There’s an odd dichotomy with this album, in that although the tracks have a generally brighter tone compared to Document (bringing to mind the band’s direction for Out Of Time), they’re also slightly more mellow and low-key, reflecting on the further direction of Automatic For The People. I remember that after the jauntiness of Shiny Happy People a lot of new fans were surprised by the downbeat tracks on Automatic, but listening to this album suggests that a track like Nightswimming is actually more indicative of the REM style than Shiny Happy People.
Anyway. This album. Stand, one of the famous ones, is a simple track that recalls both a child’s rhyme (like Heads, Shoulders, Knees And Toes) and also the lyrics of David Byrne with its statements that attain surreality from their very mundanity - “Your head is there to move you around”. Orange Crush meanwhile is classic REM in that it takes a guitar riff and a vocal refrain and basically builds itself around that (in this case an oblique reference to the after-effects of fighting in Vietnam).
The darker track World Leader Pretend (one of my favourites on the album) made me realise that part of the characteristic REM sound is to emphasise the upstroke of the Peter Buck’s rhythm guitar strumming, highlighting the upper range of notes in a chord. There’s plenty of mandolin on You Are The Everything , a slow one that predicts Automatic For The People, and The Wrong Child, which takes on the shape of a madrigal with piano, mandolin, and voices spiralling around each other, a beautiful piece about being the odd one out - “I’m not supposed to be like this, but it’s okay”. Buck puts aside the jangle for Turn You Inside Out, which has a great swirly, grungy guitar riff running behind it.
It’s like, but also unlike, Document, closer in sound to a mix of the upcoming two albums (of which I think only one makes this list); much more catchy but not quite the sophistication that Stipe and co. can rustle up.
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