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33⅓ Main Series #22
R.E.M.'s Murmur [33 1/3 REMS MURMUR] [Paperback]
R.E.M.'s Murmur [33 1/3 REMS MURMUR] [Paperback]
Paperback
First published April 28, 2005
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February 23, 2011
Even my friend Gig, a man who knows more about music than several other men, has forgotten how great REM were on Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction and Life's Rich Pageant. It's like trying to tell someone about the ripsnorting rock and roll on the Rolling Stones' first two albums, you're going to get funny looks. Huh? REM? Those wankers? Yes, them! Very early REM was an irreducible thing of beauty, you couldn't tell people about the great guitarist because Peter Buck was not one, he didn't play solos, you couldn't tell anyone about their deep and meaningful lyrics because what Michael Stipe was singing was barely English, it didn't exist, and you couldn't rave about their unusual instrumentation or song structures or great use of dynamics because prog this was not, every song was 3 minutes 10 seconds, there were fast ones and slightly less fast ones and a bit slow ones but who the hell knew what they were about anyway, it was ecstatic noise, it was gesture, it was what pop music was when you burned everything else away.
So here's a little book about Murmur in the wayward all-over-the-map 33 1/3 series (still, every home should have several) written in the most extraordinary manner - example :
To try to tease out across-the-board meaning from Stipe's lyrics, or to presume to unveil what those symbols meant to Stipe when he composed them in the tense pragmatic waking dream of the stage/studio, is to revert to the pre-Freudian mythology of antiquity, which asserts
that dreams of fire or animals or the color red always mean
the same thing to every dreamer, regardless of cultural context or psychological history. Or, in an equivalent but equally absurd proposition, that they are portents of events to come. Either case is a romantic resurrection of dead ideas and dead books and the long-evaporated sweat of invention of which we think we can still catch a whiff, because, after all, Murmur speaks to us. But if Freud
placed the divination of the dream outside the realm of
civic conjecture, he also made it sacrosanct. The same
holds true for Murmur's lyrics: anyone's guess is truly as
good as anyone else's. While fandom's sincerity is beyond
reproach, occult technique has no place in this parlor.
Hah, take that Greil Marcus!
When you can discern the odd few words
Gentlemen, don't get caught
Cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Boxcars are turning out of town
they resonate like a shout in a cavern.
Stipe explained once that they chose the title Murmur because it's the easiest word to say in the English language, which proves he isn't so smart, because what about myrrh? Gotcha.
This book is the best of the 33 1/3 books I've read (about 12), it's a model, bursting with background and facts but also with opinion, theory, sociology, poetry and allround geekery.
So here's a little book about Murmur in the wayward all-over-the-map 33 1/3 series (still, every home should have several) written in the most extraordinary manner - example :
To try to tease out across-the-board meaning from Stipe's lyrics, or to presume to unveil what those symbols meant to Stipe when he composed them in the tense pragmatic waking dream of the stage/studio, is to revert to the pre-Freudian mythology of antiquity, which asserts
that dreams of fire or animals or the color red always mean
the same thing to every dreamer, regardless of cultural context or psychological history. Or, in an equivalent but equally absurd proposition, that they are portents of events to come. Either case is a romantic resurrection of dead ideas and dead books and the long-evaporated sweat of invention of which we think we can still catch a whiff, because, after all, Murmur speaks to us. But if Freud
placed the divination of the dream outside the realm of
civic conjecture, he also made it sacrosanct. The same
holds true for Murmur's lyrics: anyone's guess is truly as
good as anyone else's. While fandom's sincerity is beyond
reproach, occult technique has no place in this parlor.
Hah, take that Greil Marcus!
When you can discern the odd few words
Gentlemen, don't get caught
Cages under cage
Gentlemen don't get caught
Boxcars are turning out of town
they resonate like a shout in a cavern.
Stipe explained once that they chose the title Murmur because it's the easiest word to say in the English language, which proves he isn't so smart, because what about myrrh? Gotcha.
This book is the best of the 33 1/3 books I've read (about 12), it's a model, bursting with background and facts but also with opinion, theory, sociology, poetry and allround geekery.
