The debut album from Athens, Georgia band . Murmur was an immediate underground smash, with "Radio Free Europe" topping the college radio charts and "Catapult" following it into the top 10. The album is considered a key release in the revival of underground guitar rock and the transition from post-punk and new wave to alternative rock. Murmur is the debut album by the American alternative rock band . released in 1983 on .

Murmur is the debut LP by . recorded between January 6 and February 23, 1983 and released only weeks later on April 12, 1983, on the . started recording what would be their debut album in December 1982.

while The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau declared they’re an art band, nothing more or less – and a damn. Murmur’s most direct and anthemic track, a punchier, re-recorded version of ‘Radio Free Europe’ was selected as the album’s lead single and rose to N. 8 on the Billboard singles chart. The album itself fared better, peaking at N. 6 on the Billboard 200, selling 200,000 copies across 1983 and eventually gaining a gold certification in 1991.

In. rinted in England (in Spine).

Murmur is the record on which they trade that potential for results: an intelligent, enigmatic, deeply involving album, it reveals a depth and cohesiveness to . Murmur is a darker record than Chronic Town, but this band’s darkness is shot through with flashes of bright light. Vocalist Michael Stipe’s nasal snarl, Mike Mills’ rumbling bass and Bill Berry’s often sharp, slashing drums cast a cloudy, postpunk aura that is lightened by Peter Buck’s folk-flavored guitar playing. Many of the songs have vague, ominous settings, a trait that’s becoming an . In the end, though, what they’re saying is less fascinating than how they say it, and Murmur‘s indelible appeal results from its less elusive charms: the alternately anthemic and elegiac choruses of such stubbornly rousing tunes as Laughing and Sitting Still ; instrumental touches as apt as the stately, elegant piano in the ballad Perfect Circle and the shimmering folkish guitar in . Shaking Through ; above all, an original sound placed in the service of songs that matter. is clearly the important Athens band. In This Article: Michael Stipe, .

Murmur was REM’s first full length album and was recorded in Charlotte, NC. It’s an interesting choice for this Athens, Ga. band. No filler here, from the opening track of Radio Free Europe to the last notes of West of the Fields. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Bill Berry and Mike Mills. Ok, here’s my interesting story about Murmur.

A debut album is what you spend the rest of your career, should you be lucky enough to have one, living up to, or living down, or both. It’s your best opportunity to create that most exciting, improbable and wonderful of things: the album that sounds like nothing else anyone has heard before. Nobody who reads this magazine – or, indeed, just turns on the radio occasionally – needs to be reminded that . are a long-standing component of the cultural furniture, as venerable, reliable and immovable as a grandfather clock  . This was an album that appeared utterly unconcerned about whether you loved it or not. When Murmur first appeared in 1983, on Miles Copeland’s . label, there was already some vague awareness of . s existence – a debut single, Radio Free Europe, had appeared on a tiny independent label in 1981, and a five-track EP, Chronic Town, released the following year by .