"Murmur"

Continuing our circuitous route through the REM catalog, we pause now at their first full-length studio album, Murmur. What's with the random order (thus far, Pageant, Reckoning, and Chronic Town)? Well, I am more or less going in the order of my own exposure to the band's stuff when I became a fan in the 80s.

I seem to recall hearing (from Tad maybe?) that according to Stipe Murmur was so-named because it is one of the easiest words in the English language to say. For that matter, I guess we can count ourselves lucky that the record wasn't called Knob or Lamprey. Nonetheless, the real beauty of the album is the space the band and producers allowed themselves, both aural and linear. Here are twelve tracks - some murky and mysterious, some wry and fun - wherein the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts. This is a complete project that highlights the range of a young band on the edge of greatness. REM's southern folk roots share the same vinyl with forward-looking post-punk alt rock. Time to crawl through the kudzu.