August 19, 2023
This is my fourth 33 1/3 book. The first was on DJ Shadow and it consists almost exclusively of interviews the author did with the musician and, as a former reporter, I heartily approve. The second was Meat is Murder and that was a disappointment. I mean, I like fiction and I like good music, including the Smiths, but if I pick up a book about an album I assume the book will more than just tangentially reference said album. The third book was on Jesus and Mary Chain's classic debut, Psychocandy. In music criticism, as with biography and journalist, sometimes you can directly contact and interview you subject and sometimes you cant. When you can't, as she appears to fail to do in this case, you quote from other publications which have interviewed the band. It's till good stuff and I liked it.
Which brings me to this book on one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. I got into REM in high school, partly as the result of some much-needed peer pressure from my best friend who also, around this time, got me into the Replacements. We went on to see both bands together at least twice.
This time the author does something I love to read, and one of the reasons I just finished reading band biographies of Wilco, Bruce Springsteen and the Smiths, namely track by track analysis. But then she goes on a wild digression about gothic and loses me for a while. She gets
my attention again, though, when she writes about Stipes voice and lyrics. I give this an 8.
Next up: I have 33 1/3 books at home, from the library, for albums by Fugazi, the Replacements, Aphex Twins, Duran Duran. After that I'm planning on reading the ones on Madness and Hole.
Which brings me to this book on one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. I got into REM in high school, partly as the result of some much-needed peer pressure from my best friend who also, around this time, got me into the Replacements. We went on to see both bands together at least twice.
This time the author does something I love to read, and one of the reasons I just finished reading band biographies of Wilco, Bruce Springsteen and the Smiths, namely track by track analysis. But then she goes on a wild digression about gothic and loses me for a while. She gets
my attention again, though, when she writes about Stipes voice and lyrics. I give this an 8.
Next up: I have 33 1/3 books at home, from the library, for albums by Fugazi, the Replacements, Aphex Twins, Duran Duran. After that I'm planning on reading the ones on Madness and Hole.
April 5, 2024
Wow, this was rough. I nearly forgot this book was about Murmur near the end. The author pretentiously follows several tangents that he desperately tried to tie back to the themes of the album, but to no avail. The first section detailing the history of the album was the only part that felt like it fit in. Even the descriptions of the songs felt out of place: it seemed he tried to find meaning where none could be found or should even be sought. He also spends numerous pages taking shots at previous essays and books about Murmur, which is bizarre. This was the first 33 1/3 book that I did not enjoy, which is disappointing.
December 5, 2022
Amazing breakdown of the track-by-track songs on what was never my favorite R.E.M. album but because if this bok it has moved up in ranks. I highly recommend listening to each track as the author discusses the song by chapter. You'll find things you never knew were there or at least, get some insight into the song's production.
The latter 3rd portion of the book came off as a bit condescending and with an overall negative tone. I agree with Niimi that 80s hair metal was awful but it was a bit overkill.
Overall, a great book.
The latter 3rd portion of the book came off as a bit condescending and with an overall negative tone. I agree with Niimi that 80s hair metal was awful but it was a bit overkill.
Overall, a great book.
December 28, 2014
I love the 33 1/3 book series, but because the authors have the freedom to analyze an album in any way they choose, the books are of widely varying quality. In this edition, the author is kind enough to signpost his approach: a brief history of the band leading up to this, their first full-length effort; historical and artistic context; and analysis of language.
The first two sections are great -- having read at least one full biography of R.E.M., I was afraid I would have to sit through a rehash of that information, but the author acknowledges that this book didn't need all that. So the telling of the formation of the band and their writing, touring, and recording experiences pre-Murmur are limited to what is necessary to put the album in context, and does a good job of it.
The second section was most interesting to me, as it talked about the recording process, producers, equipment used, and technical aspects of the music. Very illuminating.
After that -- for me, at least -- it went downhill. The author delves into the Gothic then Southern Gothic styles and places the album into these contexts, which worked fine. But then comes a deep analysis of the lyrics, such as they are, which I suppose is an exercise worth doing but is fraught with problems. The author acknowledges that the band never released official lyrics, then proceeds to analyze *his* interpretation of what Stipe might be saying. A long examination of the use of language in general in the album follows, which is only occasionally truly interesting (a dedicated primer on post-modernism and the signifier might be a better use of your time), and comes with the gigantic caveat that Stipe was probably just mumbling words that sounded good. Most of this last half of the book really hinges on how many of the actual words are supposed to mean anything. Again, the author acknowledges this, even pointing out other writings about the band and how problematic they are, then ignores it. (Granted, there is some value in a listener interpreting their own experience, but I didn't get that angle out of most of it.)
