R.E.M. released the 1983 alternative rock album Murmur, which Rolling Stone later ranked among the greatest albums ever made.
Murmur was R.E.M.’s debut studio album and followed the band’s 1982 EP Chronic Town. Recorded in North Carolina with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, it helped establish the group’s distinctive combination of jangling guitars, subdued rhythm sections, and Michael Stipe’s often-obscured vocals. The album’s opening track, “Radio Free Europe,” had first appeared in an earlier version on the band’s debut single.
Murmur reached number 36 on the Billboard 200 and received strong critical acclaim. Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1983 in its original review and later placed it at number 197 on its 500 Greatest Albums list. It is sometimes confused with Document, the 1987 R.E.M. album that produced “The One I Love,” but Murmur belongs to the band’s early college-rock period.