Resusitated the Heartbeat of Music - If you don t count R.E.M. s first long E.P (extended play) beginning Chronic Town, then their debut starts here. Murmur their first album is brilliant, deserving all the accolades that are heaped upon it. With vibrant echo effects, a repertoire of ecclectic guitar, including folk, rock, punk, and new-wave patterns, Murmur would be the crowning achievement of any other band. Having romantic, religious, and surreal images, R.E.M. propulsively and hypnotically lives up to the band name with a solid set of songs that work well together. Before alternative was a household world, R.E.M. came up with an avant guard folk-rock, new wave masterpiece before anyone could give the genre a name. Their pell-mell approach is progressive, but hardly conventional. The opener Radio Free Europe and the latter Sitting Still stand up to the best punk. But, Moral Kiosk, 9-9, and Shaking Through contain complex, yet mesmerizing fast-forward appeal. They can also bring dreams of elegian with the depths of hypnotic songs like Pilgrimage and West of the Fields. (One shouldn t forget that they are an art band among other things. Their rendering of Pilgrimage is done with echo effects that resemble Gregorian Chant, and the music to 9-9 musically refers to NFL music used during highlights in the eighties.) If the variety weren t enough, then folk-rock is mastered on the celestial Talk About the Passion and We Walk. Variety is underscored with some intricate musicianship on the exquisite Perfect Circle. Song for song, Murmur is a throbbing, heartfelt album of excellence. Later, albums would reinvent the band like no other since The Beatles, but on Murmur they already showed they were perfectionists with every aspect of their music. This C.D. is worth the extra import price.
R.E.M. s classic 1983 debut album still stands up today - One of the problems with Eponymous, the 1988 album that is a collection of singles from the first five R.E.M. released on I.R.S., is that it stops a lot of people who jumped on the bandwagon when the Athens group switched to Warner and made it to the top of the music world with their hit Losing My Religion from going back and listening to those earlier albums. That would be a mistake, because that would mean missing out on Murmur, the 1983 album that created R.E.M. s distinctive sound and which, in retrospect, can be seen as an important album in the history of music as representing the move from post-punk to alternative music. Murmur only made it to #178 on the Billboard 200 chart (#36 for the Pop Album version), but this is clearly a case where the tree in the forest most definitely makes a sound, regardless of the number of people there to hear it. Remember that Rolling Stone named Murmur the best album of 1983, which was the year of Michael Jackson s Thriller and the Police s Synchronicity. R.E.M. was formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980, originally playing under the name Twisted Kite and performing garage rock covers and original folk-rock songs. Radio Free Europe, their first single, was recorded in 1981, released on the tiny Hib Tone label, and showed that all of the pieces that would becoming familiar, the jangle pop sound and cryptic lyrics, were already in place: you cannot help singing along with the chorus even if you have no clue what the rest of Michael Stipe s lyrics are saying. The single topped the Village Voice poll for Best Independent Single, and landed the group the I.R.S. contract. After an EP, Chronic Town, the full-length Murmur constituted the group s debut album. While there is not another track as solid as Radio Free Europe on the album, the rest of the songs are clearly in that vein. The songs on Murmur have an atmospheric quality that is quite distinctive, although you can certainly see strong folk-rock, post-punk, and garage-rock elements throughout, although what R.E.M. does with those elements is unique as well. Talk About the Passion is the other signature song from the album, and a prime example of how Stipe s lyrics attain great depth by refusing to be pinned down (although having some lyrics in French is adding insult to injury for those of us who always have trouble understanding what exactly he is singing). Catapult is a good example of what a pop song sounds like in R.E.M. s hands (and the effective way in which bassist Mike Mills often responds to Stipe s vocals in the chorus), with Pilgrimage and Perfect Circle showing their expanding musical range. This is not to say all of these songs hold up, Moral Kiosk sounds rather dated as the exception to the rule. But overall this is a landmark album should end up being one of your favorite R.E.M. albums.
How do you improve perfection? - Murmur is the finest album I ve heard from R.E.M. thus far. It s a fantastic collection of songs that fit together like a jigsaw and leave you blown away, song after song. However if you see this version for sale, I recommend picking it up... the bonus tracks are great!One of my favourite things about this great cd is that the songs work well together, and blend in well to make it an atmospheric experience... you won t be skipping any tracks on this one! Where as on albums like Green, you play it to hear the hits, but everything else isn t as good.Except for Radio Free Europe, the bands first single, there s not any song that stands out over the other, and that s the way I like it. All the tracks are different, but provide you with the same basic atmosphere and listening pleasure. We Walk is very different to West Of The Fields, but they work together so well!The gem of the album has to be Perfect Circle, a truely beautiful song, and my second favourite on the album. Pilgrimage, my favourite, is fantastic and fun (and perhaps one of the most underrated songs of all time), and other songs like Moral Kiosk and Catapult will leave you smiling. You really can t go wrong with this cd, it s full of underrated R.E.M. classics.One of the bonus tracks is the cover of There She Goes Again by the Velvet Undergrounds. While included on the Dead Letter Office compilation, this is a great recording that s actually superior to the original version :P The live recordings of Catapult and 9-9 are great (although they re curious selections), but the live version of Chronic Town s Gardening at Night knocks me off my feet, time and time again. It s incredible.If you don t already own Murmur, you re missing out on one of the greatest albums of all time. Shame on you! Buy Murmur right now, and if you can spare a little bit more, buy this version! :D
murmur + 4 nice bonus tracks - There is no question that Murmur is a flat-out masterpiece (see the reviews for the US release). This edition is a nice one to have because you get a small sample of early live REM. Track 13, There She Goes Again, was the original B-side to the Radio Free Europe single ( 81). It varies slightly from the version found on Dead Letter Office. Track 14, 9-9(live), is an energetic version of a very often overlooked song on Murmur. Many people feel this version surpasses the album version. Track 15, Gardening At Night(live) (see Chronic Town), and 16, Catapult(live), are two others that fans of their early work ought to check out. You really can t go wrong with this album if you have a little cash on hand.