In all, is this book reading? Well, at 127 small-ish pages it's not much of a time commitment. If you're an R.E.M. fan, there's enough that should interest you, and feel free to skim the second half if it's heavier than you care about. If you're just a music fan in general, try Colin Meloy's book on The Replacements' Let It Be or the entry on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. And if you're crazy about semiotics, then go nuts.
The first two sections are great -- having read at least one full biography of R.E.M., I was afraid I would have to sit through a rehash of that information, but the author acknowledges that this book didn't need all that. So the telling of the formation of the band and their writing, touring, and recording experiences pre-Murmur are limited to what is necessary to put the album in context, and does a good job of it.
The second section was most interesting to me, as it talked about the recording process, producers, equipment used, and technical aspects of the music. Very illuminating.
After that -- for me, at least -- it went downhill. The author delves into the Gothic then Southern Gothic styles and places the album into these contexts, which worked fine. But then comes a deep analysis of the lyrics, such as they are, which I suppose is an exercise worth doing but is fraught with problems. The author acknowledges that the band never released official lyrics, then proceeds to analyze *his* interpretation of what Stipe might be saying. A long examination of the use of language in general in the album follows, which is only occasionally truly interesting (a dedicated primer on post-modernism and the signifier might be a better use of your time), and comes with the gigantic caveat that Stipe was probably just mumbling words that sounded good. Most of this last half of the book really hinges on how many of the actual words are supposed to mean anything. Again, the author acknowledges this, even pointing out other writings about the band and how problematic they are, then ignores it. (Granted, there is some value in a listener interpreting their own experience, but I didn't get that angle out of most of it.)
In all, is this book reading? Well, at 127 small-ish pages it's not much of a time commitment. If you're an R.E.M. fan, there's enough that should interest you, and feel free to skim the second half if it's heavier than you care about. If you're just a music fan in general, try Colin Meloy's book on The Replacements' Let It Be or the entry on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. And if you're crazy about semiotics, then go nuts.
September 27, 2018
Thoughts as I read --
1. It takes some serious chutzpah to think you can make out Michael Stipe's lyrics, especially the early ones, on your own.
1b. And then to analyze them?! Based on what *you* think they are?!? Dang. Chutzpah.
2. I always hate when someone (of "authority," like an author, and not just some guy on the street) analyzes a record and calls my favorite songs the weakest on the album, the throwaway songs. But I like them! I guess that means I just like "stupid pop songs." :(
3. You can't read books like this, where a record is analyzed song by song, and not either have the record playing simultaneously, or go back and re-read while listening to the album. I made the mistake of reading this on the bus yesterday, with no access to the album (no iPod with me, and no headphones to listen to the songs online), so I had to make it a priority to listen to the album today, while reading the section of the book about the songs, so that I could say, "Ohhh... *that's* what he's talking about," or "Oh, yeah, I hear that now." You MUST listen to the songs when you read books that break them down.
4. It's a good feeling when you've read all of the books in an author's Suggested Reading section.
----------------
The book is hit-and-miss for me, and I don't know if that's because the book is hit-and-miss or because I took a huge break while reading other books. All I know is that the third and fourth sections, where the author spends less time discussing the album and lyrics specifically, lost my interest. I read the sections, but spent a lot of time thinking, "So?"
1. It takes some serious chutzpah to think you can make out Michael Stipe's lyrics, especially the early ones, on your own.
1b. And then to analyze them?! Based on what *you* think they are?!? Dang. Chutzpah.
2. I always hate when someone (of "authority," like an author, and not just some guy on the street) analyzes a record and calls my favorite songs the weakest on the album, the throwaway songs. But I like them! I guess that means I just like "stupid pop songs." :(
3. You can't read books like this, where a record is analyzed song by song, and not either have the record playing simultaneously, or go back and re-read while listening to the album. I made the mistake of reading this on the bus yesterday, with no access to the album (no iPod with me, and no headphones to listen to the songs online), so I had to make it a priority to listen to the album today, while reading the section of the book about the songs, so that I could say, "Ohhh... *that's* what he's talking about," or "Oh, yeah, I hear that now." You MUST listen to the songs when you read books that break them down.
