[R.E.M. released a deluxe, 25th anniversary edition of its debut album, Murmur, today. The two-disc set contains the original album remastered from original tapes and a live concert bootleg from Larry's Hideaway in Toronto from that era. Co-producer Don Dixon will be on my KDHX radio show on Monday night, December 1, between 8 and 10 p.m., as I spotlight Murmur, R.E.M. rarities, outtakes and other assorted ephemera. Here are some thoughts on the album, a quarter-century later. -- Annie
It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young"
myspace.com/markmulcahy​Mark Mulcahy isn't a household name, but he should be. In the '80s, the singer-songwriter fronted Miracle Legion, a Connecticut jangle-pop act that managed to transcend early comparisons to R.E.M. and evolve into a pretty solid original rock band. In the '90s, Miracle Legion -- or, rather, Mulcahy and the band's then-rhythm section-- morphed into Polaris, who you might know as the house band on the Nickelodeon cult show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. (Fun fact: RFT
