Album: Murmur
Artist: R.E.M.
Born: Athens, Georgia
Released: April 1983
Genre: Indie Rock
Influenced: Pavement, Teenage Fanclub, Nirvana, Counting Crows, The Decemberists, Bright Eyes
I find it hard to believe that R.E.M released their first album in the early 80s, right in the aftermath of punk, given they were such a dominant presence in my teenage years throughout the 90s. Having now listened to most of their back catalogue, I still don't think they made a better record than this their first, Murmur. There's something mysterious and timeless about Murmur, its sound unlike anything before it. There are echoes of the Byrds in the way guitarist Peter Buck picked the guitar strings rather than strumming them to create a jangly sound, but the speed of the songs is often faster and more in line with punk and post-punk (R.E.M. toured with the influential Gang of Four in the early years). Listening to some of their live sets in 1983, the band would often do covers of There She Goes Again (Velvet Underground) and Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman), and this mining of alternative American rock would help R.E.M. build a cult following via college radio. The album cover helps to add to the mystique (and is slightly reminiscent of the artwork for the Cure's Seventeen Seconds), giving the band from Georgia a southern Gothic allure. Stipe's delivery also intensified the mystery, with many of the muttered (or murmured) lyrics barely audible. On the lead single, Radio Free Europe, the only line I can fathom with any certainty is "calling out in transit / Radio Free Europe", but the quality of the music means I'm happy to gloss over this annoying trait for impressionistic, opaque songwriting.
Pilgrimage is another case in point, the lyrics evocative but essentially nonsensical, but the sound anthemic and a brilliant evolution of UK post-punk music. Stipe's singing on Pilgrimage was clearly influential on Kurt Cobain. Laughing is also an obscure gem, with Buck's jangly Rickenbacker chords the star as Stipe's melodic voice weaves in and out of the mix (again, the lyrics are wilfully obscure, this time about Laocoon, a Greek mythological figure who was devoured by serpents along with his two sons). Talk About The Passion is one of the standout tracks, inspired by British electric folk and enhanced by atmospheric cello samples, allowing Stipe to sing in English and French with a gnostic religious fervour. There's the same haunting quality to the music that the Byrds generated on records like Notorious Byrd Brothers. Perfect Circle has the same sense of yearning, based around Mike Mills' piano fugue, while the dreamy quality of Catapult is one of my favourite moments on the record. However, the rest of side 2 isn't so cohesive, especially the jittery sound of 9-9, breaking the dreamy, murky spell created on side 1. There are still great songs though, especially the country-tinged Shaking Through and the proto-Britpop of We Walk. For a group that lasted 30 years, it was mainly diminishing returns, but the album's great legacy was kickstarting an indie rock revolution in the US.
I find it hard to believe that R.E.M released their first album in the early 80s, right in the aftermath of punk, given they were such a dominant presence in my teenage years throughout the 90s. Having now listened to most of their back catalogue, I still don't think they made a better record than this their first, Murmur. There's something mysterious and timeless about Murmur, its sound unlike anything before it. There are echoes of the Byrds in the way guitarist Peter Buck picked the guitar strings rather than strumming them to create a jangly sound, but the speed of the songs is often faster and more in line with punk and post-punk (R.E.M. toured with the influential Gang of Four in the early years). Listening to some of their live sets in 1983, the band would often do covers of There She Goes Again (Velvet Underground) and Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman), and this mining of alternative American rock would help R.E.M. build a cult following via college radio. The album cover helps to add to the mystique (and is slightly reminiscent of the artwork for the Cure's Seventeen Seconds), giving the band from Georgia a southern Gothic allure. Stipe's delivery also intensified the mystery, with many of the muttered (or murmured) lyrics barely audible. On the lead single, Radio Free Europe, the only line I can fathom with any certainty is "calling out in transit / Radio Free Europe", but the quality of the music means I'm happy to gloss over this annoying trait for impressionistic, opaque songwriting.
Pilgrimage is another case in point, the lyrics evocative but essentially nonsensical, but the sound anthemic and a brilliant evolution of UK post-punk music. Stipe's singing on Pilgrimage was clearly influential on Kurt Cobain. Laughing is also an obscure gem, with Buck's jangly Rickenbacker chords the star as Stipe's melodic voice weaves in and out of the mix (again, the lyrics are wilfully obscure, this time about Laocoon, a Greek mythological figure who was devoured by serpents along with his two sons). Talk About The Passion is one of the standout tracks, inspired by British electric folk and enhanced by atmospheric cello samples, allowing Stipe to sing in English and French with a gnostic religious fervour. There's the same haunting quality to the music that the Byrds generated on records like Notorious Byrd Brothers. Perfect Circle has the same sense of yearning, based around Mike Mills' piano fugue, while the dreamy quality of Catapult is one of my favourite moments on the record. However, the rest of side 2 isn't so cohesive, especially the jittery sound of 9-9, breaking the dreamy, murky spell created on side 1. There are still great songs though, especially the country-tinged Shaking Through and the proto-Britpop of We Walk. For a group that lasted 30 years, it was mainly diminishing returns, but the album's great legacy was kickstarting an indie rock revolution in the US.
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