4. It's a good feeling when you've read all of the books in an author's Suggested Reading section.
----------------
The book is hit-and-miss for me, and I don't know if that's because the book is hit-and-miss or because I took a huge break while reading other books. All I know is that the third and fourth sections, where the author spends less time discussing the album and lyrics specifically, lost my interest. I read the sections, but spent a lot of time thinking, "So?"
May 29, 2007
A lovely and well paced look at a little gold nugget of an album, from a fan who discovered it on tape, in a time of Howard Jones and Thompson Twins neon spiky haired 80's pop.
Of course Murmur sounded nothing like those guys, and contained absolute canyons of depth and emotion, but obscured by many things, including reverb, wilfully odd Michael Stipe and his lyrics with no obvious nouns or verbs, or protagonists or plots, just hints which seem to click into your memory.
You can tell I have a soft spot for this record and this book, and it's a hard act to follow in the 33 1/3 series. In fact it was followed for me by the Stone Roses book, and that was a completely different beast.
Justin Niimi is a member of Ashtray Boy, who are an absolutely criminally overlooked band, and if you ever see a copy of their record The Honeymoon Suite, GRAB IT. In fact any of their stuff. Everyman's Fourth Dimension, they're all good.
Of course Murmur sounded nothing like those guys, and contained absolute canyons of depth and emotion, but obscured by many things, including reverb, wilfully odd Michael Stipe and his lyrics with no obvious nouns or verbs, or protagonists or plots, just hints which seem to click into your memory.
You can tell I have a soft spot for this record and this book, and it's a hard act to follow in the 33 1/3 series. In fact it was followed for me by the Stone Roses book, and that was a completely different beast.
Justin Niimi is a member of Ashtray Boy, who are an absolutely criminally overlooked band, and if you ever see a copy of their record The Honeymoon Suite, GRAB IT. In fact any of their stuff. Everyman's Fourth Dimension, they're all good.
March 16, 2022
The 33⅓ series offers a wide range of reading experiences from volume to volume and so far most have been great. This one is no exception, but it also wins the award for "Headiest Read". What a deep, rich dive into and around this amazing first album by my favorite band!
A quick retelling of the band's genesis and early recording quickly gives way to a chapter breaking down the musical theory and recording studio wizardy behind the effects of a murky, hypnotizing, and very danceable freshman effort (to put it lightly).
What follows is an odyssey of cultural, linguistic, and musical scholarship that bears a second read and has even left me with a new essay to read: Walker Percy's "Metaphor as Mistake". Great job!
A quick retelling of the band's genesis and early recording quickly gives way to a chapter breaking down the musical theory and recording studio wizardy behind the effects of a murky, hypnotizing, and very danceable freshman effort (to put it lightly).
What follows is an odyssey of cultural, linguistic, and musical scholarship that bears a second read and has even left me with a new essay to read: Walker Percy's "Metaphor as Mistake". Great job!
November 13, 2017
This wasn't as bad as the author warned it would be at the beginning. I was concerned about this book when I started reading it, and the author was suggesting other book titles that covered the subject matter in this book better than he was going to do. What concerned me more was that he was suggesting that you skip sections of the book that are not of interest to you. It's written as his interpretation of the album. Some of the other 33 1/3 books are written this way as well, and a lot of the time they drift into a state of ranting boredom. However, the writing in this one manages to keep it interesting almost all the way through.
Read
September 22, 2011four shaggy college dropouts from Georgia load up a blue two-seat van & drive up the coast to South Carolina, touring dive-bars & abandoned churches on their way to cut an album of "music that didn't suck"... and end up giving birth to alternative rock.
R.emember E.very M.oment
(you will be missed)
R.emember E.very M.oment
(you will be missed)
November 5, 2019
Murmur is not the best R.E.M. album, nor is it my favorite R.E.M. album, but because it was first, Murmur may be the most R.E.M.-y R.E.M. album. The mysterious album cover, the jangly guitar arpeggios, the cryptic, almost indecipherable lyrics, the enigmatic image of the band themselves: they’re all here right from the beginning.
