Chronic Town is the debut extended play (EP) by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on August 24, 1982, on I.R.S.

Containing five tracks, the EP was recorded at the Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in October 1981, eighteen months after the formation of the band.

Its co-producer was Mitch Easter, who produced the band's "Radio Free Europe" single earlier in 1981.

Chronic Town's opening track, "Wolves, Lower", was re-recorded in June 1982, two months before the EP's release.

manager Jefferson Holt felt the band was ready to record a longer release.

Easter incorporated tape loops and recorded singer Michael Stipe singing outdoors.

"[3] Easter continued: "I remember Chronic Town completely fondly because it was so relaxed, and so open to cutting the tape up and putting pieces in backwards and stuff.

"[3] NME reviewer Richard Grabel wrote, "Chronic Town is five songs that spring to life full of immediacy and action and healthy impatience.

Hull began his review saying, "This EP is so arcane that I had to play it six times in a row to get a handle on it – and even now, I'm still not sure."

Hull praised the EP for "[evoking] the music of the late-'60s without any pretensions, mingling past and present to shape both into concurrent moments."

"[19] Chronic Town ranked second in the EP category of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll in 1982.

[20] All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

Production The EP was added to the CD edition of the band's rarities compilation album Dead Letter Office (1987), and again in 1993 in the I.R.S.