R.E.M.’s debut album Murmur was released in 1983. I.R.S. Records issued the album on April 12, 1983, after the band had built a strong following through its early Athens, Georgia, performances and the 1982 EP Chronic Town.
Murmur was recorded in North Carolina with producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. The band’s approach emphasized interlocking guitar parts, restrained production, and Michael Stipe’s often difficult-to-decipher vocals. That combination gave the album a distinctive sound that separated R.E.M. from more conventional rock acts of the period.
The album was a critical success and reached No. 36 on the US Billboard 200. Its lead single was a re-recorded version of “Radio Free Europe,” an earlier R.E.M. song that had first appeared as a 1981 independent single. Murmur eventually received a gold certification from the RIAA in 1991.
The main date mix-up comes from the band’s surrounding releases. Chronic Town came out in 1982, while Reckoning, Murmur’s follow-up, arrived in 1984. Murmur itself is firmly a 1983 release, making that the canonical answer.