Out of Time (album)

Details

Out of Time combines elements of pop, folk and classical music heard on their previous album Green, with a new concentration on country elements that would continue on 1992's Automatic for the People.

Preceded by the release of "Losing My Religion", 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. 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, 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 magazine's unranked list of The All-Time 100 Albums.

Several re-packagings were released for the album's 25th anniversary edition through Concord Records on November 18, 2016.

Packaging

Warner Brothers executive Jeff Gold, alongside Rock the Vote campaign co-founder and Virgin Records executive Jeff Ayeroff, approached R.E.M. in regards to printing a petition on the back of Out of Time's CD longbox 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." Gold reasoned, considering many of the album's buyers would be young, that this could "vote out" the controversial Parents Music Resource Center music censorship bill, who "put pressure on the creators and distributors of 'objectionable' music," 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 for the campaign.

In July 2014, radio show 99% Invisible 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 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 1995 by Bill Clinton; one commentary later said this happened "in no small part because of R.E.M.’s lobbying."

Track listing

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

Side one – "Time side"

1. "Radio Song" (feat. KRS-One) – 4:12
2. "Losing My Religion" – 4:26
3. "Low" – 4:55
4. "Near Wild Heaven" – 3:17
5. "Endgame" – 3:48

Side two – "Memory side"

6. "Shiny Happy People" – 3:44
7. "Belong" – 4:03
8. "Half a World Away" – 3:26
9. "Texarkana" – 3:36
10. "Country Feedback" – 4:07
11. "Me in Honey" – 4:06

Note

The 25th anniversary re-release includes several expanded editions:

Disc two – demos

1. "Losing My Religion 1" (demo)
2. "Near Wild Heaven 1" (demo)
3. "Shiny Happy People 1" (demo)
4. "Texarkana 1" (demo)
5. "Untitled Demo 2"
6. "Radio – Acoustic" ("Radio Song 1" demo)
7. "Near Wild Heaven 2" (demo)
8. "Shiny Happy People 2" (demo)
9. "Slow Sad Rocker" ("Endgame" demo)
10. "Radio Band" ("Radio Song 3" demo)
11. "Losing My Religion 2" (demo)
12. "Belong" (demo)
13. "Blackbirds" ("Half a World Away" demo)
14. "Texarkana" (demo)
15. "Country Feedback" (demo)
16. "Me on Keyboard" ("Me in Honey" demo)
17. "Low" (demo)
18. "40 Sec." ("40 Second Song" demo)
19. "Fretless 1" (demo)

Disc three – Mountain Stage, 1991

1. Introduction
2. "World Leader Pretend"
3. "Radio Song"
4. "Fall On Me"
5. "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
6. "Half a World Away"
7. "Belong"
8. "Love Is All Around"
9. "Losing My Religion"
10. "Dallas" (featuring Billy Bragg, Clive Gregson & Christine Collister)
11. "Radio Song"
12. "Disturbance at the Heron House"
13. "Low"
14. "Swan Swan H"
15. "Pop Song 89"

Disc four – Blu-ray

1. Out of Time Hi-Resolution Audio
2. Out of Time 5.1 Surround Sound
3. "Radio Song" music video
4. "Losing My Religion" music video
5. "Low" music video
6. "Near Wild Heaven" music video
7. "Shiny Happy People" music video
8. "Belong" music video
9. "Half a World Away" music video
10. "Country Feedback" music video
11. Time Piece electronic press kit

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, 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

Box sets