R.E.M. 'MURMER' FIRST PRESSING OF DEBUT 1983 ALBUM 'BLACK' VINYL IRS SPO 70604

$

33

R.E.M. 'MURMER' FIRST PRESSING OF DEBUT 1983 ALBUM 'BLACK' VINYL ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE ~ IRS RECORDS 
R.E.M.  "MURMER"  LABEL: I.R.S. RECORDS ~ SPO 70604 / SP0-070014 RELEASED: APRIL 1983 EDITION: FIRST U.S. PRESSING ~ BLACK VINYL w/ INNER SLEEVE PRESSING: RCA INDIANAPOLIS ('RCA' IN DEADWAX & (R) ON LABEL) RECORDED AT REFLECTION SOUND STUDIO ~ CHARLOTTE, NC RECORDED: January – February 1983 PRODUCERS: MITCH EASTER & DON DIXON MASTERING: STERLING SOUND LACQUERS: GREG CALBI ('⚾' BASEBALL) IN MATRIX MATRIX (SIDE A): SP-070014A-2 STERLING '⚾' A 1 B (SPO 70604 A RCA2) (CROSSED OUT)  MATRIX (SIDE B): SP-070014B-3 STERLING A 2 A (SPO 70604 B 3) (CROSSED OUT) 
CONDITION:  VINYL: EX-   INNER: EX-   JACKET: EX-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would want for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 40 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this fantastic, clean First Pressing copy of REM's great debut album 'Murmer.' This is my original copy, purchased 'new' back in 1983, that I've taken great care of for many years. 
This is a terrific, clean black vinyl copy and also comes with the original 2-sided Black & White inner sleeve.
This also has the barcode, and is NOT the CRC version. It's pressed by RCA, not the inferior Columbia pressing. The labels have the 'A/B' side designation.
This album is an early First Pressing on high quality Black vinyl. The sound is just amazing. Well balanced and crystal clear. The music just jumps out of the speakers.
This pressing is full and rich, very dynamic, with unreal bass and drums. The soundstage, the instrument separation, the performance, and the vocals are all fantastic. It completely blows away the CD and the later vinyl pressings.
This pressing really brings out their clear, bright, and beautiful jangly pop songs. I can see why many people feel that 'Murmer' is considered REM's best album. A beautiful copy!
~~~~~~~~~ 'Murmer' was REM's debut album, and was the one that really established them as one of the great bands of the 80s.
The band toured incessantly through 1982, and had their music tight and solid. Constant touring allowed them to learn and understand just what their musical strengths, and weaknesses, were. They learned how to create the sound they wanted, live on stage, without a lot of overdubbing and electronic trickery.
By the time they went into the studio, they were very against studio 'production', and the recording sessions reflect that. Clean and crisp songs. Minimal overdubbing and minimal 'production' tweaks. Just Perfect.
This was recorded in the winter of 1982/83 at Reflection Sound Studios in Charlotte, NC. The story is that many of the songs on this album were recorded as single 'first' takes, with little overdubbing or 'fixing'. That makes them sound fresh, live and vital. Just fantastic.
Legendary Producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon were in the studio with the band and created a masterpiece, one of the best debut albums by any band, in any genre.
The studio mastering on this album was also very 'new' and different for the time. Easter and Dixon experimented with some unusual recording techniques, which created a fresh, unique sound to this record.
The album starts with ‘Radio Free Europe’, but the very beginning of the song has an odd buzzing sound that was created by 'gating' Mike Mills’ bass. An unusual studio trick at the time.
The thud-like percussion on parts of "We Walk" is actually a recording of Bill Berry playing pool. It was an odd drum sound for the time.
On this early, crisp, original pressing, you can hear all the clear details just jump off the vinyl. Each instrument is given equal importance in the mix; Bill Berry's simple but effective drums, Peter Buck's jangly, spiky guitar, Mike Mills' deep melodic bass, and Michael Stipe's ambiguous quirky voice. 
The album shows just how tight and cohesive the band was, right from the start. It shows off the unique chemistry of REM's individual members. They were all equally important to the band's overall sound.  REM insisted that each member had equal strengths, so all of their songs, every track, receive equal songwriting credit as well.
The members of R.E.M. at this time included: Bill Berry ~ drums / Peter Buck ~ guitar Mike Mills ~ bass / Michael Stipe ~ vocals
~~~~~~~~~ This mid-80's I.R.S. period has always been my favorite era of REM. They were great during this period.
'Murmer' sounds tight, unified and full of energy. It has the great Garage Pop sound of the best of 'Chronic Town', but it's slightly darker and more mysterious. It shows the band's more mature songwriting, tighter performances, and a Pop/Americana feel. The band has a propulsive 'kick' that make the songs seem intense, powerful, vital and alive.
The songs sound like old classics, like they've existed for years, but also brand new, refreshing and immediately accessible.
Murmer is a nice collection of 12 great songs. The record just flows and works effortlessly from beginning to end. The four bandmembers complement one another perfectly. They had a perfect, strange and wonderful chemistry. 
