Could it be that one small voice doesn’t count?

Murmur. Great album title. Overall, though, this has never been my favorite REM album. I tried to ignore that as I listened to it over the last week or so. But, I think I stand by my assessment that this is an unever album where they try just a little too hard.

The first two songs - the sluggish slowed down version of Radio Free Europe and Pilgrimage get the album off to a rather dense start, and I could do with out them. Right when you’re ready to turn it off though, that bass line for laughing comes in, and they seem to redeem themselves. It’s a lighter song with a solid hook, and a great chorus. Then comes ‘Talk About the Passion’. It’s a great song, there’s no doubt, but one issue I’ve got is they way R.E.M. is so oblique, yet hits you over the head. Have you seen the video for this song? Sheesh, we get it. Not EVERYONE can carry the weight of the world - the subtext of course meaning that perhaps this band can.

The next half of the album, Moral Kiosk, Perfect Circle (heavy handed, but lovely) Catapult, and Sitting Still all hit their mark perfectly, and deliver on the hints of greatness from Chronic Town. There’s also less dicking around with weird intros and overdone reverb, which I appreciate.

9-9 is a funny one - sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I think this is in the ‘trying to hard’ category. The speak song behind the guitar opening guitar riff (so artsy!) the crunchy guitar (so punk!). I don’t know, I just usually don’t care for it.

Now, I consider Shaking Through and We Walk to be crowning achievements on this album. Shaking through is light and poppy, but has a deeper meaning to the lyrics and a great piano riff that gets me every time. Stipe, as most of you know, had a penchant for slurring his words together on early albums. so the question was always, ‘what is he SAYING?’ and there are millions of versions of lyrics out there. The thing about Shaking Through is you actually care - you want to know what the lyrics are, vs. 9-9, where I could really give a shit. Conversatoin fear? Ok, fine.

We Walk, in addition to being one of the best canvassing songs ever (thanks Bobby - as an aside, whenever I’m canvassing I get ‘Reason to Believe’ stuck in my head, but that’s a different entry) is just such a fun bouncy song WITH THUNDERCLAPS! Kudos gentlemen.

West of the Fields always felt terribly tacked on to me - like they needed to make the album three minutes longer.

So, bottom line, I think Murmur should’ve been another EP. Laughing, Talk about the Passion, Moral Kiosk, Perfect Circle, Catapult, Sitting Still, Shaking Through, and We Walk. A long EP, but significantly better, I think, without Radio Free Europe, Pilgrimage and WOTF.

Overall Grade - B/B-

I would say, if you’re an REM fan you know this record. You’re all good. If you don’t know REM’s older stuff that well, don’t start with this one. The good songs are great, but the mediocre songs detract from the album for me. Next week : Reckoning, which to be fair, has been my favorite REM album since 1986.