J. Niimi divides his book into four unequal parts. The first is pretty straightforward biography with a heavy duty nod towards audiophile geeks. (Most fans will already know about Stipe and Buck's initial meeting at a record store; most probably won’t care about the digital delays of a Lexicon Model 200, “the Lamborghini of digital reverbs,” or the different kinds of compressors used.) The second is a song by song dissection of the album that seems to show off a kind of obsessive ear. Take this breakdown of “Moral Kiosk”: “The chorus is in A, and the song ends on a D...the vocal line stops one note short, on a B--the sixth of a D chord--making the last chord a D-6.” Does this do anything for you? I will say that while listening to the album while reading allowed me to notice things I’d never noticed before--despite having listened to these songs hundreds of times.
The third section is the best. A discursive essay that blends personal details and cultural criticism, it takes on such disparate subjects as kudzu, the sublime, (Southern) Gothic art, Ronald Reagan and Flannery O’Connor, John Hughes films and the suburban mall, cassette tapes and modern art, Schooly D. and Coca-Cola. This section alone is worth reading.
The fourth and final section on Stipe’s lyrics is a bit indulgent, a bit highfalutin, a little too pleased with its literariness and its allusiveness. Starting with Walker Percy’s essay “Metaphor as Mistake,” Niimi argues that Stipe’s lyrics are a deliberate kind of nonsense that invite the listener to mishear/misunderstand what he sings. I remember as a teenage listener feeling both frustrated and fascinated by the fact that I didn’t know the words. (I still prefer my version of RFE: “Decide yourself if radio’s gonna stay.” And “Call me into talk” made more sense than “Combien du temps?” in my favorite track, “Talk About the Passion.”) His commentary on the absence of characters and narrators is interesting; I hadn’t noticed the lack of first-person pronouns or invented personas before. Niimi calls this “lack of a singer” the core mystery of the album, a point as good as any I’ve read anywhere.
I just don’t think we needed an extended discussion of Wire and the New York Dolls to get there.
33 ⅓ is a series for music lovers to think more deeply about records and artists that they love. In this regard, the book is a success.
J. Niimi divides his book into four unequal parts. The first is pretty straightforward biography with a heavy duty nod towards audiophile geeks. (Most fans will already know about Stipe and Buck's initial meeting at a record store; most probably won’t care about the digital delays of a Lexicon Model 200, “the Lamborghini of digital reverbs,” or the different kinds of compressors used.) The second is a song by song dissection of the album that seems to show off a kind of obsessive ear. Take this breakdown of “Moral Kiosk”: “The chorus is in A, and the song ends on a D...the vocal line stops one note short, on a B--the sixth of a D chord--making the last chord a D-6.” Does this do anything for you? I will say that while listening to the album while reading allowed me to notice things I’d never noticed before--despite having listened to these songs hundreds of times.
The third section is the best. A discursive essay that blends personal details and cultural criticism, it takes on such disparate subjects as kudzu, the sublime, (Southern) Gothic art, Ronald Reagan and Flannery O’Connor, John Hughes films and the suburban mall, cassette tapes and modern art, Schooly D. and Coca-Cola. This section alone is worth reading.
The fourth and final section on Stipe’s lyrics is a bit indulgent, a bit highfalutin, a little too pleased with its literariness and its allusiveness. Starting with Walker Percy’s essay “Metaphor as Mistake,” Niimi argues that Stipe’s lyrics are a deliberate kind of nonsense that invite the listener to mishear/misunderstand what he sings. I remember as a teenage listener feeling both frustrated and fascinated by the fact that I didn’t know the words. (I still prefer my version of RFE: “Decide yourself if radio’s gonna stay.” And “Call me into talk” made more sense than “Combien du temps?” in my favorite track, “Talk About the Passion.”) His commentary on the absence of characters and narrators is interesting; I hadn’t noticed the lack of first-person pronouns or invented personas before. Niimi calls this “lack of a singer” the core mystery of the album, a point as good as any I’ve read anywhere.
I just don’t think we needed an extended discussion of Wire and the New York Dolls to get there.
33 ⅓ is a series for music lovers to think more deeply about records and artists that they love. In this regard, the book is a success.
