- AFTP
- Murmur
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I think lyrically its AFTP, but each is so distinctive in terms of what they do.
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Murmur has a good beat and you can dance to it, but AFTP has Nightswimming/Find the River so it wins.
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I voted AFTP today… but I love them both so much that I could’ve seen this question in a week’s time and voted Murmur. It truly depends on the mood and era I’m into at any given time.
Lucky to have both!
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AFTP is too polished. Brilliant but polished.
I love Murmur for its brilliance so early on.
Who could have known?
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I think Murmur is better, but i think also that the best ten-year-period that R.E.M. had was from AFTP to Reveal, so about 1992-01. I think i like it the most because thats the time when they tried a lot of different things.
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I’ll go with Murmur, since it was my introduction to the band, and because it is so danceable.
A few months back, I found an original IRS vinyl pressing of Murmur. A previous owner’s initials are written in pen on one corner of the sleeve, but that is the only flaw. The record itself sounds divine after I gave it a cleaning.
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I love both but gave Murmur some attention.
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The one thing I can say about both is its not usual to have two records that can stop you in your tracks, but both fit the bill.
I think Automatic though, over time and with aging (myself and the record) has become more and more resonant.
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To be honest, first NAiHF, then Murmur, then AFTP.
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Automatic has some of the most masterful songwriting of all time, yet 25 plus years later I do think it sounds very “of it’s time”. Maybe it’s the production? Maybe it’s just because it was so heavily played but something just screams “early 90s” at me when I hear it.
In contrast, Murmur (and the entire IRS catalogue) is timeless. You can’t place it. It could’ve been released yesterday or 1968. It sounds like nothing else, is upbeat, danceable and has what I believe to be the best rock and roll melodies and harmonies outside of the Beach Boys.
Automatic is REM at their most accomplished and features one of the best male vocal performances of my lifetime. Murmur is simply magic. Otherworldly and one of the most important albums in alternative music.
Murmur takes it.
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AFTP. It’s the perfect, emotional victory lap of their career before they settled into a slightly less inspired (but still valid) second half of their career. Murmur is amazing but in IRS terms I will always favour the three album run Fables/ Pageant/ Document over the first two.
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Without one, the other would’ve never happened, so, I have to vote MURMUR, thought, it’s a thin margin of victory over AUTOMATIC
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I’m not one for pitting albums, songs, artists, etc. against each other. Murmur and Automatic both have their strengths. It’s been said that by the time of Automatic they were concentrating on their studio craft and that that record is an example of them learning to use the studio as an instrument. I believe the same could be said of Murmur though it was Dixon and Easter making that sort of magic happen with the likes of backwards guitars and the sound of clanking pool table balls. One of the main differences to me is how densely layered Murmur is and how all these years later I still hear something new with each listen. That said, Murmur is my favorite of the two but it also doesn’t mean I love Automatic any less.
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Almost impossible to split. I went with AFTP simply because the album means a lot to me on a personal level. However, the magical murkiness and mystique of Murmur has never dimmed.
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I have to pick Murmur because Shaking Through is in my top 5.
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I will answer with this…
The feel of Murmur is a time and place, that never happened, but we kinda wished it did.
Automatic for the People is looking at the infinite vanishing point and realizing an ending will come, but a beginning is just around the corner.
I can’t answer.
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Me too tough call
Always the IRS albums for me, not that I don’t like or love some of the WB’s albums, you never forget your first love I guess.
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Hard to choose… both masterpieces.