One Life Album 1: R.E.M. – Automatic for the People

I know what you’re thinking- I was two years old when this came out, what does it mean to me?
The album was a discovery after getting R.E.M.’s In Time. I’d heard all the singles, but what came next? I put this album on and I was taken away to a whole different world. It felt like some kind of a dream sequence. Every song perfectly placed, every song with something interesting that you don’t pick up on first listen, and songs like “Drive”, “Everybody Hurts” and “Find The River”- songs that are a part of me, have made me what I am today. The album, along with Transatlanticism, has just always BEEN there in my times of need- when I’ve needed to smile, needed to cry, needed to think about things, needed to forget whatever it was I was thinking about. This record doesn’t so much pluck my heartstrings as rip them apart.

It took me a while to dwelve from being just a passing fan to a fantatic of R.E.M.’s, but the final result was more than worth it.
And that’s why Automatic For The People changed my life, and why R.E.M. are my all-time favourite band.