Automatic for the People is the eighth album by the American alternative rock ban R.E.M., released in 1992. The album was a critical and commercial success, with three top 40 hits in the U.S. and UK. The album was a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic. It was the band's first widespread popular album in the UK - placing at number 1 for for 4 non-consecutive weeks (1992 and 1993) - and on the album charts for 179 weeks In America it reached number 2 and remained on the album charts for 75 weeks . The album's extremely successful performance in Britain foreshadowed how the band would later become more popular in the UK than in their homeland.