内容(「CDジャーナル」データベースより)
通算8枚目にあたるニュー・アルバム。前作に引き続きアコースティックなアレンジだが,さらに深みを増した出来ばえだ。ヴォーカルが自信に満ちていて力強いのが際立っている。元ツェッペリンのJ.P.ジョーンズがストリングス・アレンジを担当。
Amazon.com essential recording
Continuing to specialize in the art of curve-throwing, R.E.M. followed up its 1991 smash,
Out of Time, with this fragile album of soft melodies and string arrangements. The sympathetic ballad "Everybody Hurts" must have prevented countless suicide attempts, while the Andy Kaufman tribute "Man on the Moon" (with Michael Stipe affecting an Elvis Presley imitation) and the rock-into-oblivion "Drive" are among the quartet's strongest hits. (The opening line, "Hey, kids, rock and roll," isn't so much a rallying cry as an expression of anxiety.) It takes a few listens for its charms to unfold, but
Automatic is the gem between bigger hits
Out of Time and
Monster.
--Steve Knopper