They were the right band, the right sound, at the right time.
REM had the perfect balance of old-school NYC avant-garde Rock and conventional Pop. They were able to blend the sound of the darker, 'arty' side of the New York scene (Velvet Underground, early Talking Heads) with Southern Power Pop (Alex Chilton/Big Star, Tom Petty) and bring it up to date with a modern punky, energetic feel. 
Bill Berry's drumming, often overlooked, adds just the right touches to this album. The driving rhythm and his 'punctuation' of high-hat and snare strikes are perfectly placed. Berry's drumming holds everything together and makes it all work  perfectly.
The drumming, blended with Mike Mill's deep, rich, melodic basslines, gives many of the early REM songs a fantastic drive, urgency and force. REM had a great rhythm section.
Mike Mills even does most of the backing vocals and plays keyboards on several songs.
Peter Buck’s guitar sound and style on this album went on to influence many other bands and guitarists and changed the direction of Indie Rock forever. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Murmer' contains amazing, well constructed, well written, catchy songs, which have really held up all these years later. 
The interplay between Peter Buck's amazing ringing Rickenbacker guitar and Mike Mill's melodic Bass playing is amazing. Mills didn't just play chords, he and Buck intertwined around the melodic leads, creating a very unique sound that was the core of REM.
The album opens with a modern, crisp, re-recorded version of their first single “Radio Free Europe”, which just jumps off the vinyl. Crisp, clear and intense.
One of REM's best, most anthemic, pop songs. It was properly their first big hit single, initially released on a 45 back in 1981.
I think it works because of Mike Mill's clear backing vocals, up against Michaels 'slurred' lead vocals. They sound great together and the song just rocks right along with a driving rhythm. It was one of their first popular songs and they played it often back in the Athens club scene. 
“Sitting Still” has a fantastic bassline weaving around Buck's guitar work. Peter Buck fills the song with his ingenious re-invention of early Byrds Rickenbacker riffs. It shows the band's mastery of the modern pop form, while respecting the roots of Country Rock.
"Pilgrimage" has a herky-jerky riff, layered with some cool, reverberating low-end piano notes.
"Shaking Through" has a slight alt-country feel, with honkytonk piano and Michael's voice, sounding like a wise old country singer, yet modernized.
"West of the Fields"  is a harder rocking song with a punk-like edge. Buck's jittery guitar sounds incredible. It has a great driving, almost punk feel, great mysterious & ambiguous lyrics, and great interweaving melodies. 
Even the slower songs sound great. “Perfect Circle” has beautiful winding and intertwined piano and guitars. Stipe's voice is graceful and emotional.
"Talk About the Passion" opens with great, crisp, arpeggios from Peter's Rickenbacker. It contains interesting melodic lines that don't go where you expect them to, showing off Michael's soft, compassionate voice.
Speaking of Stipe's lyrics, his vocals on this album are both cryptic and amazing.
The story is that the album was called 'Murmer' due to it's accurate description of the vocal style and indistinct lyrics of Michael Stipe.
His voice is more like a fourth instrument in places, and very different from any rock singer before him. It's more the sound, and the inflection in his voice, rather than the actual words that makes the songs work. 
He doesn't enunciate his words, and I still have no idea what's he's singing about on some of these songs, but it doesn't really matter. The 'feel' and 'intention' are there and somehow it works perfectly. His abstract and confounding lyrics are all part of the overall charm of the music.
Stipe's voice can have amazing force but also deep emotion, feeling and vulnerability. It's both powerful and fragile at the same time. I can hear both Lou Reed's and Graham Parson's influences on his vocal style.
On this pressing, you can really hear Michael's voice up front and clear. All his little inflections and vocal tics are present, like the strange hiccup at the end of "We Walk"
I've never actually looked up the 'correct' lyrics to some of my favorite REM songs. I somehow feel that might 'ruin' them for me. I think not knowing exactly what Michael's singing, somehow lets us add our own interpretation to the music. 
It's sort of like Abstract Art, it's about how you interpret it, how you feel about it, not what the artist's actual intention was. All Art is like that in a way; it's about the reception, not the creation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today, in 2023, people forget just how different, unique, and great this album was when it came out of nowhere 40 years ago, in the spring of 1983.
Nobody sounded like REM back then and this album sort of started the whole Indie band craze that became so popular.
REM defined the terms "Alternative" and "Indie" before those terms were later used to describe the 'new' music emerging in the early 1980s.
This album was revolutionary when it came out. I was lucky to see REM live in 1982 at a small venue at my College in NJ and thought they were great. They were fun, quirky, punky and different than what else was in the clubs back then. I hunted down their hard to find single and the 'Chronic town' EP and then purchased this copy of 'Murmer' as soon as it hit the stores.
~~~~~~~~~~ The album jacket artwork, especially for a debut album, is kind of weird. The cover shows an old, overgrown railroad trestle, which seems to be in a swamp filled with Kudzu vines, in the middle of nowhere, in the rural backwoods of Georgia. A bleak, gloomy, washed-out landscape.  I'm not sure many people purchased this for it's cover art.
