Murmur

R.E.M. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000001I0A
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (211 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,262 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #5 in Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative > General
  • #6 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Rock
  • #7 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Jangle Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Though critics swamped R.E.M.'s 1983 full-length debut with country-rock comparisons to the Byrds, Murmur sounds like no one else. The title is an apt description of Michael Stipe's singing style, although his smooth pop vocal mannerisms sweeten the enigmatic poetry. Like all great bands, R.E.M.'s individual parts (Peter Buck's ringing guitar, drummer Bill Berry's persistent thumping, and Mike Mills's unifying bass) are as interesting as the collective sound. The album-opening "Radio Free Europe" and "Talk About the Passion" endure as its radio singles, but the rest of the songs hang together well taken as a whole. --Steve Knopper

Product Description

An '80s classic, a college-rock landmark the legendary 1983 full-length debut by R.E.M.! Stipe, Buck and the boys created a whole new sound with these remarkable songs: Radio Free Europe; Catapult; Talk About the Passion , and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 101 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Right on target", indeed November 26, 2008

By Garbageman

Format:Audio CD

I was seriously all prepared to smack this album for being (a) strategically holiday-priced as overinflated, (b) stingy with the extras, and (c) suffering because of el lame-o artwork, blah blah blah. But one spin, and by "Catapult", I'm driving home from purchasing this, singing lyrics at the top of my lungs that were never there to begin with, deeply wishing I could shave 25 years off my life and encounter Berry Buck Mills Stipe again with a fresh set of ears, and even better, secretly negotiating with myself that the hefty price tag was completely worth it after three songs. It just is, and you know it.

What the heck is there to say about this album, except that for me and millions like me, this was "Meet The Beatles"? Or the Bible? Or the soundtrack to the best years of our lives? It would take a year to express why, how, what, and where - but let's get to the important stuff. This is a reissue done RIGHT. No loss of integrity or continuity by remaking the album's order or tacking on distracting extras you don't need or can get elsewhere. Decent, faithful art (okay, maybe the layout of the liner notes could have been less berszerk, but whatever man, play "Sitting Still" LOUD and get over it). A highly righteous live set from '83 that sounds (like all their early live sets did) like you're flying down the highway hands off the wheel headed somewhere, but you're not sure where, and could care less. And interestingly - a little melancholy feeling about where this band has ended up and how it got there, and why there will never be another moment like the first six seconds of "Perfect Circle", or the weird bridge in "Moral Kiosk", or the freaky instrumental moment before "We Walk" that sounds like no other band's music ever, or the elliptical chorus of "Shaking Through" that inspired a million stoned discussions, or the bridge to "9-9" when Michael's extended moan dissolves into an otherworldly growl, or Mike Mills' buried counterpoint in the chorus of "Pilgrimage", or the moment when the guitar just explodes in the end climax of "Laughing", or the feeling that "Talk About the Passion" can't end so soon, carried away on - of all things - the most stately string section ever assembled by a bunch of college kids from (ahem) Athens, Georgia, and their cadre of good ol' boy producers. Georgia??!?! Are you kidding?? Who knew? "And what is that guy singing? And why doesn't this sound like The Minutemen or Black Flag?" There just isn't an album like this, and won't be again, ever. You know it's true, and you already feel what this magnificent and essential moment means. "Murmur", remastered, and done RIGHT.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts Of Punch December 1, 2008

By Philip S. Wolf

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not too many bands over the last forty years or so have come out of the gate with an introductory LP with such a lasting impact as: "Murmur".
This record created something entirely different in 1983, it was rock as much as it was pop, and it wasn't even close to anything else released during the early eighties. The biggest kicker to the whole deal was that R.E.M. came from a small town in Georgia.

How in the world, can an album fit in between Molly Hatchet & Thriller? How can mumbled/mixed down vocals and chiming Rickenbacker guitars hold their own next to moonwalking and 27 minute jams of: "Whipping Post?" Well, R.E.M. was about unknown to everyone north of Richmond, Virginia and south of Jacksonville, Florida in early 1983, when IRS thrust this force onto a world of folks that were dying to be freed from the onslaught of drum machines and synths and crummy white-bread R & B, that at the time, seemed endless and unrelenting.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time on the coast of Virginia when this storm surged right at us. "Radio Free Europe" was already all over the good radio staions in southlands, and this single was very...well, it was great! The "Chronic Town" EP was in record stores with that bored gargoyle on a cool blue record sleeve. Something really different was happening here, catchy songs and an air of freshness was blowing out the pomp and excesses of the 1970's.

Disc One: "Murmur"
The big issue here with the 1983 recording, will be of course the concern over the sound of this, the re-mastered edition of 2008. To my old ears, this version is not that much different from the original record. What is of notice, is the the bass guitar is punching and pounding at the woofers of my speakers. The bass drum is a force as well, {and I have always thought the drumming by Bill Berry, was about as great as it gets.} There is a bigger brightness and clarity to the guitars, and Michael has been brought up a little more forward out of the original mix. Yes, this is the same record that I listened to 25 years ago, but now it is a whole lot BIGGER.

Out of the 35 or so songs that the band brought to the studios to use for this project, they did indeed pick 12 unique and timeless pieces to present their music to an unsuspecting world. "Pilgrimage", "Laughing", "9-9", "Talk About The Passion" "West Of The Fields" and "Catapult" are timeless gems and mature works for a band of two and a half years running. There is an updated, and more fully formed version of: "Radio Free Europe" here that is a bit different from the original single version of two years earlier. This album comes alive in the new mix, as it has been rescued from a swampy kudzu landscape under a railroad trestle.

