''Out of Time'' is the seventh studio album by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

, released on March 8, 1991, by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. With ''Out of Time'', R.E.M.'s status grew from that of a cult band to a massive international act. The record topped the album sales charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on U.S. album charts and enjoying two separate spells at the summit, and spending 183 weeks on the British charts and a single week at the top. The album has sold more than four and a half million copies in the United States and more than 18 million copies worldwide. The album won three Grammy Awards in 1992: one as

Best Alternative Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. H ...

, and two for the first single, "

Losing My Religion "Losing My Religion" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in February 1991 as the first single from the group's seventh album, '' Out of Time'' (1991). Built on a mandolin riff, the song was an unlikely hit for the grou ...

Details

''Out of Time'' combines elements of pop, folk and classical music heard on the band's previous album ''

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

'', with a new concentration on country elements that would continue on 1992's ''

Automatic for the People ''Automatic for the People'' is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released by Warner Bros. Records on October5, 1992 in the United Kingdom and Europe, and on the following day in the United States. R.E.M. began pro ...

''. It features guest appearances by KRS-One and

Kate Pierson Catherine Elizabeth Pierson (born April 27, 1948) is an American singer, lyricist, and founding member of the B-52's. She plays guitar, bass and various keyboard instruments. In the B-52s, she has performed alongside Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneid ...

from

The B-52's The B-52's, also styled as The B-52s, are an American new wave band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976. The original lineup consisted of Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion), Kate Pierson (vocals, keyboards, synth bass), Cindy Wilson (vocals, ...

. Preceded by the release of "

," which became R.E.M.'s biggest U.S. hit, ''Out of Time'' gave them their first U.S. and UK No. 1 album. The band did not tour to support the release, although it did make occasional appearances on television or at festivals. In Germany, it is the band's best-selling album, selling more than 1,250,000 copies, reaching 5×gold. ''Out of Time'' was the first R.E.M. album to have an alternative expanded release on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

, including expanded liner notes and postcards. In Spain, a contest was held to have a limited edition cover with the winner being an abstract oil painting. The album was featured in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine's unranked list of The All-Time 100 Albums. For the 25th anniversary the album was remastered. The standard version of the reissue comes with a second disc of demos, the deluxe version adds a third disc featuring live acoustic tracks. It was released through

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have ...

on Nov. 18, 2016.

Packaging

Warner Brothers executive Jeff Gold, alongside

Rock the Vote Rock the Vote is a non-profit progressive-aligned organization in the United States whose stated mission is "to engage and build the political power of young Americans." The organization was founded in 1990 by Virgin Records America Co-Chairman ...

campaign co-founder and

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

executive

Jeff Ayeroff Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff (born January 20, 1947) is an American record executive who has worked for A&M, Warner Records, Virgin U.S., Work Group, Apple, and Shangri-La Music. He founded Rock the Vote in 1990 in response to a censorship campaign ag ...

, approached R.E.M. in regards to printing a petition on the back of ''Out of Times CD

longbox A longbox is a form of exterior paperboard packaging for musical compact discs in widespread use in the 1980s and early 1990s in North America. Background When compact discs first began to appear in the retail stores, the longbox packaging ...

packaging in the United States where buyers were encouraged to sign their name in support for Rock the Vote, who were in support of the Motor Voter Act to ease voter registration, and would allow voters "to register through their local DMV."Why R.E.M.'s 1991 Out of Time May Be the "Most Politically Important Album" Ever , Open Culture
/ref> Gold reasoned, considering many of the album's buyers would be young, that this could "vote out" the controversial

Parents Music Resource Center The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related or sexual themes via labeling albums ...

music censorship bill, who "put pressure on the creators and distributors of 'objectionable' music,"Longbox - 99% Invisible
/ref> as well as make good use of the popular longbox packaging format of the day, which many artists and customers considered unnecessary and wasteful. Michael Stipe also appeared in a

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

for the campaign. In July 2014, radio show ''

99% Invisible ''99% Invisible'' is a radio show and podcast produced and created by Roman Mars that focuses on design. It began as a collaborative project between San Francisco public radio station KALW and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco ...

'' said that because of this packaging, ''Out of Time'' is "the most politically significant album in the history of the United States." They said that three weeks after the album's release, "they had received 10,000 petitions, 100 per senator, and they just kept coming in droves," and a month following its release, the campaign's political director and members of KMD "wheeled a shopping cart full of the first 10,000 petitions into a senate hearing." The bill was eventually passed in 1993 by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and was in effect January 1, 1995; one commentary later said this happened "in no small part because of R.E.M.’s lobbying."

Reception

Mark Cooper in his review for Q Magazine, noted the difference with the previous release, ''Green''. He highlighted Stipe's vocals and the harmony singing while describing the album as a "brooding departure

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

offers them at their most reflective, challenging and intriguing". The 25th anniversary re-release of ''Out of Time'' was one of R.E.M.'s more successful albums in terms of

awards and nominations An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award ...

. It was their only album to win a Grammy award, for Best Alternative Music Album. It also won the Q award for Best Album of 1991. In 2000 it was voted number 49 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...

