R.E.M. Out of Time released

Out of Time R.E.M.

Released: March 12, 1991 Peak: 12 US, 11 UK, 19 CN, 4 AU, 13 DF Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.79 UK, 18.0 world (includes US + UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Radio Song (with KRS-One) (10/12/91, 43 AR, 28 UK, 18 DF) Losing My Religion (3/9/91, 4 BB, 6 CB, 3 GR, 4 RR, 28 AC, 1 AR, 1 MR, 19 UK, 6 CN, 11 AU, 2 DF, sales: 0.5 million) Low (8 DF) Near Wild Heaven (8/17/91, 27 UK, 65 AU, 35 DF) Endgame (instrumental) (39 DF) Shiny Happy People (with Kate Pierson) (5/18/91, 10 BB, 8 CB, 4 GR, 10 RR, 48 AC, 8 AR, 3 MR, 6 UK, 5 CN, 19 AU, 18 DF) Belong (36 DF) Half a World Away (38 DF) Texarkana (5/18/91, 7 AR, 4 MR, 39 DF) Country Feedback Me in Honey Total Running Time: 44:08 The Players: Bill Berry (drums, percussion, etc.) Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin, etc.) Mike Mills (bass, piano, keyboards, etc.) Michael Stipe (vocals)

Rating: 4.081 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Though R.E.M. titled a later album Monster, this 1991 smash was the true monster, with the little Athens, Georgia, quartet graduating once and for all from its jangling independent-rock roots.” AZ “The supporting tour for Green exhausted R.E.M., and they spent nearly a year recuperating before reconvening for Out of Time. Where previous R.E.M. records captured a stripped-down, live sound, Out of Time was lush with sonic detail, featuring string sections, keyboards, [and] mandolins.” AM “The scope of R.E.M.’s ambitions is impressive, and the record sounds impeccable, its sunny array of pop and folk songs as refreshing as Michael Stipe’s decision to abandon explicitly political lyrics for the personal.” AM “Peter Buck put down his Rickenbacker and picked up a mandolin, while Mark Bingham’s sugar-free string arrangements and Kate Pierson’s guest vocals added the kind of ethereal beauty rarely heard on a rock record.” TL “Rather than treat the most overdone of emotions directly, Michael Stipe took an oblique approach, writing impressionistic lyrics about the way love manifests itself in loneliness (Belong), regret” TL – on “the haunting Country Feedback” AM – and, most famously, obsession” TL on “the masterpiece Losing My Religion.” AM There’s also the “dark-and-dreamy Low” AZ and “Mike Mills’ Byrds-y Near Wild Heaven” AM. “There are also odd but successful experiments, like ceding the opening Radio Song to rapper KRS-One (with Stipe playing the moaning straight man) and going peppy for the surprisingly nonsarcastic Shiny Happy People.” AZ “The album is more notable for its production than its songwriting,” AM but should also be noted for its timing. It “hit the mainstream-rock audience when it was most primed for uneasy angst. (Nirvana’s Nevermind was released a few months later).” AZ

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for R.E.M. AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine AZ Amazon.com essential recording, review by Steve Knopper TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 7/31/2011; last updated 6/18/2024.