The song received favorable reviews from most music critics.
AllMusic editor
Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that it has "a comforting melancholy". David Bauder from
The Associated Press said that it keeps "the pace slow and the mood melancholy."
Larry Flick from
Billboard magazine named 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 its "smoothly caressing guitar". Another
The Canberra Times editor, Larry McShane, described it as "haunting". Randy Clark from
Cash Box named it the "strongest" cut of the album. Another editor of the magazine, 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's "a
ballad that would border on the maudlin if
Stipe didn't sing it with such conviction". Ron Fell from the
Gavin Report felt 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." Chris Roberts from
Melody Maker named it Single of the Week, adding that "this is clearly a "
Let It Be"/"
Candle in the Wind" of its (white rock) generation, [and] it avoids being fatally overblown by virtue of Stipes's meticulously understated vocal." 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". Gina Morris from
NME called it "another larger than life, atmospheric pop song" along the lines of "
Drive". Parry Gettelman from
Orlando Sentinel viewed it as "boring" and "repetitive".
People Magazine's 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 and childlike message ("''everybody hurts, everybody cries...when you think you've had too much of this life, hang on...
"). It will make everyone else cry. It really is that straightforward." Tim Southwell from Smash Hits'' gave the song five out of five, viewing it as "a beautiful, touching and absorbing ballad", and "bloody beautiful." ==Music video==