96- "Automatic for the People" by R.E.M.

Man, this album was a blast. I'd never really gotten into R.E.M.; I was only familiar with a couple of their hits, and despite being vaguely aware of them as a highly respected pillar of alternative music, I never had much of a strong opinion either way. After this album, I'm probably going to have to delve more into their stuff, because I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Michael Stipe's voice took a bit of time to for me to appreciate, but the more it's definitely very distinctive and fits the mood of the album very well. "Drive" is an awesome opening track, with it's downtempo pace and surprisingly well-suited string arrangement. "Try Not to Breathe" has an almost Celtic feel to it, with its lilting rhythm and vocal melody. I also really enjoyed trying to make heads or tails of the somewhat inscrutable lyrics on this album ("The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" is great in this regard; the lyrics are at once bizarre and perfectly fitting). Honestly, the only track here I didn't really connect with is "Everybody Hurts," which I know is one of the band's bigger hits... just sort of "meh" on that one. All in all, would highly recommend; this is my favorite discovery the albums I've listened to so far for this project.