Following on the heels of its awesome 10th-anniversary tribute to OK Computer, Stereogum has assembled another crack collection of covers devoted to R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People, a record that just had its own 15th birthday. Featuring track-by-track reworkings of the album from bands like The Veils, Dappled Cities, Rogue Wave, Meat Puppets, Figurines, Blitzen Trapper, and The Wrens, Drive XV is just the thing to make you feel fucking old today.
And on a personal note, since this post is practically begging for a lot of "That album sucks in the first place" comments: OK, so maybe it doesn't have the same "importance" as OKC, and it lacks the hipster cred of even the band's own Murmur or Reckoning for that matter, but for a certain generation (i.e. me), Automatic For The People was a landmark album. It came out right as I was entering high school and it soon entered permanent rotation in my Walkman, along with The Cure's Disintegration and all of The Smiths, Depeche Mode, and Violent Femmes tapes that made up the bulk of my sad, sad youth. I still can't hear "Nightswimming" or "Try Not To Breathe" without getting a little lump in my throat. So take your bullying elsewhere. I just can't bear it.