at a glance...

Hometown: Athens, Georgia
Year Formed: 1980

Personnel:
Michael Stipe -vocals
Peter Buck -guitars
Mike Mills -bass
Bill Berry -drums

Related Bands:
Tuatara, Hindu Love Gods, Robyn Hitchcock, U2, Patti Smith, Radiohead, Vic Chesnutt, 10,000 Maniacs, KRS-One, Billy Bragg, Drivin' and Cryin', Fleshtones, Grant Lee Buffalo, Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Neneh Cherry, B-52s, Golden Palominos, Kristin Hersh, Butter 08, Smashing Pumpkins, Oh OK, the Db's, the Troggs.

Notes:
In the wake of punk and new wave, the garage band sound of the Chronic Town EP, released in 1982, was R.E.M.'s first taste of critical worship, something that washed over into 1983 when the band's full length debut Murmur was universally considered the best album of the year. R.E.M. spent the early half of the '80s as a college radio station staple at universities across America, releasing at least one album a year on I.R.S. Records. On the heels of their top-five single "The One I Love," 1987's Document allowed the band to break through to a mainstream audience for the first time. The band's exodus to major label Warner Bros. allowed their unique sound to reach an even bigger audience, as 1989's Green continued garnering critical praise for the band while selling over a million records. The '90s saw R.E.M assume the role of global super-group, as Out Of Time, Automatic For The People, Monster, and New Adventures In Hi-Fi proved. Things briefly came to a halt in 1997, however, as founding member and drummer Bill Berry decided to quit the band after a severe illness. Amid speculation that this meant their demise, the remaining three members decided to keep playing and released their eleventh studio album, Up, in 1998. They finished the decade by writing the musical score for the Andy Kaufman biopic, "Man On The Moon," named after one of their songs.

Pioneers of pop music south of the Mason-Dixon line and pivotal champions of the explosion of 'College Rock,' R.E.M. have always done their own thing. When you look at it, their records adhered to no particular party line and remained non-partisan; Michael Stipe's words are puzzling to the point of being indecipherable, while he, Peter, Mike, and Bill religiously shun the rockstar limelight and all of its excesses.

Their music, on the other hand, is something else altogether. Eschewing the predictable path of inheriting either straightforward Southern rock or the high-speed snarl of hardcore punk, the concoction R.E.M. delivered with their first recordings was refreshingly eclectic.

On their first full-length, their music reaches a new degree of complexity, as the quartet fill out their vocals, guitar, bass, and drums with keys, strings, percussion, and various other noises (some provided by the man behind the board, Mitch Easter). Even more importantly, the compositions are surprisingly advanced and consumingly melodic, from the melancholy dirge of "Perfect Circle" to the indecipherable vocals of "9-9."

Perhaps it's something about the cover art, but listening to Murmur transports me to woodsy areas - it's a rural sound. It's a remarkably soulful record for a debut - "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world," Stipe sings, as if he's already tried. The vocals are soft-spoken and heavy on harmony, the guitars are jangly and more acoustic-sounding than electric, the fingerpicking is intricate, the drums are tight and upbeat, and the sum of these parts is a solid album of dark pop songs.