LWA Blog — REM

I feel like lately there's been a lot of R.E.M. discourse happening, maybe thanks in part to The Bear, the excellent Hulu drama (seriously, watch it, I didn't think I'd like it but guess what), which features a couple R.E.M. songs. Strange Currencies, Half a World Away and Oh My Heart. I had to look up that last one, late-period R.E.M. kinda escapes me. I'm not one of those "Oh I only listen to the I.R.S. stuff" assholes, but I did kinda fall off after Up. It just didn't feel the same at the time, I was more on the...

Happy 40th to R.E.M.'s legendary debut album, Murmur, release 40 years ago on this day, April 12th 1983. I remember reading about them and seeing this album high on Rolling Stone's College Charts. I didn't hear the music until Reckoning (their second album) came out (1984) and I saw them play So. Central Rain on Solid Gold. And I didn't start buying their records until Document came out (1987). By that time, I had five albums to catch up with and that was about when they became one of my favourite bands. I played all of those albums to death...