Read
February 14, 2024As a music junkie, I've read several books from the 33 1/3 (or 333) series, and J. Niimi's book on R.E.M.'s 1983 debut LP "Murmur" is one of my favorites. R.E.M.'s album came out when I was in college, and both it and their follow-up LP, "Reckoning," were among those works that gave form and expression to my deeply conflicted but slowly evolving sense of myself. It's because of that personal relationship to the music, perhaps, that I appreciate Niimi's nuanced, restrained analysis of Michael Stipe's cryptic, fragmentary lyrics. He notes their rigorous impersonality, their hesitancy to own language--in his characterization, "there are words and there is singing, but there is no singer"--a quality I recognize in my own (far less accomplished) youthful writings. And while he briefly explores some of the lyric's suggestive fragments--"Laocöon and her [sic] two sons," "fields of Elysian," "Katie bar the kitchen door," etc.--he's ultimately content to leave them where they belong imho, in "the landfill of history," the "hazy vectors and missing psychology" they and other scraps of Stipe's verbiage evoke ultimately indeterminate, best heard as "language as sound,...sound beyond language."
Niimi also spends a good bit of time talking about the band's music. His account of their early performances and the evolution of their sound is interesting, and his rooting aspects of their early sound in punk is eye-opening. By contrast, my eyes glazed over during the more detailed descriptions of the recording process, though I found his passion for those details engaging; and some of his revelations about the sessions (e.g., the group's feelings about the final version of "Perfect Circle") are captivating.
Like all books in this series, Niimi's will be of interest primarily to fans of the record and/or group, and those who don't mind being challenged a bit won't be disappointed.
Niimi also spends a good bit of time talking about the band's music. His account of their early performances and the evolution of their sound is interesting, and his rooting aspects of their early sound in punk is eye-opening. By contrast, my eyes glazed over during the more detailed descriptions of the recording process, though I found his passion for those details engaging; and some of his revelations about the sessions (e.g., the group's feelings about the final version of "Perfect Circle") are captivating.
Like all books in this series, Niimi's will be of interest primarily to fans of the record and/or group, and those who don't mind being challenged a bit won't be disappointed.
November 16, 2020
i have been absolutely devouring Michael Azerrad's punk tome Our Band Could Be Your Life over the past few days, the latest in my now years-long obsession with 80's college rock, and decided to wedge these hundred or so pages in between Hüsker Dü and the Replacements - R.E.M. aren't given their own chapter, not for lack of relevance to the scene, but because they were major-label right from the jump, disqualifying them due to Azerrad's "indie-only" criteria.
this was par for the course as far as 33 1/3 entries go (pointed out some of the subtler details hiding in the record in question's nooks and crannies, imparted some fun tales about the recording and the artists' studio antics, etc etc) although not my favorite - in attempting to argue that much that has been previously written about R.E.M.'s debut album misses the forest for the trees, J. Niimi does exactly that, going a bit too far down a rabbit hole of audio recording jargon and burnt-to-a-crisp overanalysis of throwaway lines and phrasings for my liking.
but there were some great takeaways as well, as there always are in this series! something that has always been a little lost on me is the "Southern Gothic" label which is frequently applied to this album. after spending a few pages getting down to what exactly defines the subgenre, Niimi clears up the confusion for me, thoroughly and in a way that has effectively switched out the lens through which i view (or listen haha) this record. the section dedicated to canvassing the contents themselves, track-by-track, note-by-note (the candy center of all the great 33 1/3s) is a bit brief here, but offers supremely interesting insights, especially for "Moral Kiosk" and "We Walk." obviously worth a read for fans of this wonderful, wonderful band.
this was par for the course as far as 33 1/3 entries go (pointed out some of the subtler details hiding in the record in question's nooks and crannies, imparted some fun tales about the recording and the artists' studio antics, etc etc) although not my favorite - in attempting to argue that much that has been previously written about R.E.M.'s debut album misses the forest for the trees, J. Niimi does exactly that, going a bit too far down a rabbit hole of audio recording jargon and burnt-to-a-crisp overanalysis of throwaway lines and phrasings for my liking.
but there were some great takeaways as well, as there always are in this series! something that has always been a little lost on me is the "Southern Gothic" label which is frequently applied to this album. after spending a few pages getting down to what exactly defines the subgenre, Niimi clears up the confusion for me, thoroughly and in a way that has effectively switched out the lens through which i view (or listen haha) this record. the section dedicated to canvassing the contents themselves, track-by-track, note-by-note (the candy center of all the great 33 1/3s) is a bit brief here, but offers supremely interesting insights, especially for "Moral Kiosk" and "We Walk." obviously worth a read for fans of this wonderful, wonderful band.
