your favorite record store ca. ’95, when there was just an explosion of bands with names bad enough for you to ignore. Funny how having to pay for music shaped my tastes to the extent that I simply didn’t hear stuff that didn’t scream out for me to buy it. Guess I should listen to the Spinanes now, huh?
wow, they really are back. are you some kind of wizard?
http://pitchfork.com/news/39896-presenting-the-top-200-tracks-of-the-1990s/
Work in this industry long enough and you start to identify trends before
they reach full flower.