Murmur

I.R.S. first paired the band with producer Stephen Hague, whose technical perfectionism did not suit them. He added keyboards to a track without asking, and the band requested Mitch Easter instead. After a tryout on Pilgrimage, the label approved Easter and Don Dixon. They avoided guitar solos and synthesizers, and Berry insisted on a drum booth. Buck's amp was not working, so Easter's Ampeg Gemini II was used on nearly every song except Pilgrimage, and Mills's bass was replaced by a Rickenbacker 4001 that belonged to Easter's girlfriend.

The album reached No. 36 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold in 1991. Rolling Stone's Steve Pond called R.E.M. clearly the important Athens band, and AllMusic's Erlewine wrote that the group never again made anything that sounded quite like it. Pitchfork gave it 10 out of 10, and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 8 on its list of the best albums of the 1980s. A 25th anniversary edition in November 2008 added a second disc recorded at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto on July 9, 1983.

Stephen M. Deusner reviewed the 2008 deluxe edition for Pitchfork and wrote that the band's stringent democracy, with equal credit for every member, showed in how each instrument was treated as an equal voice. The remaster, overseen by Greg Calbi, brought out Mills's keyboards, including the piano and vibraphone on Pilgrimage, and Deusner pointed to British postpunk acts such as PiL and Gang of Four, more than the usual Byrds comparison, as an influence audible in Buck's guitar. He noted that the Toronto bonus disc was the first full R.E.M. show released on CD.