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From:R.E.M. , A&M ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#6313 |
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3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
Amazing, 2008-03-08
One of my favorite albums that I always seem to come back to. This was my first and REM album before getting hooked on them and getting Reckoning. It doesn't seem to have any weak parts. Starts strong with Radio Free Europe and then moves to my favorite part of the album, tracks 3 through 5. Overall, I highly recommend this album to any fan of REM, especially if you are just starting to get into them.
Emerson would be proud, 2008-02-08
I'm shocked. It's amazing how bands can change. In 1991, they released Automatic For the People, an unlistenable piece of _____. in 1983, they released Murmur. Why does this album warrant five stars. Read on to find out.
Alright, forget AFTP. This is what R.E.M. is about. Such a break to here that good music like this was released in a time of horrible hair metal bands and arena rock. These college students were just doing what they were doing from Athens, Georgia. Murmur has beautiful melodies with an overall shady atmosphere, like the band is seperated from society by nature a-la Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nothing but themselves and their thoughts and human emotions. @$$ kicking 101, indeed. In fact, it does sound like their playing in a log cabin, jamming for no one except themselves (. Best of all, we are the audience. Alright, ________!
Michael Stipe's voice is the best improvement. He still does have a low voice, but it just doesn't whine and has such a great range of emotions. His murmur like voice has singing traits, so it automatically becomes more bearable. He never sounds whiny, and doesn't talk and say yeah yeah yeah (ala Man On The Moon). It truly was at it's peak here. I hardly recongnized his voice when hearing this, and that was a good thing. Surely, just a whole lot better during the early years. His lyrics are also quite abstract, so you can draw your own conclusions and figure out what you want to believe, not what others say. How's that for a concept?
Oh, and the music is also top notch. It's a simple set up, but each member has their own sound. Bill Berry's drums are driving yet not loud. It's like a metronome, but it sounds like he's drumming with meaning. He's a rhythm man, and a _________ good one at that. Peter Buck's guitar is the best, it's melodic and quite beautiful, and he seems to crank out one after another. Mike Mills once said he wanted to play his bass like a piano: Melodic, easy to pick out, and goes along. He's right. This was a refreshingly good set up then, sure, but with today's nickelbacks and creeds, it's even better.
This is why Murmur sounds so great. They spread it out in the 12 songs on here, and it sounds excellent. You got Pilgrimage, Radio Free Europe, We Walk, and more! It may have a bit of a country sound, but a lot of people can draw a lot from the music as well. Indeed, they were trying to make music that they made without letting people try to call out influence. That's impossible if you look deeper and think deeper (or if you can easily recognize genres), eh whatever. It is shrouded in great melodies, I'd even say the guitars sound a bit like Nick Drake, but upbeat. That's just me.
YOu can call Murmur what you want however. All I can really say is no matter how much you've been exposed to later R.E.M. your still in for a surprise. From the truly blended production, the lyrics, the music, R.E.M. had talent. This proves it.
Disclaimer: I do not support Trancendentalism. A dog is a dog, or do we say that because we are expected to? Surely, Mysticism for Mysticism's sake (aka _____). I do like it for establishing the civil rights movement, so I guess it wasn't that bad.
9/10
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
Murmer, 2008-01-12
R.E.M.-Murmer *****
It's hard to dissect, so why would you even want to try. You Can't understand the lyrics and yet you know every "word" to every song. How is possibe when the only audible part of the whole album is the chorus to 'Radio Free Europe?' Who cares is the real question. It's dark and quite and yet so damn powerful you can't help but lend an ear.
The amazing thing is that even when this album was released and you couldn't understand any of Michael Stipes lyrics people were still calling him a poet, which don't get me wrong I'm no saying that he isn't becuase he is, my point is that this is how powerful this album is an what an impact it had on people. This is where the term college radio, and idie, and underground, and soon alternative earned their names from.
