Right out of the mold, R.E.M. was determined to be different than most bands. With lyrics that often bordered on indecipherable due to the style of Michael Stipe’s delivery to the conscious decision to not use solos in general, they took the rule book of rock and tossed it out the window.
Their 1983 debut Murmur belies their youth, and has a maturity that was not seen in many bands, then or now. But while it’s a strong effort out of the gate, it’s not perfect.
Let’s get that statement out of the way right now. If anything, their attempt to make an album that defied pigeon-holing into any particular time period through the absence of solos, in fact, does pigeon-hole the album. But, if we’re honest about it, there was little that could be done about that, whether guitarist Peter Buck was allowed to cut loose with a solo or not. The simple growth of R.E.M. as performers and songwriters, as well as Stipe’s vocals smoothing out over the course of time, doomed this—as well as many of their early albums—to be locked into an unintentional time capsule. While one could argue that the 12 songs on this album didn’t need guitar or keyboard solos, their absence didn’t guarantee the album eternal youth.
In fact, some of the songwriting, which has always bordered on the quirky side of things—I mean, who writes a song featuring a phrase someone said when punching Dan Rather?—isn’t quite at the level that would eventually lead the band to superstardom. Tracks like “We Walk” and “West Of The Fields” aren’t the strongest efforts that Stipe and crew ever put forward—but, for a first effort, are admirable in their own right.
In fact, one would be hard-pressed over the first half of Murmur to find a weak song. While I’ll always prefer the rawness of the original version of “Radio Free Europe” that you’ll find on Eponymous, the “official” version has its own charms that tell the listener from the first few notes that they’re in for a real trip. To follow it up with tracks like “Pilgrimage,” “Talk About The Passion,” “Moral Kiosk” and “Perfect Circle’ is like getting hit with a flurry of Mike Tyson uppercuts, each one more powerful than the last.
Unfortunately, R.E.M. sets the bar so high with these six songs that it is nigh impossible for them to keep that momentum going for the second half of the disc. On any other album, tracks like “Sitting Still” and “Catapult” would have been standout tracks; here, they pale a bit in comparison, though they are by no means failures.
All in all, Murmur is a solid first effort from the Athens, Georgia-based quartet, even if it has been overlooked due to the success of latter-day I.R.S. releases like Fables Of The Reconstruction or Document. Nevertheless, it is still one that is well worth your time to check out, even if it’s only to discover the roots of a classic American band.
