RIP R.E.M.

31 years, 15 records, still as big, still as awesome – you gotta wonder how they pulled it off. I’ve mostly been around when it was uncool to like R.E.M. With a perspective muddled from the many blinkered opinions stemming from those two odd singles, I approached Murmur at 13 with the slightest of foam at the mouth. On first listen, it became apparent just how much we’ve been taking for granted from the group all these years. Pick your favorite alt-rock band. Chances are they wouldn’t even be around had R.E.M. not existed. Back in the ’80s, they weren’t ‘one of the best’ alt-rock groups to have ever played. They practically invented the thing.

R.E.M. have always exuded a sense of fierce democracy in every aspect, from their songwriting process to their stage show. Each jangle-speckled musical passageway carries a sense of calculated beauty. They were just as innovative as they were clever, rarely working around the etched traditions of rock, opting to work with them instead. They focused not on odd songwriting tricks, but on the subtler qualities of songcraft. They invoked a thick, twangy ambience of their own, reviving oft-overlooked recording techniques (the now fashionable binaural recording method, for instance) and employing them with careful consideration of their strengths and weaknesses.

The music aside, the group wrote the book on dealing with unforeseen successes. “I don’t know how that band does what they do. God, they’re the greatest. They’ve dealt with their success like saints, and they keep delivering great music,” said Kurt Cobain with justifiable admiration, himself unable to cope with the sudden surge of interest in his own music. Throughout their career, R.E.M. smoothly brushed aside commercial eminence and wrote one killer album after the other, losing track only in the early years of the ’00s.

Considering the mere extent of their history, it’s challenging to discern how they could work together for so long. The inevitable answer is that they always remain antithetical to your average rock band. R.E.M. forged ahead instead of indulging in gross excess. It’s not just about the music they made, it’s about the decisions they took as a band, refusing to flinch in the eyes of a $80 million deal with Warner Bros. Records. Given their track record for being right so often, their announcement to disband this morning demands more respect than shock.

“Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years,” announced Peter Buck this morning, ending the reign of one of the smartest groups of our time. We would neither ask for nor get an act of their kind again, but we’re certain every alt-rock band with some level of success is in some way in debt to these art school dropouts.