The concept of "desert island discs" is a little anachronistic when people can carry hundreds of albums in the palm of their hand, but if I ever were stranded on a desert island with just five or ten albums, one of those albums would be R.E.M.'s Murmur.
When Murmur came out in 1983, it was so far out of step with prevailing trends in music (drum machines, synths, MTV) that it was almost like music from another planet. And 25 years later(!), when many popular albums from 1983 like Thriller, Synchronicity, and Let's Dance sound silly and dated, Murmur still sounds timeless and mysterious. And it will still sound timeless and mysterious 25 years from today.
It's kind of hard to write anything meaningful album albums like Murmur, since its appeal is so emotional. Even after hundreds of listens, I'm still not sure what most of the songs are about. I still remember the review in Rolling Stone (now online) which described it as "darkness shot through with flashes of bright light". It was that review that caused me to buy a cassette of Murmur , which has to be one of the profoundly life-altering moments of my musical life. I felt like these guys from Georgia had made an album just for me.
Up to that point, I'd always felt I was born twenty years too late, since all my favorite music was from the mid-to-late 60s. Murmur had a lot of that 60s sound that I liked (jangly guitars and bass and drums), but still sounded current. "Retro-sounding but forward looking" as one review said. Anyway, Murmur is one of my favorite albums ever full stop, and if it's not one of your favorite albums then you suck.
The End.
1 comment:
If I haven't listened to it for awhile, i'll have an idea in my head of how it will sound and the impact I expect it to have on me--and i'm always surprised. It's still such a fresh, startling experience.
What i've always loved is the combination of the ringing guitar pop with the spooky, deeply mysterious atmosphere. Neither of those elements cancels out the other. I can't think of any other albums that quite do that.
It's brilliant from top to bottom, too. Every song is loaded with amazing sounds and melodies and words. There's always magic when the perfect sounds all come together on a record, and everything on Murmur is absolutely perfect.
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