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121 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
alternative, January 28, 2000
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!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is Still the One, July 20, 2001
This LP is a sanctified relic. The songs breathe life, poignantly document what it felt like to be a young person toward the end of the 20th century. The music was kind and gentle, it suggested joy, it implied mystery, it ignited passion. As a sophomore in high school, I bought this album when it was released in 1983. IRS originally distributed it with a [price] list price, and I purchased it on a lark. After spending a week with this sublime riddle of an album, I worked backwards and purchased "Chronic Town" (the 5 song EP the band had release in 1982). With "Murmur" and "Chronic Town" under my arm, I moved into a different future. I thought new thoughts, I met new people, I dreamed new dreams, and I had new destinations. The indecipherable lyrics and murky cover art of "Murmur" only perpetuated the elusive beauty of the music. Everything implied, nothing handed over. Sun shining through a canopy of branches, never full exposure. RADIO FREE EUROPE: My least favorite song on the album. The song that plays while people are finding their seats. PILGRIMAGE: Here is where the journey begins. The REM aesthetic was all about discovery, passion, mystery. If it's good enough for Chaucer, it's good enough for me. "Take your time...pilgrimage has gained momentum!" Are we looking for the two-headed cow? I'm in... LAUGHING: A gentle song about who knows what. Lighted, laughing at you, with you. Who knows. TALK ABOUT THE PASSION: A simple song, statement of purpose. Let's talk about the passion. Reagan may be in office, but let's explore the unspoken, our hearts and loins so full of passion we must speak. "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world". MORAL KIOSK: It wasn't conservativism, but REM implied a morality. A spirit of community. "So much more attractive inside the moral kiosk". Higher, twilight, but instead... PERFECT CIRCLE: "A perfect circle of acquaintances and friends. Drink another, coin a phrase". A song about friends, and spending time randomly with drunken exuberance and subtle commitment. "Take your dress off and stay real close". CATAPULT: REM's world (from 1982-1984) was very childlike. It evoked innocence, it remembered the youthful skin we were in the process of shedding. Did we miss anything? SITTING STILL: The REM call to action. One of the highlights of REM's early shows. Warned us all to not "waste your time sitting still". I can hear you. Can you hear me? 9-9: Didn't like this song for the longest time. Then it grew on me. And now I've forgotten it. SHAKING THROUGH: Yellow like a geisha doll, wandering, shaking through, pointless discovery. This is a sparkling gem. Could it be that one small boy doesn't... WE WALK: A lilting little ditty about walking, with friend, up the stairs & to the home, through the forest. A favorite for most. WEST OF THE FIELDS: Album closes with a darker feel than at any previous point in the album. The most haunting & memorable bridge on the album. Don't have any frigging idea what this song is about, but sounds like termites are in the foundation, the wells dried up, the truck has been repossessed, sissy ran off with a travelling salesman, and all that's left is whatever the hell lies west of the fields. I have no idea what this album would sound like to the uninitiated or someone who already knows REM post-1985, but I would like to think that some 17 year old kid could still tap into the magic this music implied, promised & produced back in the day. Oh, and "Reckoning" (which is the electric brother of this album) is every bit as stunning. However, the band's music produced diminishing returns from that point forward. I have enjoyed occassional songs from occassional REM albums since this period, but am usually saddened that the golden sounds of my youth were supplanted by the diamond-studded cash cow.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
R.E.M.'s classic 1983 debut album still stands up today, October 25, 2003
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.
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