Quiet is Beautiful

REM is one of the biggest rock bands in the world, hailing from New Orleans, USA. While i may not be a very big fan of the band except for their singles, their album 'Automatic For The People' released in the early 1990s can be considered one of my favourite albums of all time and to many REM fans in the world, the strongest album they have ever made.

This album is very quiet, most songs starts off with guitarist Peter Buck's acoustic strums. Vocalist Michael Stipe probably wrote his best lyrics in this album. Sensitive and with meaning, this album scored several hits and the whole album sounds very coherent, bordering on themes such as mortality, death, hurt and ultimately ending off with a hopeful note.

The song 'Drive' starts off the album with a dark tone. The looping acoustic guitar line gave the song a sombre feel till Peter Buck lets loose a few crunches of the electric guitar towards the end, to a great effect. A great opening for this classic album.

'Everybody Hurts' and 'Man On The Moon' were huge singles. The first is a sweet comforting lullaby while the latter boast one of the best singles from the band with a catchy singalong chorus to boot.




One particular track stands out at the end of the album called 'Nightswimming.' A very bare track with a single repetitive piano line, lush strings and Stipe's emotive vocals and lyrics. Till this day, i may not have fully grasp the meaning of this song but i guess it is about hope. Some things are so beautiful it is better left unsaid and unexplained. Download this track here.

I was on a trip to northwestern India to the desert plains in Rajasthan last November. There were long journeys on buses and i was just taking in the beautiful simplistic sights for hours on end. The land stretches to the far end of the horizon with clear blue skies above. I was constantly listening to this REM album and many a times when 'Nightswimming' came on, i found my eyes well up and tears came streaming down my face as i think of my family back home, and of a certain someone...i hope Yuki is doing well and leading a good life now.

"Everybody hurts, sometimes everybody cries...
Everybody hurts sometimes..."