So why is R.E.M.’s Out of Time on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
IIt’s a small but important milestone in my life that Out of Time was part of the very first compact disc purchase I ever made, along with The Best of The Doors and Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti.
Not only does this represent a shift into a new mode of listening to music – one that would dominate until the era of MP3s came along – but it also spotlights how R.E.M., along with U2, was a gateway for me into college and alternative rock during an era when I had mostly abandoned “modern” pop and rock music (more on this below) for the comforts and delights of classic rock.
I was certainly an R.E.M. fan by the time I got my hands on Out of Time, but it was the first album of theirs that I spent a lot of… well, time with, probably in part because it was one of the first CDs I owned and the format allowed for the super easy ability to skip around from track to track. Trust me, kids, this was a really big deal at the time!
I always smile a little these days when I think about Out of Time because it includes a Top 5 R.E.M. masterpiece in “Losing My Religion,” and it also includes the easy choice for my least favorite R.E.M. song of all time in “Radio Song.”
I thought hard about what I wanted to say about “Losing My Religion,” and what I came up with is that from a musical perspective, it’s that rare song that is both absolutely beautiful and completely catchy. And then from a lyrical perspective, it hits that universally appealing sweet spot of being about whatever the listener wants it to be about: losing one’s religion, of course – however you might define that – but it can be about the loss of innocence, or love, or simply the loss of time.
Like the time in my life when it was a big deal to make my first CD purchases.
The “Losing My Religion” music video is also really artful and well produced. It was all a little over my head in 1991, I think, but I appreciate it deeply as I write these words in 2023.
Now, let’s quickly cut to 2004, when R.E.M. collaborated with the great Q-Tip on “The Outsiders” (on the sorely unappreciated Around the Sun album, #92 of best 1,000 albums ever). I point this out as it’s an example where the band layered in a hip hop verse very smoothly and effectively. But when R.E.M. brought in the also great KRS-One on “Radio Song,” the opening track on Out of Time, the results are… just not good.
(I will say that the live and acoustic version of “Radio Song,” sans KRS-One, on R.E.M. at the BBC is actually pretty good!)
The second most recognizable song on Out of Time is “Shiny Happy People,” which, along with “Stand,” off of Green, probably gives some casual music fans a little bit of a skewed take on R.E.M. Nonetheless, I find it to be a perfectly gorgeous little gem of a pop song. And I absolutely love whenever Kate Pierson of the B-52’s shows up to help out with the vocals. Pierson’s and Michael Stipe’s voices are magic together.
The rest of Out of Time is rock solid strong. When I was a kid, I was particularly taken with the driving bass line and college rock vibes of “Texarkana.” These days, I’m completely dazzled by the world weary “Country Feedback.”
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with R.E.M.’s Out of Time
Nevermind, by Nirvana, was released on September 24, 1991, and would soon upend the music world, and pop culture generally, really.
The pre-9/24/91 world was one where songs such as the following dominated pop radio:
- “More Than Words” – Extreme
- “I Wanna Sex You Up” – Color Me Badd
- “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” – Bryan Adams
And on the rock side, it was power ballads such as “Right Now” by Van Halen, “Mama I’m Coming Home” by Ozzy Osbourne, and “Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche that were at their very peak.
Looking back, it makes sense that I had mostly taken refuge in late ‘60s and early ‘70s heavy metal and classic rock during that era, particularly Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream.
As I mention above, U2 and R.E.M. were gateways during a still very much pre-Internet streaming era to alternative forms of rock music, and then everything changed for me one day during high school when I turned on MTV and saw the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time.
Some stats & info about R.E.M. – Out of Time
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, College Rock, Jangle Pop
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 2.5 out of 5 stars (!?)
- When was Out of Time released? 1991
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #296 out of 1,000
R.E.M.’s Out of Time on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from R.E.M.’s Out of Time that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I saw you try.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.