August 17, 2025
J is an old friend from Chicago and he honestly has made this album one of my absolute favorites next to "Life's Rich Pageant". "Murmur" didn't have the sway over me as it did for J, maybe "Green" and "Automatic for the People" were the ubiquitous album when I was young. However, I like J's take on this album, how did REM become REM, how did they make this album, have their first singles, and arrive from Athens, GA (nowhere near the center of the musical universe) and be successful. I enjoyed J's thoughts on the lyrics and subjects of the songs as well. Anyway glad I spent some time listening to the album and reading J's thoughts on it.
September 2, 2019
It was hard to choke this one down, but maybe it would've helped if I were at all an REM fan. The first half of the book is all technical details of the studio, recording, and equipment ad nauseam. The second half takes a more theoretical, speculative approach to analyzing the artistic moment the album is situated in, and a dive into the opaque, open-ended lyrics of the album with the author's cited inspiration in mind.
March 18, 2021
I thought this volume was excellent! Being a music nerd who lived in the south for 20 years, i particularly liked to read about Mitch Easter, kudzu, cassettes, album images, Walker Percy, and southern gothic ambiance. The second section where the songs are actually discussed was actually my least favorite - the other three sections spun a narrative about music and southern colloquialisms. Loved it.
May 8, 2024
I’ve read maybe half a dozen in the 33 1/3 series, but this one may be my favorite. It has it all: a semi-technical explication of the recordings, a musical analysis of the songs, and a deep cultural appraisal that is smart, thoughtful, and thorough considering the length of these books.
Rarely (never?) do I look into the backgrounds of the authors of these things but did this time, and I’m a little disappointed I can’t find anything else by this guy. This seems to be his only book.
Rarely (never?) do I look into the backgrounds of the authors of these things but did this time, and I’m a little disappointed I can’t find anything else by this guy. This seems to be his only book.
October 23, 2019
Without question, the worst book on R.E.M. that I have ever read. Error-riddled, the author tries to decipher lyrics that are misjudged in the first placed, puts down songs that to mine are classics, this isn't a book so much as a teenager's journal about his favourite band and should most definitely not have been sold. Stay away.
October 18, 2022
While honestly, a lot of the books in this series are not much more than an excuse for the author to wax nostaglic about their youth whilst vaguely tying it into a particular album, this one actually gets into the nitty-gritty of the making of Murmur. Lots of fascinating details and stories.
March 16, 2023
this was really fun to read as a huge fan of both r.e.m. and murmur, but i do think niimi's writing felt kinda dense at times. i think i like my music books to be based more around personal experience and storytelling rather than theoretical analysis.
May 10, 2023
36-2023. As much as I enjoy REM’s music, I know very little about them. This was a nice starting point into getting more info. It tracks the early band days up to the recording of that first album, Murmur.
September 2, 2024
I loved this book. If you’re a fan of R.E.M.’s Murmur, you will like it. The writing here is excellent, the choices of approaching the album art and lyrics of the LP are intriguing. I really enjoyed Niimi’s takes on this one. It helped me appreciate this old favorite even more.
March 31, 2018
A deeply philosophical take and parsing of language and methods of language. Good for a thorough song by song. Too assumptive on such a subjective topic and hence my lower rating.
October 14, 2019
Overall a good book on the making of this great album. The book fits boog down a bit at the end.
July 8, 2022
This was a really great exploration of song lyrics and how they work and what they do—but more importantly about what they don’t do.
January 11, 2023
Interesting. The chapter on the album cover surprisingly good.
November 20, 2020
Not quite as insightful as the R U Talkin' R.E.M. Re: Me? podcast, but interesting enough. Some of the most fascinating parts was discussing the production of the album and the studio process.
