Rem - Murmur
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Free Music Notes for Murmur
Free Music Review: evocative, understated, timeless
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't even begin to explain how important this recording was to me as a kid growing up in rural Georgia--but I'll try! As a "shy, sensitive, arty" type living in a redneck town, "Murmur" represented a world where everything made sense, reflected my tastes, desires and loves, and just became a security blanket for me all through the 8th grade and into high school. I remember laying in the dark listening to "shaking through" on headphones and being near tears, why, I don't know; the lyrics were almost indicipherable. but just the way they rolled off michael stipe's tongue, with mike mills' sweet harmony and the sympathetic underpinings of the band, gave me a feeling of completeness. It's little wonder that I knew at that moment I was going to Athens, Ga., for college, and I did. During my years in Athens I would from time to time meet one of the members of the band (except Pete Buck) informally, at a bar or party (that's the kind of town Athens still is), and I would feel this need to express my gratitude to them for "Murmur." I wish I had. I guess I didn't because I didn't want to look like just another obsessive fan, or to belittle their later work (most of which I think is great pop music, but nowhere near "Murmur"'s quality), or out of the feeling that I should treat them like normal people and not heroes. I wouldn't call R.E.M. heroes for recording "Murmur", but they made this Southern boy's adolescence a lot easier. So, if you're reading this, Michael, Pete, Bill or Mike, thanks.Free Music Review: More music like this needs to be out
Hit: 5 Stars
"Murmur" just goes to show how great you can do with so little. The lyrics are like E.E. Cummings poems and Michael Stipe innocently wails them out. The music are like session bootlegs that go all over the place. The music isn't produced and not in the standard song formula (No guitar solos here) and instrumentally they even use items like pots and pans! You really have to listen to it for a long time and know its history before enjoying it. I know the first time I gave it a listen I was going "Ummm? This is music?" but now I love it ever so much. "Radio Free Europe" is a great single and could be played on the radio if they were only a little more open minded. "Pilgrimage" has a great set of lyrics and standard musically. "Laughing is one of my favorite songs on the album, its simple and sweet. "Talk About The Passion" is a nice feel good sing-along song. "Moral Kiosk" is weak I do admit but I still like it. "Perfect Circle" is the most diverse on the album. It's a beautiful piano piece that has no rules and beats all the over "Imagine" piano-rock rip off songs. Now the next three songs "Catapult", "Sitting Still", and "9-9" are where I think the album is the best. They all just have a nice vibe and feel to them. The Album ending isn't as great as my favorites before but it's still amazing. You have to get this album to see what MTV will never show and what you missed before R.E.M. became famous.Free Music Review: Under the Kudzu, Rich Soil
Hit: 5 Stars
"Murmur" is, along with "Thriller," the finest album of the 1980s, but the two couldn't be more different. While slick synth pop was enjoying its heyday with Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Human League, college rock was off in its non-commercial corner doing its weird and lovely Byrds impression and calling it R.E.M.1983's "Murmur," the band's first full-length album (after an EP called "Chronic Town"), remains their masterpiece. Its lyrics read like the work of James Dickey or Frank Stanford or any necromantic intense mysterious Southern poet--which is in fact what Michael Stipe is. Its music is dense with layered vocals, chiming jangling guitar, and has an earthy muddy warm-hearth quality. Its organic feel defies the artificiality of the analog early-80s.
What makes this album utterly unique is the way its vocals are mumbled, the manner in which its poetry is inexact. We are left to hear what we will in this vaguely beautiful album. These murmured songs are merely guidelines, engaging the listener's inagination. With each subsequent album, R.E.M. will move toward lyrical and musical clarity, but here at the start is willful obscurantism, a kudzu album cover, Southern mystique.
Here's my guess at the transcendently lovely "Shaking Through": "Could it be that one small voice/ doesn't count in the world?/ Yellow like a geisha dawn/ driving all the way/ Shaking through..."
Free Music Review: YESSSSSSSS!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I LOVE this album!It was no accident that "Rolling Stone" called this the best album of 1983, better than "Thriller" and "War". EVERY song on here should have been a hit. I mean jeez the "Straight off the boat/Where to go?" part in "Radio Free Europe" ALONE should have made them popular radio gods. Fortunately they stayed together long enough so that "The One I Love" did the job.
Unlike, say, The Replacements. Jeez. Underground music was SOOOOO much better than the popular stuff. Underground there was Husker Du, REM, Replacements (or "The Mats" as some people call them), Dead Kennedys, Metallica ("Master of Puppets" only got up to like #32 on the Billboard charts!!!), and Slayer. Let's see, mainstream (or "above ground") there was MTV schlock like Kajagoogoo, Genesis (I'm not knocking "Home By The Sea" or "land of Confusion", but "invisible Touch"???? "In Too Deep"???? What the hell are those dorks thinking???), Prince????? Goerge Michael????? LIONEL RITCHIE????? CULTURE CLUB???
MICHAEL BOLTON??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? I've complained long enough. Please buy "Murmur". It's great. For my money the best album of the 80s (except maybe "Let It Be" which I think is one of the greatest albums released ever in the history of music).
And how about the guitar in "9-9"???
Free Music Review: The Perfect Debut?
Hit: 5 Stars
Oh yeah, you better believe it! This album is proof of how great R.E.M. really are. They weren't afraid to try something different from the very beginning... this cd is anything but ordinary!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.
It's effectively a toss up between this and Automatic for R.E.M.s best (though I heard Lifes Rich Pageant is the best, I just have to wait till I get my grubby mits on it!) But this cd is definatly worth your time. Listen to the cd that created Alternative Rock and started the legend that is R.E.M.!!