Free Download for the People

With the Murmur reissue still holding fort in my cd player and the Reckoning reissue just around the corner the appearance of this most excellent tribute made my morning a whole lot brighter. Such a pivotal recording in my canon of important releases, R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People is not your typical troubled teenager. It remains a wonder to me and this tribute a more than worthy musical companion. From the great folks at Stereogum I highly recommend the full download here.

The following is an excerpt from an essay written for Stereogum by Matthew Perpetua, founder of Fluxblog and more recently Pop Songs 07, for which the goal is to "write about every R.E.M. song, eventually." Matthew was invited to put R.E.M.'s seminal '92 LP in perspective as the Drive XV tribute was finalized.

Sweetness Followed: 15 Years After Automatic

By Matthew Perpetua, September 2007

Even though we know that Automatic For The People came out fifteen years ago, and we can clearly recall purchasing the neon yellow cassette back in the fall of 1992, it's increasingly difficult to hear the album without imagining that its songs have somehow always existed in the world. Unlike most other celebrated, canonized records from the early '90s, R.E.M.'s eighth album stands separate from the prevailing cultural trends of the era. Whereas most other rock bands at the time either embraced the aggressive, self-destructive angst of grunge or the brainy, aloof irony of indie rock, the Athens quartet presented something far more singular and timeless in the form of a tightly composed, occasionally baroque song cycle obsessed with mortality and the passage of time.

This is not to say that Automatic For The People is a relentless downer. Despite its morbid themes, Automatic isn’t so much a record about death as it is a work of art that acknowledges the fleeting nature of life, and so many of its songs, most notably the hits "Man on the Moon" and "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite," revel in the simple joy of being alive. On the opposite extreme, "Drive," "Monty Got A Raw Deal," and "Sweetness Follows" are stark and somber pieces that express the hollowness of grief and the subtle drag of existential dread with stunning accuracy and clarity. The rest of the songs fall someplace in between -- the sentimental reminiscence of "Nightswimming"; the grim depiction of a bitter break-up in "Star Me Kitten"; the romantic wanderlust of "Find The River" -- and taken as a whole, the record comes across like a panoramic view of life.Needless to say, Automatic For The People has had a profound impact on its audience, particularly those who first heard the record at a young and impressionable age.

Read the whole thing here.

you should see the stereogum.com drive xv player here if you have flash