Now that it's remasterd and everything lets do an R.E.M.'s Murmur poll

:-( I was really looking forward to doing this poll!

But, anyway, fucking amazing album that I've maybe worn out a bit, but it still sounds great every time. Hard to really have original words about it at this point. In a really hyperbolic web review ("unique churn and mumble") I once wrote this about Stipe's voice:

On this record, it's a complete smokescreen, protecting meaning within a layer of armor on top of the loopy semi-sense of the lyrics themselves.

and this stuff:

But listening to the album, I can't put my finger on just what gives me this overwhelming sense of specialness and magic. Certainly a few songs are key: the loopy "9-9" is perhaps the album's unacknowledged masterpiece, sliding all over the place like it's about to bust its gearbox as Stipe repeats, mantra-like, strange and fearful words [...] The album would also feel far more pedestrian without the upsy-daisy "We Walk," which is so friendly it's sinister, and of course the muffled, driving kickoff, "Radio Free Europe," which seems to have about as much to do with Radio Free Europe as "9-9" does with the number 9.

Of course, don't let all this talk of mystery and hidden treasure let you think that this is some quiet, introspective album. It's full of wonderful nooks and crannies, but it is at heart a rock and roll barnstormer - check out "Moral Kiosk," and "Catapult," two out-of-control trains about to jump the tracks.

So, yeah. When I first got into this album it would have been "9-9" easy, and that's still the best rock song on here, the most Chronic Town thing in the bunch - but it's "Laughing" that I picture when I think of listening to this album, on a cassette walkman wandering around Oxford on study abroad, having no particularly deep appreciation for anything around me but totally digging on flowers, sunshine, and the way the whole world seemed to open up ahead when you have music on headphones and Stipe intoning "Lighted, lighted..." I'm falling back on the same hyperbolic tone as before, which is enough to smother the song I'm afraid. Anyway it gets my vote.

REM - "Pilgrmage"

moral kiosk is the enduring favourite, though i like all the tracks on this album immensely

I'll bet "Talk about the Passion" doesn't get a vote.

no idea what to vote for, since i like all the songs but i also like them all best in context with each other. lots of great intros on this record: the opening of "r.f.e," obviously, but also the way "laughing" starts out all stark and bass-y before turning pretty, stipe's voice drifting in from some dark corner on "pilgrimage," the big chiming picked chords on "talk about the passion," the nervous hihat on "shaking through." they knew how to start a song.

the big chiming picked chords on "talk about the passion"

And the arpeggios!

One of my favorite noodly warmup things on an acoustic. And the reason I voted for it :-)

there is really so much good shit on this album. i'm lovin it

xpost haha that first bit made no sense... edit failure :o

One of my favorite noodly warmup things on an acoustic. And the reason I voted for it :-)

24 years after figuring out how to play it, "Sitting Still" is STILL the song I play when I'm checking out a guitar.

"Sitting Still" is like their version of a Who song from 1966.

"Sitting Still" on Showtime's Rock Palace show in 1984. I still have the tape I recorded of this when it first aired.

What is Rainn Wilson doing, lying there all sweaty at the beginning of that clip? Is he reeling in post-coital bliss?

could've picked any of 8 tracks, went "Shaking Through"

"Sitting Still", a lot easier of a choice than I thought it would be. I love this song so much. In my most rockist days I made a mixtape that I called something like "the history of punk" or something similarly idiotic, and this was the last song. In my ridiculous drunk on beauty liner notes I scribbled something like "this song is the emotional culmination of punk". The thought is incoherent and I can't justify it, but I still think of the song as punk, and have always had a hard time understanding why this record got compared to the Byrds rather than the Clash or, as said above, the Who. I've listened to the Hib-Tone version of the song a lot more than the original recently, and I like it more: there's a harshness in Stipe's voice that works better than the sweetness in the Murmur version (same's true for me with the A-side, "Radio Free Europe").

After "Sitting Still" I'd probably vote for "Talk About the Passion", which meant a lot to me in high school when I spent a lot of time carrying the weight of the world (or at least talking about doing so).

Okay, I'm voting for Perfect Circle, but only because that's the words that would come out of my mouth if someone pointed a gun at my head over it, and because I dread RFE winning. Still, just fuck anyone who wants to listen to ONE track on this album at any given time. It needs to be heard in its entirety.

Also, what is the synth noise at the beginning of Radio Free Europe??? HANNETT ANYONE???