The bandmembers themselves purposely didn't appear on their own early album covers, although they are pictured on the back cover of this debut, looking like young high school students.
People forget how young the band was when they made this album back in 1983. A fantastic debut album, with a weird cover, with weird, but catchy, songs about who knows what, all sung by a weird, shy guy who couldn’t even sing or enunciate the lyrics properly.
It shouldn't have worked, but it did, gloriously. It was, and still is, a fantastic debut album.
One indicator of how great the simple, clean, lo-fi 'Murmer' album was is the fact that 'Murmer' was voted Rolling Stone’s "Album of the Year" for 1983, beating out the expensive, highly polished, highly produced ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson.
In Rock music, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and REM hit it out of the park with 'Murmer.' 
This album sounded outstanding in 1983, like nothing else that anyone had ever heard before.
~~~ This album is an early First Pressing on Black vinyl. The sound is just amazing. Well balanced and crystal clear. The music just jumps out of the speakers. This pressing really brings out their clear, bright, and beautiful sound.
I can see why many people feel that 'Murmer', their first album, is considered REM's best album.
~~~~~~~~ This is not only, in my opinion, REM's best album, but it's one of the best albums of the mid 80's. If you only have one R.E.M. album in your collection, this is the one you should have.
Even now, 30 years later, 'Murmer' still sounds great. Fresh, interesting, and never dated or boring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This album packs an incredible amount of fantastic material, fresh sounds, new styles and old influences into it's 12 songs. The songs on this album include:
Radio Free Europe Pilgrimage Laughing Talk About The Passion Moral Kiosk Perfect Circle Catapult Sitting Still 9 - 9 Shaking Through We Walk West Of The Fields
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures. I purchased this copy 'new' in the Summer of 1983, nearly 40 years ago, in Greenwich Village, on one of my regular record digs in those days, and have taken great care of it since. 
VINYL: The vinyl generally looks great. Clean and Bright.  There is a 'line' on side one, over "Radio Free Europe", that looks pretty bad in my picture, but it's really much lighter than it looks, and mostly cosmetic. There's a minor 'tick' before the music starts, but once the punchy loud music starts, you don't hear the tick anymore. I played this several times, it plays fine and is barely audible. Just wanted to point it out. Other than that, the vinyl is crisp & clean, just like I purchased it 40 years ago.
I'd call the vinyl EX-, but EBay doesn't allow that. I'll list it as VG+ but you can see from my pictures how nice it looks.
The DeadWax has all the first pressing indicators as listed above. The crossed out, replaced, catalog number, the 'baseball', 'Masterdisk' and the RCA pressing info. 
I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
LABELS: This is pressed on custom white IRS labels, with the red IRS dude at the bottom. The sides are labelled 'A/B'. The (R), for RCA, is at the bottom of the label.
The labels are clean and bright. No marks or damage. The spindle holes are still mostly sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
JACKET: As you can see, the jacket looks fine. Some very very light wear on the front from shelf wear. Corners are sharp. (I gave a close-up picture of each corner). This has been sleeved and stored properly for years, and is still fantastic. Clean and bright. Spine is fine, no ring wear, no seam splits. You can see from my pictures it's quite nice.
It comes with the original Black & White inner sleeve, which is also excellent. Some very mild edge wear from re-sleeving.
Overall, a very nice, crisp, clean, complete original 'black' copy of this classic REM First Album, First Pressing, Grail from 1983. 
This is a great record to add to any REM, 80's, or classic Rock collection. Original pressings don't turn up for sale that often and it's a real keeper.
I'm sure you'll love it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare and as described and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
My grading is fair and honest. I have had over 3,300 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years, with 100% positive feedback, and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 20 years, so please bid with confidence!
I'm a 0ne-man operation, this is a hobby, not my job. I do this for fun. I do this because I love music, love collecting vinyl and want others to share in that same experience. I take my time listening, researching, grading, listing and packaging. I will NOT sell any record that I personally would not want in my collection.
As you well know, packing and shipping rare records requires special care and attention, therefore, shipping cost within the lower 48 states is $5.00 on this item. If you would like insurance, or anything faster than Media/Economy Mail, please let me know and I can arrange it for you. I’ll work with you to make sure you’re happy!
I will gladly combine multiple records, or other items on my page, and make the shipping much less for you. I don’t inflate the shipping costs; they are what they are. I strive to keep them as low as possible. See my feedback for comments on my quality packing and shipping.
All items are packaged with sturdy cardboard mailers and appropriate padding. I take pride in my packaging and shipping and package all my records as if I were sending them to myself. I refuse to use cheap flimsy packaging material when sending my vinyl. I treat them as if they were my own and mail them the same way. 
All orders are processed and shipped within 2 business days of receipt. We package and ship our vinyl records with the greatest care, using proper packaging to ensure that your rare and collectible vinyl records arrive in pristine condition.
Payments can be made by any of the multiple options that Ebay offers.
I will be happy to exchange feedback with anyone I complete a transaction with.
THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN