Murmur (Dlx Ed) (Rm) [Deluxe Edition, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

I was seriously all prepared to smack this album for being (a) strategically holiday-priced as overinflated, (b) stingy with the extras, and (c) suffering because of el lame-o artwork, blah blah blah. But one spin, and by "Catapult", I'm driving home from purchasing this, singing lyrics at the top of my lungs that were never there to begin with, deeply wishing I could shave 25 years off my life and encounter Berry Buck Mills Stipe again with a fresh set of ears, and even better, secretly negotiating with myself that the hefty price tag was completely worth it after three songs. It just is, and you know it.

What the heck is there to say about this album, except that for me and millions like me, this was "Meet The Beatles"? Or the Bible? Or the soundtrack to the best years of our lives? It would take a year to express why, how, what, and where - but let's get to the important stuff. This is a reissue done RIGHT. No loss of integrity or continuity by remaking the album's order or tacking on distracting extras you don't need or can get elsewhere. Decent, faithful art (okay, maybe the layout of the liner notes could have been less berszerk, but whatever man, play "Sitting Still" LOUD and get over it). A highly righteous live set from '83 that sounds (like all their early live sets did) like you're flying down the highway hands off the wheel headed somewhere, but you're not sure where, and could care less. And interestingly - a little melancholy feeling about where this band has ended up and how it got there, and why there will never be another moment like the first six seconds of "Perfect Circle", or the weird bridge in "Moral Kiosk", or the freaky instrumental moment before "We Walk" that sounds like no other band's music ever, or the elliptical chorus of "Shaking Through" that inspired a million stoned discussions, or the bridge to "9-9" when Michael's extended moan dissolves into an otherworldly growl, or Mike Mills' buried counterpoint in the chorus of "Pilgrimage", or the moment when the guitar just explodes in the end climax of "Laughing", or the feeling that "Talk About the Passion" can't end so soon, carried away on - of all things - the most stately string section ever assembled by a bunch of college kids from (ahem) Athens, Georgia, and their cadre of good ol' boy producers. Georgia??!?! Are you kidding?? Who knew? "And what is that guy singing? And why doesn't this sound like The Minutemen or Black Flag?" There just isn't an album like this, and won't be again, ever. You know it's true, and you already feel what this magnificent and essential moment means. "Murmur", remastered, and done RIGHT.

Not too many bands over the last forty years or so have come out of the gate with an introductory LP with such a lasting impact as: "Murmur".
This record created something entirely different in 1983, it was rock as much as it was pop, and it wasn't even close to anything else released during the early eighties. The biggest kicker to the whole deal was that R.E.M. came from a small town in Georgia.

How in the world, can an album fit in between Molly Hatchet & Thriller? How can mumbled/mixed down vocals and chiming Rickenbacker guitars hold their own next to moonwalking and 27 minute jams of: "Whipping Post?" Well, R.E.M. was about unknown to everyone north of Richmond, Virginia and south of Jacksonville, Florida in early 1983, when IRS thrust this force onto a world of folks that were dying to be freed from the onslaught of drum machines and synths and crummy white-bread R & B, that at the time, seemed endless and unrelenting.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time on the coast of Virginia when this storm surged right at us. "Radio Free Europe" was already all over the good radio staions in southlands, and this single was very...well, it was great! The "Chronic Town" EP was in record stores with that bored gargoyle on a cool blue record sleeve. Something really different was happening here, catchy songs and an air of freshness was blowing out the pomp and excesses of the 1970's.

Disc One: "Murmur"
The big issue here with the 1983 recording, will be of course the concern over the sound of this, the re-mastered edition of 2008. To my old ears, this version is not that much different from the original record. What is of notice, is the the bass guitar is punching and pounding at the woofers of my speakers. The bass drum is a force as well, {and I have always thought the drumming by Bill Berry, was about as great as it gets.} There is a bigger brightness and clarity to the guitars, and Michael has been brought up a little more forward out of the original mix. Yes, this is the same record that I listened to 25 years ago, but now it is a whole lot BIGGER.

Out of the 35 or so songs that the band brought to the studios to use for this project, they did indeed pick 12 unique and timeless pieces to present their music to an unsuspecting world. "Pilgrimage", "Laughing", "9-9", "Talk About The Passion" "West Of The Fields" and "Catapult" are timeless gems and mature works for a band of two and a half years running. There is an updated, and more fully formed version of: "Radio Free Europe" here that is a bit different from the original single version of two years earlier. This album comes alive in the new mix, as it has been rescued from a swampy kudzu landscape under a railroad trestle.

Disc Two: "Live In Toronto {1983}"
Between 1980 and 1983, R.E.M. spent more time on the road than they would ever attempt again. First near Athens, then into South & North Carolina and Tennessee. They performed in small towns that had never hosted a big-name rock band. Word spread quickly that this was a band to see perform live. Dates in California, New York and Boston followed over the next two years. By summer of 1983, R.E.M. entered Canada for the first time and played their first show in Toronto at Larry's Hideway.

There are 16 songs on the live CD and it clocks in at 57 minutes. This is taken from the 60 minute FM radio broadcast of the show. Over the past two and a half decades, bootlegs of this night have appeared in LP, cassette and CD formats. The set opener: "Wolves, Lower" isn't on here, this CD starts at the opening of: "Laughing" and there is no sign of "Moral Kiosk" on this as well. This was a good night, but the cover songs that normally comprise a big part of R.E.M.'s live work are not a part of this show, because the FM market was hearing strictly band composed material, a proper strategy to win over a new audience.

Live R.E.M. in the early eighties is a raw punk driven force of noise and frantic energy, that is very fun to be a part of. Getting to pogo infront of one of those low stages, in sweaty clubs and dancehalls with a few hundred other lucky souls, {my night was: Virginia Beach in The Pavilion, with the Dream Syndicate as openers, on a hot summer night in 1984.} was a concert highlight, that is very difficult to forget.

The live CD is great to have in much improved sound quality over the boots, but when you realize what was not included here, you will be begging for more complete shows from 1981-1985 to see the light of an official release. Most of: "Murmur" is here, as is most of: "Chronic Town" also included are: "Harborcoat" & "7 Chinese Bros." from the then unreleased second LP: "Reckoning". This is a fine document of one of hundreds of nights on the road from the band's early days together, but I could go for listening to tapes of about 99 more shows from the first five years, and be very happy indeed!

This record was one of the very best released in the eighties {as was: "Reckoning" & "Fables Of The Reconstruction."} A bunch of groups that came after R.E.M. owe them a lot of thank's, for all those miles they traveled on back roads throughout the south with Jefferson at the wheel of that old station wagon. We got lucky here with this great band in 1983, this is what got a lot of us through the eighties...real music!
FIVE STARS!!!

Murmur is an absolute classic in college rock. This reissue provides two important improvements: audio quality (the remaster sounds cleaner and more dynamic than the previous reissue in '99) and a live show contemporary to the album release. The band's energy in that live show, recorded at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto in early '83, provides new insight to those only familiar with the album versions - the songs are played faster and harder, and Michael lets go with growls and trademark ad-libs. They are clearly at home in front of an intimate audience. The quality of the live recording is great, especially if you're used to hearing it on your 20-year-old bootlegs you recorded from scratchy vinyl...

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