''.

Track listing

All tracks written by Bill Berry,

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his ca ...

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., h ...

and

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of alternative rock band R.E.M. He is known for his vocal quality, poetic lyrics and unique stage presence. Pos ...

. Time Side #" Radio Song" – 4:15 #"

" – 4:28 #"Low" – 4:55 #" Near Wild Heaven" – 3:17 #"Endgame" – 3:48 Memory Side #" Shiny Happy People" – 3:44 #"Belong" – 4:03 #"Half a World Away" – 3:26 #" Texarkana" – 3:36 #" Country Feedback" – 4:07 #"Me in Honey" – 4:06

Personnel

R.E.M. * Bill Berry – drums, percussion, congas on "Low", bass guitar on "Half a World Away" and "Country Feedback", piano on "Near Wild Heaven", backing vocals on "Near Wild Heaven", "Belong", and "Country Feedback",

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

– electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin on "Losing My Religion" and "Half a World Away", production *

– bass guitar; backing vocals, organ on "Radio Song", "Low", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Country Feedback", piano on "Belong", harpsichord on "Half a World Away"; percussion on "Half a World Away", lead vocals on "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana", keyboards and arrangement on "Losing My Religion" and "Texarkana"; production *

– lead vocals (except "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana"),

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usua ...

and arrangement on "Endgame", backing vocals on "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana", production, packaging, photography Additional musicians *David Arenz – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *Ellie Arenz – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *

Mark Bingham Mark Kendall Bingham (May 22, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American public relations executive who founded his own company, the Bingham Group. During the September 11 attacks in 2001, he was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93. ...

– string arrangements on "Radio Song", "Losing My Religion",Black, p. 178. "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *David Braitberg – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *Andrew Cox – cello on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *Reid Harris – viola on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" *

Peter Holsapple Peter Livingston Holsapple (born February 19, 1956) is an American musician, who formed, along with Chris Stamey, the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongat ...

– bass guitar on "Radio Song" and "Low", acoustic guitar on "Losing My Religion", "Shiny Happy People" and "Texarkana", electric guitar on "Belong" *Ralph Jones – double bass on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" * Kidd Jordan – baritone saxophone on "Radio Song" and "Near Wild Heaven", tenor saxophone on "Radio Song" and "Endgame", alto saxophone on "Radio Song", bass clarinet on "Low" and "Endgame" * John Keane – pedal steel guitar on "Texarkana" and "Country Feedback" *Dave Kempers – violin on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away" and "Texarkana" * KRS-One – rapping on "Radio Song" *

Scott Litt Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most su ...

– echo-loop feed on "Radio Song" *Elizabeth Murphy – cello on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana" *Paul Murphy – viola on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana" *

– backing vocals on "Near Wild Heaven", and duet on "Shiny Happy People", "Me in Honey" * Jay Weigel – orchestral liaison on "Radio Song", "Low", "Near Wild Heaven", "Endgame", "Shiny Happy People", "Half a World Away", and "Texarkana" *Cecil Welch – flugelhorn on "Endgame" Production *Dave Friedlander –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

*Tom Garneau – engineering * Ben Katchor – illustrations * John Keane – engineering *Scott Litt – production, engineering *Ted Malia – engineering *

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

– mastering, at Precision Mastering,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

*Frank Ockenfels – photography *Tom Recchion – packaging *Mike Reiter – engineering *Ed Rogers – illustrations *Karina Santo – photography *Doug Starn – photography *Mike Starn – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

In 2005, Warner Bros. Records issued an expanded two-disc edition of ''Out of Time'' which includes a CD, a DVD-Audio disc containing a 5.1-channel surround sound mix of the album done by

Elliot Scheiner Elliot Ray Scheiner (born 18 March 1947) is a music producer, mixer and engineer. Scheiner has received 27 Grammy Award nominations, eight of which he won, and he has been awarded four Emmy nominations, two Emmy Awards for his work with the Eagl ...

, lyrics, a photo album, and the original CD booklet with expanded liner notes. In 2011 Warner Bros. released a 96 kHz, 24-bit and 192 kHz, 24 bit stereo release (the same High-Resolution stereo mix as featured on the DVD-Audio and later, the Blu-Ray editions) of the album at HDtracks. ''Out of Time'' Note *† Edition packaged with a bonus 7" single—"World Leader Pretend"/"Turn You Inside Out" from ''

Tourfilm ''Tourfilm'' (1990) is a documentary-style concert film by American rock band R.E.M. The film chronicles the band's 1989 ''Green'' tour of North America. Produced by frontman Michael Stipe and director Jim McKay, the black-and-white film features ...

'' Box sets

References

Bibliography

* Black, Johnny. ''Reveal: The Story of R.E.M.'' Backbeat Books, 2004.

External links

R.E.M.HQ on ''Out of Time''
* :* (DualDisc edition) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Out Of Time 1991 albums Albums produced by Bill Berry Albums produced by Michael Stipe Albums produced by Mike Mills Albums produced by Peter Buck Albums produced by Scott Litt Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album R.E.M. albums Warner Records albums