The beginning of the end
This is probably the most worthless album REM ever put out. The songs are badly written, mostly constructed around punk and grunge cliches. Most of the songs have no real melody, and the ones that do have melodies sound exactly like previous REM songs. REM, in spite of their protests to the contrary, were never a punk band, and this album proves it. This was the beginning of a long downturn for REM from which they have not yet recovered; in this reviewer's opinion, they should have broken up after "Automatic For The People."