R.E.M. - Automatic For The People - 1992 - Ep. 25

It's Autumn 1992 and R.E.M. are suddenly one of the biggest bands on the planet, riding the crest of a wave after the global success of their seventh studio LP - The wonderful 'Out of Time.' How do you follow that and create an album that:

a) sounds radically different to anything you've produced before, is

b) critically lauded and,

c) every bit as successful commercially as its predeccessor?

The answer is that you come up with 'Automatic For The People' - an astonishing record that has stood the test of time and given joy to millions of people in all four corners of the world, as well as saving lives through the incredible words and music within.

We talk about how the record was formulated, the writing and recording process, how they came up with the name, and artwork, as well as disecting every track musically and lyrically.

Find out what we thought of the record, although there's a big clue in the fact that revisiting it some 30 years on lead us to ask the question, does it have the best 3 closing tracks of any LP ever made? Also, what would the album score out of 20 and could it dislodge The Cure from the coveted Memorabilia rating chart, currently at No.1 with a score of 18.5 for the 1989 masterpiece, Disintegration.

Our regular features, are all in attendance, with October 1992 getting the memorablia podcast treatment in terms of looking at the UK single and album charts, what was playing at the cinema, airing on our TV screens and happening in the news. We discovered a bit of a disparity between what was in the top twenty in terms of singles and albums featuring artists such as Neds Atomic Dustbin, Stereo MC's, Manic Street Preachers, Prince, Lionel Richie, The Shamen, EMF, Mike Oldfield, Extreme, and Crowded House.

For our Top 3's this week, we went with the top 3 songs about sleep or dreaming. R.E.M. had to feature in one of those Top 3's, but listen in to find out which song and who chose it for their list!

Links from this week's episode:

Ian Prowse tour dates: https://amsterdam-music.com/live/

Single of the Week (chosen by Rick's Mum) - Nuts, by George Melly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrL1YM3bqUo

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