R.E.M. is one of those rare bands like U2 where the members of the band, the musicians are amazing and are some of the best at their craft and are not held as icons, not because they are ignored but because instead they are held as genius. Like U2 only the front man is really known by name, Michael Stipe. Which is sad in one respect but honest in another, I'd tell you the names but a little research will do you good.
Songs like 'Pilgrimage' 'Moral Kiosk' 'Perfect Circle' 'and 'Catapult' are among some of the best that R.E.M. would ever record. other songs such as 'Laughing' and 'Sitting Still' are not far behind. There is a reason why this concedered not only the bands very best album but also one of the better albums ever, not just hype. And no this may not be the very best, a top 100 list would maybe only run this in the 80's or 90's but there is something to be said about honest underdog albums like Murmer.
Murmer is the kind of album that upon first listen blows your mind in such that your not sure why or how and must instantly listen to again. It is the sort of album that you will keep coming back to again and again, not too often but when you do it is bliss. Yes, murmer is the kind of album that will change the way that you listen to music and possibly the music you listen to as well. Highly reccomended for all, even those who are not interested in the album. I wasn't really interested in the album but did buy it because of it's legand and hype and I was not dissapointed, and please, please believe the hype, because you won't feel cheated.
Debut near-masterpiece, 2007-07-05
Debut album for R.E.M. was acclaimed and rightfully so. The sound of R.E.M. has never been easy to classify, especially since their entire catalog is about as eclectic as you could imagine, but they manage a spare, quiet rock sound that's as much pop as country. No one sounded like them in 1983 and it's still nearly impossible to figure out what Stipe is singing (or understanding just what the heck he was talking about). The music doesn't demand attention either and its quiet subtlety even during the heavier parts has never quite been duplicated.
The first half is nearly perfect and the second half doesn't flag too bad in its wake. Forgotten by some, a tad overestimated by others, it's still a great album, and probably the closest they'll ever come to a masterpiece (it's just a hair short, but close enough for me to grudgingly give it five stars). "Radio Free Europe" was their first (and still one of their best) hits, and helped identify the new sub-genre of college radio, "Catapult" has a phenomenal opening, and "Perfect Circle" still might be their all-time best song.
Best cuts: "Perfect Circle," "Pilgrimage," "Radio Free Europe," "Shaking Through," "Laughing," "Catapult," "Talk About Passion," "West of the Fields," "Moral Kiosk"
1 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
 R.E.M. arrives , 2007-05-11
This was one of the best albums of the mid-'80s. Forget the hair metal, forget the synth-pop, that all sucked. Now R.E.M., that's something different. No superstars, no excess, no power trips. Just four guys playing THE most earnest rock I have ever heard this side of Blood on the Tracks. That's why you hear songs like Radio Free Europe and Talk About the Passion on the radio today, whereas Twisted Sister and Poison's hits might occasionally pop up on a VH1: Behind the Music or I Love the '80s special.
So, what do I like about this album?? For one, "no-standout" mix is great. And Michael Stipe is arguably the best vocalist (NOT singer - there's a difference, albeit a subtle one) ever. His voice is more of a fourth instrument, and what an instrument to have! And these songs have killer hooks. Just try to resist humming the likes of Radio Free Europe, Talk About the Passion and Pilgramage under your breath as you go about your routine. IT CAN'T BE DONE!
And how about those songs? I think Radio Free Europe is R.E.M.'s most famous - if it's not, it's up there. Godo reason, too. The song embodies everything I like about R.E.M. Amazingly, it's not my favorite - I think Talk About the Passion is better myself, but that's just me. Actually, the first seven songs are hard to beat: Besides the aforementioned two, there's also Pilgrimage, Laughing, Moral Kiosk, Perfect Circle, and Catapult. But the second half falters, which is why this only earns four songs: all it really has to offer is Shaking Through, and there are a few fillers (9-9, We Walk, West of Fields).
Oh, and the lyrics... gotta bring those up. Because they're VERY hard to understand. When you actually manage to pick them out (or find them online, as I had to do), they're pretty vague. That's okay, I like vague lyrics. Good for the brain.
So yeah, great album. Alternative rock back when it was meaningful music.
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