February 26, 2017
In 1983 R.E.M.'s first album Murmur was released, now Justin Niimi's book from the 33-1/3 series tells the origination of the record. There some insight in the band's history, which has been retold numerous times, so Niimi quickly skips this part. Up next is some way too technical look into each and every song on the record. Now I now which microphones were used on which song, great. Even worse, the author tries to find a way to make Murmur a work of Southern Gothic art in the next section, basically by just looking at the cover. As R.E.M. didn't give any lyrics to go along with their albums for quite a few years, Niimi tries to decipher Stipe's way of writing in the most theoretically cluttered way possible. This scholarly approach doesn't do any good as well and so the book leaves the reader lost and confused...
June 4, 2008
Some questions: Will even the best pop music be remembered and written about in the same way, say, the works of Shakespeare are? Doesn't it seem almost antithetical to write theory about pop music? Even the great stuff? I say this because after reading a book about an album that is very near and dear to me, I have my doubts that any sort of academic criticism can capture the essence of why we listen to and cherish such music, the love of which is a mélange of joyful in-the-moment exhilaration and eventually comforting nostalgia. Music is often the glue that connects us to friends and provides signposts to retrace our steps on the one-way road of life. The fizzy writing of Chuck Klosterman seems most appropriate to this subject matter as it frames arguments around compelling anecdotes from his life that feel accessible and heartfelt, not coated in pretentious theory.
This book on R.E.M.'s 1983 LP, "Murmur," can't make up its mind what kind of analysis it wants to focus on (as the author readily admits in the beginning), so it feels disjointed and incomplete, and doesn't include nearly enough of the emotional weight that I'm sure the album holds for the author and countless others. It's as if the prestige of writing a book about "Murmur" demands high theory to justify its existence. To be fair, I found the theory fascinating and coupled with a very detailed retelling of how each song on "Murmur" was recorded it makes for an interesting academic analysis. But the author is too quick to divorce himself from the irrational emotions that surely inform his love for the LP, and I would have loved to have read more about the context of HIS discovery of "Murmur" and eventual love of the music. Instead, this book reads too often like a PhD dissertation, and that's too bad. Having just seen R.E.M. in concert, I know that there is something much more base and moving to being a fan of the band and this particular album.
This book on R.E.M.'s 1983 LP, "Murmur," can't make up its mind what kind of analysis it wants to focus on (as the author readily admits in the beginning), so it feels disjointed and incomplete, and doesn't include nearly enough of the emotional weight that I'm sure the album holds for the author and countless others. It's as if the prestige of writing a book about "Murmur" demands high theory to justify its existence. To be fair, I found the theory fascinating and coupled with a very detailed retelling of how each song on "Murmur" was recorded it makes for an interesting academic analysis. But the author is too quick to divorce himself from the irrational emotions that surely inform his love for the LP, and I would have loved to have read more about the context of HIS discovery of "Murmur" and eventual love of the music. Instead, this book reads too often like a PhD dissertation, and that's too bad. Having just seen R.E.M. in concert, I know that there is something much more base and moving to being a fan of the band and this particular album.
September 28, 2011
After reading J. Niimi’s Murmur I am starting to appreciate the artistic scope of serious pop music. I guess I’ve always appreciated pop music, but after reading this which shows the dedication that went into realizing the songs in the studio by adding sounds layering and maintaining themes and motifs holistically throughout the process-which is often reflected in song order and cover art as well. Somehow, I can’t say that I would be as impressed with a careful rendering or say, a Brittany Spears recording session, which I guess is a case of disposable pop versus artist who are trying to create art for the ages. I think R.E.M., has succeeded in doing that, they still sound timeless and vibrant today 20 years after hey were first conceived. Murmur and Reckoning were two albums I got into after discovering them during the Life’s Rich Pageant in 86’. Niimi starts out discussing the early days of the band and their recordings, of which The Chronic Town EP preceded the recording of Murmur. This is followed by a discussion of the actual process and the specific atmosphere of recording Murmur with engineer/producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. In the next section, Niimi discusses the album track-by-track and note-by-note. Then he goes into detail concerning the themes and motifs, which are present. For example, how southern gothic is expressed through the lyrics, music, and album artwork and graphics. There are more specific discussions about interpretations and linguisitic interpretations of the lyrics. I found the book to be informative, thought provoking, and entertaining-a must for any R.E.M. fan.
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