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 Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.79 UK, 18.0 world (includes US + UK), 24.01 EAS Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Radio Song (with KRS-One) [4:15] Losing My Religion [4:28] Low [4:55] Near Wild Heaven [3:17] Endgame (instrumental) [3:48] Shiny Happy People (with Kate Pierson) [3:44] Belong [4:03] Half a World Away [3:26] Texarkana [3:36] Country Feedback [4:07] Me in Honey [4:06] 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: 4.133 out of 5.00 (average of 30 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 The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Radio Song R.E.M. with KRS-One

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: 11/4/1991 (single), Out of Time (1991) Peak: 43 AR, 28 UK, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.94 streaming About the Song “R.E.M. fans were likely thrown for a loop on their first listen to Out of Time. The first sounds on the album weren’t a Berry drum beat, a Buck guitar riff, Mills’ melodic bass, or even Stipe’s vocals, but the voice of rapper KRS-One from the hip-hop act Boogie Down Productions.” CR-107 Stipe was a fan of “KRS-One’s social consciousness and…using entertainment…to educate listeners.” CR-107 Stipe said, “It made sense since we both had similar gripes about radio and formatting. He fit right into the track.” CR-107 Berry said, “The song kind of sucked before we put that stuff on it…It had a good groove but it just wasn’t that exciting. When Michael sent the tape to KRS-One, all he asked him to do was the ‘hey hey hey’ parts but he came up with this whole rap that was exactly what the song was about.” CR-107 Beyond KRS-One’s contribution, “Mills’ Hammond organ sounds as if it would be at home on a Stax record, Buck opts for funky-but-chic guitar riffs, and Berry’s syncopated drumming swings. On top of it all, Stipe’s vocals are alternately heartfelt and humorous.”

Losing My Religion R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: 2/19/1991 (single), Out of Time (1991), In Time: The Best of (compilation: 1988-2003, released 2003), Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage (compilation: 1982-2011, released 2011) Peak: 4 BB, 6 CB, 3 GR, 4 RR, 28 AC, 1 AR, 1 MR, 19 UK, 6 CN, 11 AU, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.50 US, 0.60 UK, 2.10 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 1312.35 video, 2162.61 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “With a jangly-guitar sound that was equal parts rock and folk, cryptic yet compelling lyrics, and the quirky charisma of lead singer Michael Stipe, R.E.M. steadily built a cult following until their 1987 breakthrough” SS with top-10 hit “The One I Love.” However, the song that became the band’s biggest hit happened four years later. “Alternative rock as a genre remained on the fringes throughout” MM the 1980s but “Losing My Religion” was a turning point in that it “primed the market for grunge’s breakout…and created a model for…independent rock bands that strive to succeed without selling out.” MM It was a “morose ballad dominated by a mandolin,” TB not exactly the record label’s choice for a lead single. MM The instrument’s “very distinctive sound and emotional quality grabs listeners immediately.” SS Peter Buck, the band’s guitarist, started playing around with the instrument afer 1987’s Document and used it to write two songs for the 1988 Green album. He came up with some other chords that he hung onto until the band went into the studio to record Out of Time. That was the basis of “Losing My Religion.” MM On top of that, “Stipe’s beautiful, yearning voice sings about indecision and regret and fear in an abstract lyric.” TC Stipe said, “I wanted to write an unrequited love song, like the Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take.’…I wanted it to be unclear whether the relationship in the song was real or a figment of the protagonist’s imagination. I created a character so shy and insecure that he questions every one of his moves and choices.” MM The phrase “losing my religion” is used in the South that refers to losing one’s temper or being at the end of one’s rope. The Times, a UK publication, called it “the first existential pop song ever to make the American Top 10.” HL Warner Bros., R.E.M.’s record label, was not sold on releasing such an “unconventional track” as the first single WK in support of the group’s 1991 album, Out of Time. Stipe himself said, “There’s no chorus, there’s no guitar, it’s five minutes long, it’s a fucking mandolin song. What kind of pop song is that?” TC However, the company got the song established via a “critically-acclaimed music video,” WK and airplay on modern rock and album rock radio stations before promoting it to mainstream radio. One Top 40 radio station director said, “the record crosses the boundaries of being just an alternative record.” WK

