In 1992 R.E.M. were on top of the world. They had hits, awards, and, most importantly, money rolling in. Going into the recording session for Automatic For The People, the band knew they would need to tour whatever they ended up with. That's a pretty nice position to be in. Taking the logistics of live performance away from the session allowed Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, and Peter Buck to open their sound. The result was their most successful and critically acclaimed album to date. Automatic For The People hit the industry like a wrecking ball. Hits like Everybody Hurts, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, Man On The Moon, and Nightswimming became staples of the landscape they now inhabited. But it was moments like Drive, Find The River, and, of course, New Orleans Instrumental No.1, that layered the album. It is, undoubtedly, a masterpiece.
"There were dark times going on in our country" Peter Buck told Radio X, "it was a weird confliction between the fact that we were in a pretty good place, but there were a lot of other pretty dark things happening."
Michael Stipe and Mike Mills take Radio X's John Kennedy through their classic 1992 album, which has just been reissued in a deluxe edition, track by track.
You can hear John Kennedy's X-Posure every Monday to Thursday on Radio X.
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Radio X is the world’s best indie rock radio channel for music news, live performances and interviews with the world’s biggest rockstars.
14 ноя 2017
