Turn That Noise Down - REM

So many well-known albums turn 30 this year and Steve Taylor-Bryant and Susan Omand travel back to 1992 to revisit some of the sounds of their youth that made parents shout "Turn that noise down!" This week, Susan switches on Automatic For The People...

“If I don't pick up, hang up, call back, let it ring some more...”

Everyone has a “breakup album” – the album that gets played over and over and over while you wallow in the mire of denial and self-loathing that follows the end of a relationship. For a good friend of mine, back in late 1992, this was that album, so I grew to know it far too well and, in a very short space of time, despise it and everything it stood for in my head. Automatic for the People was a huge hit though, and the songs from it were all over the radio, the TV and the pop charts, as well as my pal’s bedroom, for months. Six of the twelve tracks on the album were released as singles, all of which were very singable and there were songs that I really did like to begin with; it was just the constant repetition that wore down my tolerance level. So, when Automatic pitched up on the list of 30-year retrospectives for October, I thought maybe enough time had passed and I could get back to enjoying a classic album.

And it is an absolute classic that does stand the test of that time... and I really don't despise it any more. It's so (I hate to use the term but it's so descriptive) iconic, that you only need to mention some song titles from the album in a room full of people and those of us of a certain age will get misty eyed. Everybody Hurts. Night Swimming. Man on the Moon, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite … see? You’re singing them all in your own head already, aren’t you? The other two singles, the first single Drive and the final single off the album, Find the River, didn’t really get as much airplay over here in the UK but are no less brilliant. They also happen to be the first and final tracks on the album – coincidence? Conspiracy?! Anyway…

Of the tracks that didn’t become singles, Try Not To Breathe follows the tried and true REM trend of jaunty little track with Stipe’s gloriously whiny voice intoning bleak lyrics over the top, while New Orleans Instrumental No 1 is, just as it says, an instrumental, with beautiful orchestration and a very laid back feel. Monty Got a Raw Deal is very celtic folky, soft and melancholy, and would be just as at home on a Scottish or Irish album, while Ignoreland is pure political protest with a glassy edge. The eclectically titled Star Me Kitten is the fifth non-single track, very sweet and harmonic until you hear what the star actually stands for in the lyrics.

My favourite track on the album though has to be Sweetness Follows. Purely because it has the most incredible cello bassline [there is no bass guitar on this song, that is ALL amped cello – Ed] that you could just get lost in as you slowly sink into your pit of self-pity. Listen and weep…



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