Murmur is a truly memorable debut album (previous EP aside) and despite a career rich in great records at least up until 1996, it ultimately stands at least on some step of the podium of their best works. Which step I cannot ascertain nor am I particularly interested in determining precisely, but it's a beautiful record. They are children of the Byrds and Jingle-Jangle, updating that sound for the '80s by filtering it through New Wave, focusing on those wonderful acoustic guitar frameworks that dominate and support the entire album, and managing to develop an excellent personal style, entirely their own, especially in the melodies that, starting from this album, become a trademark that has made them one of the most immediately recognizable bands ever. On "Murmur," all the songs, the melodies, Stipe's vocal harmonies, the guitar arpeggios create a wonderfully delicate Janglism from Buck and the others, whispered (indeed), played on tiptoe, almost as if they never wanted to disturb the listener too much. Even in the slightly more upbeat tracks, there’s this feeling. There are only beautiful songs here, particularly phenomenal are "Pilgrimage," the sublime melody of "Perfect Circle," the jangle manifesto "Shaking Through," and also the more "nervous" "Sitting Still" and another phenomenal pop-jangle like "Talk About the Passion," but everyone will have their favorites.
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