'Murmur' still delivers a glorious sound

R.E.M., "Murmur" Deluxe Edition (I.R.S./Universal),

The real story of 1980s music was never the synthesizer-driven singles that made the pop charts, but the darker, edgier stuff that growled underneath.

Stuff like R.E.M.'s "Murmur."

That 1983 album, the first full-length record from R.E.M., joined a growing wave of underground bands and records that delivered a new sound by combining the ideology of punk with the songcraft of '60s pop.

This week, R.E.M.'s classic debut arrives in a remastered "deluxe edition" that includes a bonus disc with a previously unreleased 1983 live performance recorded at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto.

The good news is that 25 years later, "Murmur" still shimmers, still challenges and most importantly, still rocks.

It starts with one of the great one-two combinations in modern rock history: "Radio Free Europe" and "Pilgrimage." Peter Buck's guitar rings like a church bell on both tracks, but with a slightly sinister tone the Byrds could only dream of. Mike Mills' bass propels the songs forward, but also acts as a melodic counterpart to Buck's leads. Drummer Bill Berry, meanwhile, provides a stunning array of backbeats without upstaging the melodies.

Then you have Michael Stipe's vocals - cryptic, slurred and suggestive. His style drove some critics crazy (they derisively referred to the record as "Mumble"), but others recognized it as an essential component of music that was about mood, not bombast.

Other highlights on "Murmur" include the gentle acoustic ballads "Talk About the Passion" and "Perfect Circle"; the abrasive punk-inspired "Moral Kiosk" and "9-9"; and the jangly pop of "Sitting Still."

Thankfully, the remastering process hasn't cleaned up the record's famously murky sound. Stipe's vocals still lurk deep in the swirl, with individual phrases like "conversation fear" from "9-9" occasionally leaping out of the mix. The rhythm section sounds fleshed out a bit, with Mills' bass lines particularly clearer, but the songs retain their understated mystery.

The 16-song live portion of this two-disc set includes most of the songs from "Murmur" as well as a few that would appear on subsequent R.E.M. albums. Though very early in its career (the Toronto show occurred just a few months after "Murmur" came out), the band rocks with ferocious energy and undeniable chemistry. The disc stands as a valuable artifact showing a superstar band in its lean, hungry early days.

"Murmur" dropped like a bomb into a thriving underground rock scene that used fanzines, college radio and independent record stores the way today's bands use the Internet. It helped launch the alternative rock revolution that would explode with the rise of Nirvana in the early '90s. But the most enduring thing about "Murmur" isn't its historical impact, but its beautiful songs, which deserve mention among rock's finest.