Rem - Murmur
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Free Music Notes for Murmur
Free Music Review: THE best from rem - superior to automatic for the people
Hit: 5 Stars
though i'd heard of this album, still being mainly a 70s classic rock listener, for a long time i never bought it. then one day i happened to see the album on a free music website. a couple of plays and inspite of the poor quality of the audio, i could easily sense the exceptional quality of music in the album.
now having bought/listened to murmur as well as other major albums by the band (on the strength of murmur), contrary to popular perception/opinion, i strongly feel that rem's first album is by far the best that they ever did. imo this album in its musical ingenuity far surpasses the much hyped automatic for the people. little surprise that it was this album which featured in rolling stones top 100 albums of all time.
where this album scores is the near inexhaustible supply of highly catchy tunes one after another - some playful, some meditative. each and every song is different, highly melodic and tuneful. there's a freshness and purpose in this work which was but natural in a highly talented band making their first record free from any expectations and pressure. and what a record it is! the song list is almost like a best of collection - pilgrimage, laughing, passion, catapult, sitting still, west of the fields etc.
truly one of the great albums of all time! pity that rem has never managed to achieve this level of musical brilliance after their debut effort. talk about peaking early!
Free Music Review: southern white-boy soul
Hit: 5 Stars
A luminous album by four guys who don't have to (ineffectually) copy Otis Redding - they have a deep soul and spirit to their music drawing on centuries of white folk traditions, country, hillbilly, and such, with a little Velvets, Sex Pistols and Joy Division thrown in. These songs capture the rural South timelessly. Perhaps the best arrangements ever on a pop-rock album. A profound sense of mystery - what is stirred forth when you're alone in the country and glad. The first ten songs are shatteringly good - "We Walk" and "West of the Fields" (last two tracks) are a slight come-down and should have been integrated somewhere else into the running order. Chronic town (especially), Reckoning, Fables, about 2/3 of Pageant, and two or three songs off Document almost reach these heights. Everything after Document - including that ridiculously overrated, facile piece of crud Automatic for the Trashcan - is dreck - largely because of some changes over the years in Stipe's artistic and public personality. Pretty much the same disaster as befell Natalie Merchant. This stuff is art, not commerce, and if the artist "grows" into a buffoon, the art will suffer miserably. Listening to their post-'87 stuff is like cleaning the Sistine Chapel ceiling and finding Flintstones cartoons underneath. But this eternal masterpiece far transcends the band's oversimplified, uninspired present. Radiantly beautiful.Free Music Review: Best Of R.E.M.
Hit: 5 Stars
R.E.M.'s debut album released in 1983 is their best album among the albums I have listened. I have listened all their later albums ('Out of time' onwards, still haven't listened 'Reveal'), 'Automatic For The People' was very good and 'Out of time' has the best first part of album by them ... but frankly ... considering the whole album, this is R.E.M.'s best album. The hero of the album is not Michael Stipe, that award goes to Peter Buck. Out of the world guitar playing, he's not Eddie Van Halen, so you won't feel every second that something extra ordinary is going on... still it is his simple sounding, innocent guitar playing that steals the show. Example: the guitar riff in 'Catapult', I'm feeling like describing it in text but that is not possible. The other members gave good supports. The bassist Mike Mills carries a very audiable bass. R.E.M. is one of the popular groups(U2 is another) in todays lead guitar dominated music, which uses bass beautifully. You can clearly follow the bass lines and at the fell in love with the tunes. Moreover Mills is a very good background singer. Michael Stipe used his catchy voice(it's only the words you can't catch) for the first time in this album.Right now I'm listening the album (and writing review) ... nuh, there's no doubt IT is their best. A must buy to understand R.E.M.'s potential and for those who likes alternative music. A landmark album.
Free Music Review: A brilliant bolt from the blue behind murky production
Hit: 5 Stars
Other reviewers have stated that when REM's first album MURMUR appeared in 1983 it sounded like nothing ever heard before: fresh, unpretentious, and utterly devoid of mainstream unoriginality. Even those of us who weren't old enough to appreciate music in 1982 can still listen to MURMUR today and know that it is something special.While not the best of REM's albums, and they certainly got better and better with time, MURMUR is perhaps the band's most "honest" record. Michael Stipe's nonsensical mutterings, Billy Berry's idiosyncratic drumming, this is a band who recorded an album just to have fun and don't seem to care if anyone'll listen. I'm sure they think just as much as we do that it is remarkable that a couple of Athens college-town boys could come up with something this original.
Some of the songs on here are classics, although they are less than REM's peak of songwriting on AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE. "Radio Free Europe" is like nothing before or since; what the heck is Stipe singing? "Pilgrimage" baffles the listener with its talk of "a two-headed cow" but entertains with its catchy melody. "Perfect Circle" is timeless. "Catapult" drives right along.
Not the best introduction to REM, as it is a little too eccentric, MURMUR is compared to other REM albums a "four," but in music history it deserves a high point.
Free Music Review: Exotic, Unearthly and Masterful
Hit: 5 Stars
Someone please rescue me from Journey-Boston-Foreigner. I can't take it anymore. Murmur was a welcome relief in 1983 from "arena rock" dominated FM radio. Thank you R.E.M. The album has many anti-derivative soft rock attributes going for it: the dramatic structure of `Pilgrimage,' the majestic and haunting melody of `Perfect Circle,' and a bouncing sing-along titled `We Walk.' Murmur is stamped with the signature jangle-guitars of the Byrds (Talk About The Passion, Catapult, Shaking Through). R.E.M.'s presentation is musically uncomplicated: rhythm driven (Radio Free Europe), light and melodic (Laughing), and sprinkled with lush vocal harmonies (West Of The Fields).Most impressive is the overall atmosphere of Murmur. The compositions (although varied) are united by Michael Stripe's vocal delivery. At times indecipherable, his voice is detached and distant. I don't know if this is the result of having Stripe stand "behind" the band during the recording sessions, or "blending" his vocal track into the sound mix. Regardless, the tone of Murmur is exotic and unearthly. I'm pleased that the original CD "didn't" include the lyrics: it would have distracted from overall balance and mood of the album. Although not a "concept" album by strict definition, Murmur successfully creates an elusive atmosphere: call it mysterious, haunting or hypnotic; but definitely call it masterful.