R.E.M. – Murmur – CD

‘Murmur,’ an album with a sound that was new at the time, and characterized the quieter, introverted side of the first wave of alternative rock. R.E.M. developed a strangely subdued variation of their trademark sound for their full-length debut album, one that sounds uncannily eternal and as if it has existed forever. Whether it’s the measured riffs of ‘Pilgrimage,’ the melancholic ‘Talk About the Passion,’ or the winding guitars and pianos of ‘Perfect Circle.’ The individuality lies in the atmospheric production, which radiates a detached sense of mystery, but it also comes from the bizarrely talented songwriting. The spidery guitar lines on ‘Catapult,’ performed with a charmingly punky weirdness and slightly sinister melancholy, seem to suggest that things in the past were not as simple or innocent as they seemed. Listening to this album is downright life affirming!

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 9-9
10 Shaking Through
11 We Walk
12 West of the Fields