someone requested this a few weeks back. Putting on Murmur now

radio free europe: this is such a good song although I don't quite understand why. some of it is probably the atmosphere, which pervades the whole record. The piano accents are cool, and the chorus has a real rich sound to it without sounding like the traditional mills/stipe harmonies. even for a straightforward song there is a whispery kinda feel to the whole thing. Murmur is a really aptly named record. 4/5

Pilgrimage--this is decent. but it's never been one of my favorites, and on an album of strong songs it kinda recedes into the background. this is one of those songs where I feel like every aspect of this song is done better somewhere else on the record. 3/5

Laughing--I feel pretty much the same way about laughing that i feel about pilgrimage. If this song wasn't on the album I probably wouldn't notice. Having said that, it's still decent. REM has shockingly few bad songs (or at least are smart enough to keep them off their records)--I like how smooth the chorus (the whole song, really) is. There's something very relaxing about this one. 3/5

talk about the passion: This might make me a bad REM fan, but I've never really been into this one. Murmur is a slow starter for me.

Elayna is in my lap and I'm singing these songs to her as I listen. so far this has been her favorite.

moral kiosk--i really used to like this one a lot. less so these days. it's catchy in the same way that this whole album is catchy without being obvious, but i'm not really drawn to it anymore. 3/5

Elayna held my finger the whole song though. that was cute.

Man, murmur hasn't aged that well for me.

Perfect Circle: This used to be one of my favorite REM songs. it's really beautiful and I like the lyrics a lot. 'standing too soon, shoulders high in the room' is a great lyric. I wish they'd rerecord this one someday. stipe is sorta struggling with how to sound on a slow song like this. He hasn't learned how to do this effortlessly yet. I wonder how mills on backing vocals in the chorus would sound. 4/5

I am so doing this.

Catapult--this is basically the same song as moral kisok for me, one I used to love but now don't feel drawn to. This sounds like it could have been on Chronic Town. I never really made that connection before 3/5

sitting still--this may be my favorite song on murmur. There's a bite to it that the previous songs don't have--catchy without feeling light. I've been listening to this song for almost 20 years and I still don't know what the hell he's saying in the chorus. 4/5

9-9--another one I really like. Some of the best lyrics on an album that doesn't have many good ones (not that it needs them, since the atmosphere is so evocative), and a cool hint of danger that fits in well on a record as mysterious as murmur. Conversation fear is a cool phrase. 4/5

one of the reasons I wanted to start this was to get you to listen to the last few records.

Hell yes. This'll be a lot of fun.

"Murmur hasn't aged that well for me."

I see these are going to go about as well as the PJ ones, stip.

But in all seriousness, this is a great idea. I'll pop in Murmur tonight.

I'm going to do it, i just can't afford the LPs right now.

shaking through reminds me a lot of pilgrimage and laughing, but it's catchier and there is a prettiness to it that's not on those first few tracks. Plus the fact that it comes after a run of songs that includes 9-9. sitting still, and perfect circle means that it's not suffering from the sameness of that run of songs from 2-5. 3/5, but this used to be a song i skipped all the time and I quite like it these days.

We walk: this song is stupid and so relentlessly charming and catchy at the same time that it's really hard not to like it. 3/5. I have a few friends who are REM fans and we still sing 'up the stairs and to the landing' when we're walking up long flights of steps. this is another song that could have been on chronic town

West of the Fields: Another great song. It reminds me of a fusion of sitting still and 9-9. it has the same basic sound of murmur but it also has a sense of self importance, like something is at stake here, that most of the songs are missing. This may also be my favorite chorus on the album. 4/5

I'll probably do this tonight with a song by song break down, but I will say this right now: For me, Murmur is just the lead in to Reckoning.

Murmur was always towards the bottom of the IRS run for me, but a few of the songs I used to like I find myself caring less about.

There is such a cool murkey atmosphere to this whole record, like a musical susurrus. Definitely the most appropriately named REM record. No bad songs here, and I can't say the album feels samey to me, since all the songs move so quickly, but I only really like about half the record.

I think half the record

Sitting Still, Perfect Circle, Radio Free Europe, 9-9, and west of the fields. I guess that's less than half. But every song on here is at least decent. If I was gonna rank the album as a whole I'd give it a 3.5, with the caveat that I can totally see how people would adore it.

just get the cds for now

harboarcoat distills almost everything great about murmur into one song.

That atmosphere you speak of is present on Reckoning as well. It's from the binaural recording methods used heavily on those records.

But...but...

The atmosphere on Murmur is absolutely perfect; I've never been in a position where I'm driving on a deserted country road at night with this album on the stereo, but I can imagine it'd be a very romantic, powerful experience.

One of the things that makes R.E.M.'s run of records so interesting, particularly in the IRS years, is that it's hard for me to rank them, or in a way even view them as entirely separate entities; the run from Murmur to Green feel like chapters in a novel as opposed to separate works.

i remember it being much less prominent on reckoning, but some of that might be because a lot of the songs are so much more straightforward than the ones on murmur. but it's been a while since I listened to reckoning from start to finish too (although way more reckoning songs are in my heavy rotation)

i'm gonna be away until sunday, so we can give murmur a few days to percolate.

this will be great for owl_garcia's insomnia

I should do this. I used to really love REM but I haven't listened to them in a decade.