Low R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) Peak: 8 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.16 streaming About the Song “With Mills’ funeral parlor-organ serving as the musical backbone,” CR-111 this is “one of the darker songs on Out of Time.” CR-111 This was Stipe’s reflection on love songs. He said, “”Get them out of my face, they’re all horrible and manipulative.” CR-111 “Despite the somber mood of the song, Stipe has said it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. ‘It’s just a song…It was written on the road and I put together a bunch of nonsense phrases. I never meditated on it…I wrote it in a feverish moment somewhere touring around the world. I think it’s funny actually.’” CR-111 This was one of the first songs R.E.M. completed for the album. In fact, they’d played it during their tour in support of 1988’s Green album and submitted for the soundtrack of Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World, but their song “Fretless” was chosen instead.” CR-111

Near Wild Heaven R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: 8/5/1991 (single), Out of Time (1991) Peak: 27 UK, 65 AU, 35 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 22.63 streaming About the Song “This Beach Boys-influenced pop delight brings Out of Time up with its optimism.” CR-111 Guitarist Peter Buck said, “When we were making that record Capitol came out with those Beach Boy two-fer records…I was listening the one with Smiley Smile and Wild Honey a whole lot…I think I even suggested the high harmony part, just so it would sound kind of like the Beach Boys.” CR-112 Stipe, however, has said he isn’t a fan of the group. “I don’t get it…I think Brian Wilson was amazing…but I never dug the Beach Boys.” CR-112 “Near Wild Heaven” is one of two tracks on the album featuring Mike Mills on lead vocals. Buck said, “It’s kind of a duet with Michael…and they wrote the lyrics together.’” CR-112 “The song’s title brings to mind an early critical rave. ‘When I get to heaven, the angels will be playing not harps but Rickenbackers. And they will be playing songs by R.E.M.,’ read a review of Reckoning in New Musical Express.” CR-111

Endgame R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) Peak: 39 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 5.23 streaming About the Song “As the title suggests, the song was conceived as an end theme for a film that doesn’t exist.” CR-112 “Endgame sounds like some lost Brian Wilson orchestral piece.” CR-112 Peter Buck said he read that George Melly “was saying that most rock musicians don’t have any idea what classical music is – they’re all upwardly mobile lower middle class kids who think that if they rip off a little bit of the ‘1812 Overture’ everyone’ll think they’re really high brow.” CR-113 Although the song doesn’t have any words, Stipe does add some ‘la la las’ to the majestic instrumental track.” CR-112 Stipe said, “What I basically did was take my vocal line and replace it, except for the final verse, with instruments that I thought sounded like my voice.” CR-112

Shiny Happy People R.E.M. with Kate Pierson

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: 5/7/1991 (single), Out of Time (1991), Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage (compilation: 1982-2011, released 2011) Peak: 10 BB, 8 CB, 4 GR, 10 RR, 48 AC, 8 AR, 3 MR, 6 UK, 5 CN, 19 AU, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 36.0 video, 461.88 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “If ‘Stand’ was ‘just a dumb pop song, Shiny Happy People may be R.E.M.’s dumbest.” CR-113 Stipe said it was the happiest song he ever wrote. CR-113 Buck said, “The song is so relentlessly upbeat you want to throw up.” CR-113 although he also said “I’m not afraid to do foolish things.” CR-113 He explained how it came about, saying, “We wrote this kind of silly song in three-quarter time and Michael gave us this sort of silly lyric…We recorded it in one take.” CR-113 The song is significant as R.E.M.’s first collaboration with fellow Athens musician Kate Pierson of the B-52’s. Mills and Stipe have said it was her participation that made the song special. Stipe said, “She’s probably my favorite female singer.” CR-113

