R.E.M.'s Murmur

Description

R.E.M.'s debut album, released in 1983, was so far removed from the prevailing trends of American popular music that it still sounds miraculous and out of time today. J. Niimi tells the story of the album's genesis - with fascinating input from Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. He also investigates Michael Stipe's hypnotic, mysterious lyrics, and makes the case for Murmur as a work of Southern Gothic art.

J. Niimi writes about music for the Chicago Reader, SPIN, City Pages, and SF Weekly, among other publications. In previous years he worked as a studio engineer, recorded eight albums as the drummer of Ashtray Boy, and hosted a weekly radio show on WHPK. He lives in Chicago with his wife and their two border terriers.

...Murmur is a lovingly rendered, well-researched look at R.E.M's album of the same name, a gothic-tinged anomaly that seemed to come out of nowhere amid the New Wave avalanche of the early '80s...illuminating. * Cincinnati City Beat * I'll leave the in-depth analysis of the record to Niimi, but trust me, this is a title worth reading more about...even if you still hate R.E.M. for unleashing that debacle called "Shiny Happy People." * Radio Free Chicago, May 2005 * ...the book does a good job of bringing the reader into the world of R.E.M. and the circumstances surrounding their official full-length debut album which changed the music world. A must-read for fans." -- * Mish Mash Music Reviews * ...the book goes a considerable distance towards explaining how this enduringly astonishing album happened. * Uncut * 33 1/3 is a fabulous series written with passion by an equally fabulous cross-secton of today's best music journalists. This series is a must for every serious record nerd out there! And I know the nerds agree with me cause I'm having trouble keeping them on the shelves. -- Edmund LeStrange, Book Buyer for Waterloo Records Writing about an album like R.E.M.'s debut can be treacherous. More than 30 years after its release signaled the rise of alternative music, Murmur somehow retains its playful sense of evasion, as though purposefully obscuring its meaning in an attempt to make you listen more closely. Explaining each lyric and riff risks deflating its mystery, yet J. Niimi proceeds with caution. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment is finding the right distance from his subject, so that he can explain how the music works without telling us what it's about. That is, after all, the whole point. -- Stephen M. Deusner * Pitchfork *