Disc Two: "Live In Toronto {1983}"
Between 1980 and 1983, R.E.M. spent more time on the road than they would ever attempt again. First near Athens, then into South & North Carolina and Tennessee. They performed in small towns that had never hosted a big-name rock band. Word spread quickly that this was a band to see perform live. Dates in California, New York and Boston followed over the next two years. By summer of 1983, R.E.M. entered Canada for the first time and played their first show in Toronto at Larry's Hideway.

There are 16 songs on the live CD and it clocks in at 57 minutes. This is taken from the 60 minute FM radio broadcast of the show. Over the past two and a half decades, bootlegs of this night have appeared in LP, cassette and CD formats. The set opener: "Wolves, Lower" isn't on here, this CD starts at the opening of: "Laughing" and there is no sign of "Moral Kiosk" on this as well. This was a good night, but the cover songs that normally comprise a big part of R.E.M.'s live work are not a part of this show, because the FM market was hearing strictly band composed material, a proper strategy to win over a new audience.

Live R.E.M. in the early eighties is a raw punk driven force of noise and frantic energy, that is very fun to be a part of. Getting to pogo infront of one of those low stages, in sweaty clubs and dancehalls with a few hundred other lucky souls, {my night was: Virginia Beach in The Pavilion, with the Dream Syndicate as openers, on a hot summer night in 1984.} was a concert highlight, that is very difficult to forget.

The live CD is great to have in much improved sound quality over the boots, but when you realize what was not included here, you will be begging for more complete shows from 1981-1985 to see the light of an official release. Most of: "Murmur" is here, as is most of: "Chronic Town" also included are: "Harborcoat" & "7 Chinese Bros." from the then unreleased second LP: "Reckoning". This is a fine document of one of hundreds of nights on the road from the band's early days together, but I could go for listening to tapes of about 99 more shows from the first five years, and be very happy indeed!

This record was one of the very best released in the eighties {as was: "Reckoning" & "Fables Of The Reconstruction."} A bunch of groups that came after R.E.M. owe them a lot of thank's, for all those miles they traveled on back roads throughout the south with Jefferson at the wheel of that old station wagon. We got lucky here with this great band in 1983, this is what got a lot of us through the eighties...real music!
FIVE STARS!!!

134 of 157 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars alternative January 28, 2000

By Evan Streb

Format:Audio CD

Well I can't believe that in the long review I put down there, I didn't really say exactly WHY "murmur" is the greatest album i've ever heard. Sooooo here, finally, in Lester Bangs "Metal Machine Music" fashion, are the reasons.

1. Throughout the entire album, vocalist Michael Stipe purposely makes the lyrics unintelligible so that the listener can more easily interpret the songs for his/herself. This may have also been a way to guarantee keeping this album in the underground so that it would never become popular with the uncool MTV crowd.

2. The talents of bassist Mike Mills should never be overlooked. Ever hear his basswork during the "Straight off the boat, where to go?" section of "Radio Free Europe", or the intro to "Laughing"? That song has THREE separate melodies in its three minutes of existence, and they're ALL great.

3. I read somewhere that the band was so ego-free that they had every instrument and the vocals balanced out in the mix so that no part would stand out. They wanted it to sound like a mush, which I think is really innovative, considering the overblown heavy metal that was popular at the time (this was 1983 remember).

4. A sad lament: Nobody makes their drums sound like the ones in the beginning of "Catapult" anymore.

Excellent drumming that actually sets a mood and isn't just mindless thumpity thump thump. Oh, and Bill Berry also wrote the piano line for "Perfect Circle", and for which we should all be eternally grateful.

5. One of the best "anti-album cover" album covers: the dark kudzu tree field. The words "R.E.M. Murmur" are hardly noticeable, the song titles are arranged out of order (and in large purple smudgy type), the band members look as if they're having the worst day of their life, Michael looks funny with glasses, the title for "Moral Kiosk" is arranged vertically, and they even pick a typeface that's very difficult to read.

6. "Perfect Circle" is the greatest song ever written.

7. Like all classic albums, every time I listen to it I notice something new. Just yesterday, I noticed something that sounds a lot like a Gregorian chant or something during the refrain of "Pilgrimage". You have to really sit down and PAY ATTENTION to the little things, like the piano in "Shaking Through", or the thunder in "We Walk".

8. Trying to figure out what Michael Stipe is singing (especially during the chaotic bridge section in "9-9") is one of the best things about it. It makes you think, but not in a heavy pretensious manner. They could have equally called it "Mumble".

9. It was the very first "alternative" album. It sounded like absolutely nothing that was popular at the time, and it seemed to come from out of nowhere. I think Peter Buck once said something like "We wanted to make a record that had no influences so that nobody could say, 'Oh they sound like this band or that band'". And it came out at the right time. I don't know. It was just like, finally! After years of synth-heavy new wave one hit wonders and disco camp, there FINALLY was the band that meant as much to you as the Beatles and Stones meant to your parents. Ehh... Or something. That's how I felt, anyways. I mean if it wasn't R.E.M. then who was gonna save rock and roll? Okay okay the Replacements, but I mean BESIDES them. Huey Lewis and the News? Phil Collins? Motley Crue? 38 Special? See, the whole reason the words "alternative" and "indie-rock" were invented was because by 1984, MTV and "Thriller" had killed the face of mainstream music and it was albums like this that were considered worthwhile "alternatives" to the mainstream corporate rock sound. "Murmur" started all of that.

10. It's the greatest album ever made ever in the history of music since the beginning of time. But that's just me. You might hate it for some reason. Number two: Zaireeka!