slow and the mood melancholy." Larry Flick from Billboard called it a "spare, honest, and emotional track", adding "when the strings kick in, there's no denying this song's power." Bevan Hannah from The Canberra Times noted "the smoothly caressing guitar". Another editor, Larry McShane described it as "haunting". Randy Clark from Cashbox named it the "strongest" cut of the album. Another editor, Troy J. Augusto, felt it "might be a hard sell at radio, given the somber mood and suicide related theme". He complimented the singer's "silky vocals and the song's lush string section [that] provide this track's main appeal." Justin Wilson from The Cavalier Daily also named it "the best song on the album, one of R.E.M.'s best songs ever". He declared it as "emotionally moving" and "deeply affecting". Greg Kot from Chicago Tribune stated that it is "a ballad that would border on the maudlin if Stipe didn't sing it with such conviction". Ron Fell from the Gavin Report felt that Stipe's "powerful and emotional life-affirming message comes across very clear." He named it "a favorite track" from the album. A reviewer from The Gazette commented that Automatic for the People ponders frustrations of life in the "Bee Geeish" "Everybody Hurts"". In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton wrote that it is "the most beautiful and moving track on the album" and "just a reflection of how the band can do no wrong at present." Pan-European magazine Music & Media described it as an "ultra melancholic ballad", noting that with string arrangements by ex Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones, it is "the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" for the '90s with Michael Stipe as Simon & Garfunkel rolled into one." Alan Jones from Music Week named it Pick of the Week, declaring it as "a torchy ballad, with Stipe's fragile and waivering [sic.] vocal offset at times by discreet strings." He also complimented it as "radio-friendly". Parry Gettelman from Orlando Sentinel viewed it as "boring" and "repetitive". People Magazines reviewer found that here, the vocalist "succeeds at talking a friend out of suicide". Scripps Howard News Service wrote that the singer "has never sung better" and noted that "the unabashedly emotional" track "gives him plenty of range to display those pipes." David Cavanagh from Select said that it is "virtually beyond words." He added, "It will have non-REM maniacs in hysterics with its delicate Spector structure