10 Perfect Rock Albums Of The '90s

10. Automatic for the People - R.E.M.

In the world of rock and roll, the only villain tends to be age. As the clock keeps ticking, artists usually find themselves worrying about keeping up their stamina and still having something relevant to say to their audience that will last beyond the summer jams. While most bands fade into obscurity once they outlive their 20s, Automatic for the People is what happens when things start getting a little more introspective.

At the time, there was probably no other artist who could pull something like this off except for R.E.M. These were the guys who had started the alternative wave back in the early '80s, so to hear them talking about growing into adulthood felt like your edgy older brother telling you that things were going to be alright. They don't shy away from any of the hard stuff though, with songs like Sweetness Follows and Try Not to Breathe showing the cost of living with your own mortality.

Even though the grunge movement was still in full swing, tracks like Man on the Moon and Nightswimming made R.E.M. the poster children for alternative's golden age, with classical production being brought into the mix for the hell of it. Growing up sucks, but when you have songs like this to hold on to, it doesn't necessarily have to be all bad.