R.E.M.
Chronic Town [Reissue]
I.R.S./UME
Although preceded by the Hib-Tone version of “Radio Free Europe” the previous year, to all intents and purposes, Chronic Town—R.E.M.’s 1982 debut EP—was the start of R.E.M. as we know them. These five songs showcased the true extent of the Athens-based four-piece’s potential and talent in a way that a single—even one as good as “Radio Free Europe” and its accompanying B-side “Sitting Still”—didn’t have the capacity to do.
Indeed, while those two songs were the sound of a (brilliant) band finding themselves, the five songs that comprised Chronic Town were the sound of a (brilliant) band asserting themselves. And while this motley crew of three early-twentysomethings (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills) and a teenage Michael Stipe surely had no idea of the profound, world-conquering impact their songs would go on to have on alternative music and culture, these songs nevertheless sound revolutionary, vital, important.
Before the recognizable jangle that, with the likes of “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon,” would take an already-successful career stratospheric, Chronic Town set the tone for the decade that would follow—a jaunty gloominess dominated by Buck’s arpeggiated guitars and Stipe’s quasi-mumbled vocals, backed by a rhythm section that both nodded and added to a still-in-vogue post-punk scene.
Yet R.E.M. were different. There was an extra otherworldly majesty and mystery to the lifeforce that flowed through the likes of “Wolves, Lower,” “Gardening at Night”—its almost Lynchian atmosphere trembling in what sounds like the shadow of a cold moon—and the nightmarish/dreamscape romantic escapism of “Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars),” which remains one of their best songs to this day. Dispensing with traditional side naming/numbering, those three songs make up the “Chronic Town” side of the record, while “1,000,000” and “Stumble”—both songs slightly rawer, gruffer, more harried than those on its opposite side—make up the “Poster Torn” side.
It’s in that order that these songs first appeared on CD as extra tracks on 1987’s B-sides/rarities collection Dead Letter Office, and they do so here, too, on this anniversary edition. Interestingly, the CD version of this reissue marks the very first time these five songs have been released on a standalone CD. That’s perhaps an odd decision, given that it’s 2022 and nobody is really buying CDs anymore, but it’s also perfectly R.E.M.-esque. Also in typically abstruse, iconoclastic R.E.M. fashion, the tracklisting on the back of this collection lists, like the original vinyl release, “1,000,000” and “Stumble” first, a hint that they could be played in any order the listener saw fit.
R.E.M., you see, were never ones to follow rules, just make and break them. Forty years on from the release of their debut EP, that it feels like they’re doing so all over again proves just how special this record—and this band—was, is, and will always be.
