Chronic Town

Bands are never “fully formed” on a debut, at least in the sense that the music doesn’t just emerge from the ground, plant-like and budding with promise. Takes years for some bands to find a unique sound if they ever do. In fairness to R.E.M., they waited a whole year to put their blend of jittery, illegally-catchy jangle punk to wax. Chronic Town works with or without the context of the history of the band we all know; the elements are all there in songs like “Gardening At Night” and “1,000,000.” The rampant drumming and melodious bass and guitar couching Michael Stipe’s vocal delivery — here surprisingly forceful and missing some of the signature mumble of the early days — set them apart from the young thousands of the then-burgeoning college rock era. We all know our history books, it’s always nice to see where the first chapter came from.