Belong R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.54 streaming About the Song “Although the mood is slightly darker, Belong owes more than a little to the obscure ‘Voice of Harold’ [featured on Dead Letter Office], Stipe’s alternate take of ‘7 Chinese Bros.’ in which he substituted that song’s lyrics with the liner notes from a gospel album. On ‘Belong,’ R.E.M. opts for Stipe’s spoken-word vocals, which were employed on a good portion of ‘Voice of Harold’ and would later resurface on New Adventures in Hi-Fi’s ‘E-Bow the Letter.’” CR-114 While “Voice of Harold” “was a goof, ‘Belong is quite serious.” CR-114 “In the song’s lyrics, Stipe mentions that a woman takes her child and opens a window. What happens next is unclear.” CR-114 Stipe has said, “There was no violent act contained within the song…[but] when I first wrote the song, it did seem like the woman hurled her child and herself out of the window, but that’s not what occurs.” CR-115

Half a World Away R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) Peak: 38 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 21.28 streaming About the Song Half a World Away is “a truly beautiful song and points to the more somber direction R.E.M. would explore on Automatic for the People.” CR-115 While lyrically this “melancholy song about longing for a loved one” CR-115 appears to tell a “seemingly heartfelt story” CR-115 Stipe has said, “It’s a totally fabricated experience. It’s drawn from things that I know or saw on TV or that people told me.” CR-115 Musically, it “was inspired by Buck’s experiences while moonlighting with other musicians.” CR-115 He said, “I was hanging out with a bunch of folk musician guys and playing on front porches.” CR-115CR-115 “Apart from R.E.M.’s traditional instrumentation” CR-115 and “the mournful hum of organ, acoustic guitar, and mandolin,” CR-115 we also get Mike Mills playing the harpsichord which “gives the track a nice baroque touch. A Bingham string arrangement is also used.” CR-115

Texarkana R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) First Charted: 5/18/1991 Peak: 7 AR, 4 MR, 39 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.10 streaming About the Song As on “Near Wild Heaven,” Mike Mills steps up as the lead singer. He said, “It makes it add so much texture and depth to any band that has more than one person that can sing.” CR-116 However, he also said, “It’s a lot of fun to do, but I wouldn’t want to have to do it all the time.” CR-116 Peter Buck explained that Michael Stipe had started lyrics for a song called Texarkana but didn’t finish it so Mills stepped in. He said the new lyrics had nothing to do with Texarkana but they kept the old name. CR-116

Country Feedback R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991), Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage (compilation: 1982-2011, released 2011) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 10.18 streaming About the Song Surprise, surprise – this is “a country song with feedback.” CR-116 Peter Buck said, “I had four chords and put them down with Bill playing bass…I put the feedback on it, Michael walked in and said, ‘Oh, I’ve got words for that.’” CR-116 As for those words, Stipe used what he called the “’projectile vomiting’ approach, scribbling down the song’s lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness manner.” CR-116

Me in Honey R.E.M.

Writer(s): Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Released: Out of Time (1991) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 7.03 streaming About the Song “With its genesis in a one-chord riff, Me in Honey is perhaps the simplest song on Out of Time.” CR-117 Stipe was inspired by “Eat for Two,” a song written by his friend Natalie Merchant with 10,000 Maniacs. He said, “It’s a male perspective on pregnancy, which I don’t think has really been dealt with.” CR-117 As on “Shiny Happy People,” the B-52’s Kate Pierson shows up for a guest vocal.

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine AZ Amazon.com essential recording, review by Steve Knopper TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Page 143. HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 118. MM Marc Myers (2016). Anatomy of a Song. Grove Press: New York, NY. Pages 317-23. RS500 RollingStone.com (4/7/2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” CR Craig Rosen (1997). Inside Out. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 146-7. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 31. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 249. TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light WK Wikipedia page for “Losing My Religion” Related DMDB Pages: First posted 7/31/2011; last updated 10/6/2026.