R.E.M. : Murmur – Deluxe Edition

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/remmurmurdeluxeedition.jpg" alt=" " />R.E.M.'s first full-length, <i>Murmur</i>, comes out in a double-disc deluxe edition re-release, alongside the recording of a nearly-as-old concert. ...
8.7 I.R.S./Universal
2008 

R.E.M. : Murmur - Deluxe Edition

Before they were the biggest alternative rock band ever, R.E.M. were just four boys from Athens, Georgia, who’d put out one promising EP, Chronic Town.  But in 1983, they dropped their first full-length, Murmur, and it more than delivered on that promise: Rolling Stone named it the Best Album of the Year (over Michael Jackson’s Thriller, The Police’s Synchronicity, and U2’s War), and it has consistently ranked as one of the top albums of the eighties, as well as a favorite in the band’s wide discography.  Now, twenty-five years later, it’s been re-released with a bonus disc of a previously-unreleased concert at Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto that took place a few months after Murmur was in stores.

But first things first: yes, Murmur is still as great as you remember it.  Whether it was when you were first discovering R.E.M. as kings of the underground in the late eighties, seeing them go major label and big with Green and especially “Losing My Religion” in the early nineties, were dismayed at their record-setting $80 million-dollar contract with Warner Bros. in 1997, stopped following them around after drummer Bill Berry left and their records lost some vitality, or were rejoicing at their return to fine form with this year’s Accelerate (QRO review), Murmur has always been a favorite.  In many ways still the record that all later R.E.M. records get compared to (even guitarist Peter Buck did that recently, when talking about Accelerate on PBS’s Austin City LimitsQRO late night TV schedule), it helped define a wave of American indie, and set the stage for much of the ‘modern’ alternative rock movement.

For such a classic record, it’s ironic that its leadoff track is its main single – and yet for a long time has been the inferior version of that piece.  “Radio Free Europe” might be the song that first broke R.E.M. out of their shell, but what was on Murmur still isn’t quite as good as the “(Original Hib-Tone Single)” version that leads off 1988’s greatest hits collection Eponymous (their last release with original, independent label I.R.S.) – or, as singer Michael Stipe and former long-time manager Jefferson Holt put it in the Eponymous liner notes, “This one crushes the other one like a grape.”  But whatever the version, “Radio Free Europe” is still great, with a more removed Stipe than would come on later releases.

So great, in fact, that it has tended to overshadow the following “Pilgrimage”.  An interesting mixture of elements and rhythm, “Pilgrimage” showed real ambition, if sometimes too much of a mixture.  That ambition and mixture comes out on other tracks, like the better put together, if slightly less inventive, “Moral Kiosk”, or the social haunt/echo of “9-9”, chock full of remarkable elements, but bound tight in an original and compelling way.

But the hallmark of Murmur was R.E.M.’s base sound, an expert balance of each member’s contributions, whether it was Buck refraining from guitar solos in favor of just excellent regular work, or “the drummer, he knew restraint” (Stephen Malkmus’ line about Berry in Pavement’s wonderful tribute song to R.E.M., “The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence”, from 1993’s No Alternative compilation).  Early on, that comes out in a soft-but-solid carry, with “Laughing” (another often over-looked number) & the gliding and insinuating single “Talk About the Passion”, along with later track “Shaking Through”.  Most of the back end of Murmur is bigger, such as the controlled, frenetic push of “Sitting Still”, the penultimate change-up in the bright march “We Walk”, or the driving send-off “West of the Fields”, which pointed to the marriage of power and skill that R.E.M. would later employ.  And sitting in the middle is “Perfect Circle” and “Catapult”: while the latter may be the weakest track on Murmur, thanks to its title chorus not quite fitting with its well-played verse, too up-country, the former is a perfect little gem, with Stipe’s monotone vocals pitching at just the right moments (it’s also yet another somewhat forgotten piece on the record, thanks to its limited volume and instrumentation).

But you already knew all of that – so what about the bonus disc?  ‘Deluxe Edition’ re-releases of classic records really only earn their weight in bonus material: while less-than-stellar extras left U2’s re-release of the stellar Joshua Tree (QRO review) somewhat lacking, the grab-bag of picks on Odelay – Deluxe Edition (QRO review) picked up the great Beck breakthrough (really only underrated records by great artists see their original material get fresher in re-release, like Pavement’s own Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Ed.QRO review).  And Murmur has already been re-released once with extras, ten years after the fact by EMI, with four bonus tracks.  Plus the vault of early R.E.M. unreleased material has been mined many, many times, starting with 1987’s b-sides/rarities collection Dead Letter Office, and continuing to this day.

So for this Deluxe Edition, the Powers That Be went the other way and just added on one thing: a recording of a show at Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto that took place only a few months after Murmur hit shelves (back in the day when there were actual ‘records’ stacked on actual ‘shelves’…).  The recording is a little rough (especially after the digitally-remastered Murmur), and lacking much in the way of stage banter – only Stipe’s barely-audible reply to audience requests, “When we started and audiences were giving us trouble, we would do ‘Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room’ and they would quit giving us trouble” (the Brownsville Station hit was featured in the movie Rock ‘n’ Roll High School – and in 1985, just two years after this concert, returned to the charts as a cover by yet-to-be metal icons Mötley Crüe, their first foray into Top 40).

But it’s impressive how together R.E.M. sounds, even at this young stage, especially considering how concert-adverse they would later become.  That’s true from the opening with “Laughing” (a good pick to start things off, a softly – but not too softly – intro) to their encore finish of Chronic Town’s “1,000,000” and “Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)” (the latter being the loudest audience request from earlier).  It’s even true for songs that wouldn’t see the light of day until later, like “7 chineSe bros.”, “HarborcOat” (both released on 1984’s following Reckoning), “Just a Touch” (later on 1986’s Life’s Rich Pageant), or even their cover of The Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes Again” (the studio version would appear on Dead Letter Office).

Maybe you didn’t need a Deluxe Edition to remind you how much you loved Murmur.  And now that R.E.M. is back on the road again, maybe you don’t need a live recording of them way-back-when.  But Murmur still speaks volumes, and R.E.M. isn’t playing ‘Hideaways’ anymore.

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