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for Pilgrimage in the end, btw.

i've voted for "we walk". it's nothing like the rest of the album and it's kind of cheeky in that way.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, I knew "West of the Fields" wouldn't do that well, but I didn't think it would do that badly. I'm glad my vote at least made it tie for last with something else. I think my true favorite may be "Moral Kiosk" though.

you haven't quite got the hang of this poll business, eh?

Why won't it let me vote anymore?!

woulda voted laughing

You cannot fuck with this album.

Thanks to Euler above for turning me on to the Hib-Tone version of "Sitting Still," which I somehow never knew about before! I'm not sure it's better, but like the single "Radio Free Europe" it has a welcome metallic punchiness. Wish it was on "Chronic Town."

Shaking Through is my least favorite on the record. Therefore, I am slightly displeased with the results of this poll.

On the other hand, hooray for Shaking Through.

Yeah, I don't understand the high placement of that song either.

Oh damn, so much harder than the LRP poll. I would have voted "Sitting Still" probably. Can't believe "Laughing" was so low.

Perfect Circle wuz robbed

ok wtf, here's the order in which I'd have ranked them, could we poll for second, third, etc. I don't really get the love for "Shaking Through" as it's kinda an embarrassing Stipe vocal but maybe that's the appeal? I don't really feel the ballads on this one anyway so maybe that's what I'm missing. Also fuck yeah on the Hib-Tone "Sitting Still", metallic punchiness is a nice way to put it.

B2 Sitting Still 3:18 9
A2 Pilgrimage 4:30 6
B1 Catapult 3:55 4
A3 Laughing 3:58 4
A4 Talk About the Passion 3:23 4
A1 Radio Free Europe 4:05 10
B5 We Walk 3:01 2
B3 9-9 3:05 3
A5 Moral Kiosk 3:32 7
A6 Perfect Circle 3:30 7
B4 Shaking Through 4:30 10
B6 West of the Fields 2

Shaking Through is totally embarassing, borderline Everybody Hurts, but it runs me through nonetheless.

you people embarrass too easily

I just bought & listened to this album recently, and I was surprised at how much I didn't take to it. Like seriously, I thought it was going to be like Chronic Town (which brought the awez), and instead it reminded me of highly unengaging albums like Document and Out of Time...

to these ears: Remy Zero's first album>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Murmur.
I guess I just don't get it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/U1046283INP.jpg

DAM: Had to be there, maybe? I dunno. I was just floored when I first heard Murmur in the mid 80s (I discovered R.E.M. late). That energy and jangly guitar and big beat and gothic Southern vibe all sounded familiar, but somehow like it was floating in from outer space.

Too bad they've fallen so far since their pretty-damn good mid-career stuff.

Had to be there, maybe?

yeah, that's what I'm thinking...I heard and liked Fables decently and Chronic Town and Automatic are amazing, but I'm beginning to suspect that I think R.E.M. is shit...

You really need to distinguish between early-R.E.M., mid-career R.E.M., and late-career R.E.M. They're fairly distinct, in terms of their sound and the quality of their work.

early = CT + first four albums

mid = Document thru Up

late = everything afterwards...

is this what you mean?

I'd put Up in late-career (everything after Bill Berry left). Otherwise, yeah.

stuff I like from all 3 periods:

Chronic Town EP, Driver 8, prolley a couple other trax from Fables, Disturbance from the Heron House, King of Birds, Strange - the Wire cover, Losing My Religion, Texarkana, Shiny Happy People (mainly for Kate Pierson), ALL of Automatic, What's the Frequency Kenneth?, E-bow the Letter

only E-Bow the Letter, Driver 8, and the Chronic Town EP are on a patch with that first Remy Zero album tho...

Does "We Walk" have a vibraphone? I don't remember hearing it before!

not gonna blow anyone's minds here but what a fucking album am i right

You're completely correct, of course!

empty prayer, empty mouth

cambien du temps?

take the steps to dash a worried heart

Going back to Oct 1982 this is a great show with surprisingly ok audio and video. A mix of Chronic Town and Murmur. Stipe pretty loose, having fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sBVX9kRmBE

love that video

lol at Stipe's Tri Sigma sorority shirt

Watching that reminds me how spot-on Fred Armisen is, talking about Bill's drumming style (starts at 1'40")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoUWmZo_t1s

That Mitch Easter interview was interesting. I didn’t know Peter Holsapple originally hooked the guys up with him.

Seems weird - https://news.yahoo.com/michael-shannon-jason-narducy-perform-163000856.html

Michael Shannon seems to always be doing these kinds of tributes. He did one for The Blue Mask, I believe.

Or at least participated in it.

They were a really fun live band up until around the time Green came out.

inside the cold dark fire twilight