Although R.E.M. are above all a singles band, capable of regularly churning out an impressive string of memorable songs (perfect fodder for a compilation), it's no stretch to say that their debut full-length, "Murmur", stands as one of the masterpieces in the history of pop music, and above all as perhaps the single record that most changed the coordinates of "alternative" music in the '80s. It's with this very album – probably far more innocuous today than it seemed at the time – that the concept of "alternative music" would find, in the United States, a formidable vehicle for its spread, soon going on to influence even "mainstream" production.
In a musical landscape crowded with glossy electronics, cut-rate hard rock and nostalgic punk regurgitations (always emphatic, even in the best cases, like that of U2), the band from Athens, Georgia carves out its own peculiar path to success, one that follows sober acoustic tracks and passes through a recovery of certain "sixties" sounds (Byrds, Who and Velvet Underground above all), combined with punk and new wave (Patti Smith, Wire, Gang Of Four).
Produced by a studio wizard like Mitch Easter, "Murmur" delivers a dozen timeless ballads, practically perfect in the way every ingredient is measured out. Peter Buck's arpeggiated, folk-tinged guitars, Mike Mills' full-bodied bass, Bill Berry's strong rhythmic counterpoint and country-flavored drumming, and the dreamy, dazed melodic murmurings sung in Michael Stipe's trademark nasal register all come together to create a blend of acoustic and electric, melody and energy, rural American rock, psychedelia and punk. Drawing on the purest wellsprings of the American tradition, on roots-rock and vintage folk, Rem regenerate those sounds, updating them for the age of post-punk and pre-grunge. Austere classicism and urban desolation thus fuse together in a handful of songs that are as deceptively simple as they are meticulously polished.
The opening "Radio Free Europe" makes things clear right away: harmonic guitars and simple, graceful melodic lines sketch out a ballad as essential as it is enchanting, wrapping the listener in a kind of magic spell. Aching vocal lines, psychedelic moods and constant tempo shifts mark "Pilgrimage", where the influence of the Byrds masters is felt most strongly, especially in the way the melodies are crafted. And it's a heartrending tenderness that a song like "Laughing" gives off, with its faint Eastern filigree. But the record's real knockout blow is "Talk About The Passion", the track that would become almost the prototype of the "Rem-song": crystalline guitars, the immortal charm of jingle-jangle, Stipe's slurred yet incredibly "musical" singing, the drum breaks, the offbeat pulse, the simple and elegant melodies.
Vocal harmonies again take center stage on the restless "Moral Kiosk", struck through by hard guitars and a hammering rhythm section, while the slow "Perfect Circle" rests on understated, minimal harmonies, cradled by elegant piano. The following "Catapult" veers toward more markedly country-rock sounds, opened by a powerful drum intro, while "Sitting Still" dresses itself in a catchy, unmistakably "pop" melody, embellished by the interplay between Peter Buck's riffing guitar and Stipe's thoroughly "heartfelt" delivery.
The punk influence that runs here and there through R.E.M.'s work is felt most strongly on a track like "9-9", driven by an obsessive rhythm that gives no quarter. The voices, skillfully paired with the folk sound of the guitar, return to the fore on the romantic "Shaking Through", with Stipe once again front and center. The remaining "We Walk" and "West Of Fields" are perhaps minor moments on the record, though they still contain all of its main influences.
The lyrics are always cryptic and indecipherable, functioning more as "sounds" than as a narrative thread for any possible stories. The overall mood, however, isn't far removed from that apathetic, subdued feel that would go on to pervade the repertoire of so many bands to come. "Murmur" is the cornerstone of all of R.E.M.'s subsequent output, and of so much indie rock still to come. "Rolling Stone" crowned it "album of the year", ahead of best-selling juggernauts like Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the Police's "Synchronicity". For Stipe and his bandmates, the time had come to shed their "garage band" clothes, to step out of the green '75 Dodge van in which they'd toured America without a dollar to their name: success – perhaps unexpectedly – had arrived.
Ride the wave of great music
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06/11/2006
This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Claudio Fabretti, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.
Tracklist
- 1. Radio Free Europe
- 2. Pilgrimage
- 3. Laughing
- 4. Talk About The Passion
- 5. Moral Kiosk
- 6. Perfect Circle
- 7. Catapult
- 8. Sitting Still
- 9. 9
- 10. Shaking Through
- 11. We Walk
- 12. West Of The Fields
Rem on OndaRock
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