Automatic

With its second and final album, Visitors, Automatic Man unveiled a new lineup. Lead singer/keyboardist Bayeté (real name: Todd Cochrane) and guitarist Pat Thrall were still on board, but bassist Doni Harvey and former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve were gone-and their replacements were bassist Jerome Rimson and drummer Glenn Symmonds. The Bay Area quartet was still interracial (half white, half black), but with the personnel changes came a more commercial approach. While Automatic Man's self-titled debut album of 1976 was an uncompromising, fairly abstract effort that had to be accepted on its own terms, Visitors finds the band making its progressive rock/space rock funkier and more accessible. Automatic Man definitely increased the funk/soul factor on this LP, and tunes like "Daughter of Neptune" and "Give It to Me" have an immediacy and a directness that the first album lacked…

R.E.M. will mark the 25th anniversary of their widely successful eighth studio album, Automatic for the People, with a deluxe reissue. It’s the latest archival release from R.E.M., who previously served up anniversary reissues for the seven albums put out prior to Automatic, including last year’s repacking of Out of Time.

R.E.M. - Automatic For The People (1992) {2CD 25th Anniversary Edition CR00044 rel 2017}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 746 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 254 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1992, 2017 Craft Recordings / R.E.M. / Universal | CR00044
Rock / Alternative / American Underground / College Rock / Jangle Pop

Widely considered to be one of the best albums of the 90s, 1992’s Automatic For The People features R.E.M.’s iconic hit singles “Nightswimming,” “Man on the Moon” and “Everybody Hurts.” Includes a brand new remaster of the original album on CD 1, remastered from original analogue tapes by Stephen Marcussen under the direction of original Producer Scott Litt. CD 2 features live tracks recorded at the band’s 1992 show at The 40 Watt Club in Athens, the year of Automatic For The People’s original release. This was the only concert that R.E.M. performed that year. The highly sort-after & acclaimed recording is remixed from the original multi-tracks by John Keane.

REM Automatic For The People (2017 UK 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 3-CD box set comprising a 12-track remastered CD of the album, a 13-track live CD recorded at the 40 Watt Club on 19th November 1992 and 20-track DemosCD plus bonus track Photograph [featuring Natalie Merchant].

Turning away from the sweet pop of Out of Time, R.E.M. created a haunting, melancholy masterpiece with Automatic for the People. At its core, the album is a collection of folk songs about aging, death, and loss, but the music has a grand, epic sweep provided by layers of lush strings, interweaving acoustic instruments, and shimmering keyboards. Automatic for the People captures the group at a crossroads, as they moved from cult heroes to elder statesmen, and the album is a graceful transition into their new status. It is a reflective album, with frank discussions on mortality, but it is not a despairing record – "Nightswimming," "Everybody Hurts," and "Sweetness Follows" have a comforting melancholy, while "Find the River" provides a positive sense of closure. R.E.M. have never been as emotionally direct as they are on Automatic for the People, nor have they ever created music quite as rich and timeless, and while the record is not an easy listen, it is the most rewarding record in their oeuvre.

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.