Happy Birthday for the People

Today is the 15th anniversary of the release of "Automatic for the People." If everybody, of any generation, who considers him or herself a passionate music lover has one album that made them that way, this here is mine. So fifteen years ago, in, say, September, Drive’s iconic video started playing on The Hit List-I was 13, owned few CDs, and hadn’t yet discovered the joys of MuchMusic-and R.E.M. appeared on my radar. I wonder if I should have waited until next year to write this article on its 16th anniversary, to make a connection between Drive and the legal driving age . . .
I know that the music I was attracted to that year (Constant Craving, Friday I’m in Love, Lost Together) was strong stuff, but Drive was different. It didn’t sound like a hit. Fifteen years ago TODAY, the album came out, to critical acclaim and strong sales (not that I had any idea) and found a place on my Christmas list. I don’t want to get too into the magic of the first time I played it, or the second time, or the eleventh. I’ll only say that it’s the one for me. 15 years later, I have a relationship with music, an urge to find new things and learn about older ones. Music is my racecar and my blanket, and Automatic for the People is the first place I felt that. (Another thing, looking back at 1992, it’s possible that the whole year informed my critical ear, even if I wasn’t ready for most of the sounds yet. If you combine AftP with "Slanted & Enchanted," PJ Harvey’s "Dry," Freedy Johnston’s "Can You Fly," Sonic Youth’s "Dirty" and Move This (Shake That Body), you might have the formula for my aesthetic preference.)
In an honor of the album, the anniversary and the year, I re-listened to "Automatic for the People" a bunch of times, and offer you track-by-track haiku. If you are lucky enough to have this album in your collection I strongly suggest that you play it today and think back 15 years.

Drive:
Hey kids, where are you?
Words like an alarm, and then:
Hey kids, rock and roll.

Try Not to Breathe:
For lilting beauty
R.E.M. use 2 tricks here:
Mike Mills and waltz-time.

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite:
Does sidewinder sleep
in a coil or on its back?
Post-Seuss laugh endears.

Everybody Hurts:
Overplayed to death,
But such gorgeous music will
stand the test of time.

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1:
Such a good band then,
That instrumental filler
was still great like this.

Sweetness Follows:
Death-themed slow-paced song.
So a companion piece to
Everybody Hurts

Monty Got a Raw Deal:
Should’ve been a hit.
This song really hits paydirt
once the drums kick in

Ignoreland:
The one true rocker,
It sounds like The Hip a bit.
These days it rings true.

Star Me Kitten:
Random words, snapping-
Nothing then sounded like this.
So odd and pretty.

Man on the Moon:
Andy Kaufman was
not an icon until this.
Now he goofs on God.

Nightswimming:
I’d hear this and cry,
It might make me less manly,
but I still do now.

Find the River:
Heard this and knew I
had to leave to find my way.
Or did he say lead?