Out of Time (album)


Out of Time is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 12, 1991 by Warner Bros. Records. 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 U.S. and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on American 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 over four and a half million copies in the U.S. and over 18 million copies worldwide. The album won three Grammy Awards in 1992: one as Best Alternative Music Album, and two for the first single, "Losing My Religion."

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, although they 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, 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 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."

Reception

The 25th anniversary re-release of

Track listing

All tracks written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
1991 CD
  1. "Radio Song" – 4:12
  2. "Losing My Religion" – 4:26
  3. "Low" – 4:55
  4. "Near Wild Heaven" – 3:17
  5. "Endgame" – 3:48
  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
Disc two – demos
  1. "Losing My Religion 1" - 4:00
  2. "Near Wild Heaven 1" - 4:04
  3. "Shiny Happy People 1" - 3:13
  4. "Texarkana 1" - 3:47
  5. "Untitled Demo 2" - 3:31
  6. "Radio – Acoustic" - 4:13
  7. "Near Wild Heaven 2" - 3:37
  8. "Shiny Happy People 2" - 3:55
  9. "Slow Sad Rocker" - 4:29
  10. "Radio – Band" - 4:22
  11. "Losing My Religion 2" - 4:34
  12. "Belong" - 4:15
  13. "Blackbirds" - 3:24
  14. "Texarkana" - 4:02
  15. "Country Feedback" - 4:09
  16. "Me on Keyboard" - 3:43
  17. "Low" - 4:52
  18. "40 Sec." - 1:22
  19. "Fretless 1" - 4:51
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 "
  6. "Half a World Away"
  7. "Belong"
  8. "Love Is All Around"
  9. "Losing My Religion"
  10. "Dallas"
  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

    Personnel

R.E.M.
Additional musicians
Production

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, 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 of the album at HDtracks.
Out of Time
RegionDateLabelFormatCatalog
GermanyWarner Bros.Compact Disc7599-26496-2
United KingdomWarner Bros.LP7599-26496-1
United KingdomWarner Bros.Compact Disc7599-26496-2
United StatesWarner Bros.LP1-26496
United StatesWarner Bros.Compact Disc2-26527
United StatesWarner Bros.Cassette4-26496
CanadaWarner Bros.Compact DiscCD 26496
FranceWarner Bros.Compact DiscWE 833
GermanyWarner Bros.Digital Compact Cassette7599-26496-5
ArgentinaWarner Bros.Cassette4-26496
BoliviaWarner Bros.LPWEA WL-1152
BrazilWarner Bros.LP6709323
GermanyWarner Bros.LP7599-26496-1†
IsraelHed ArziCompact Disc9 26496-2
JapanWarner Bros.Compact DiscWPCP 4195
MexicoWarner Bros.LPLPNB-7069
RussiaWarner Bros.LP1092MD/RGM 7028-1A/2
South AfricaWarner Bros./TuskCompact DiscWBCD 1701
South KoreaWarner Bros.LP7599-26496-1
ZimbabweTuskLPWBC 1701
AustraliaWarner Bros.Compact Disc7599264962
United StatesWarner Bros.Compact Disc/DVD-Audio DualDisc73951
Internet2011Warner Bros.LPCM FLAC 96 kHz/24bit, LPCM FLAC 192 kHz
/24bit

Note
Box sets
RegionDateLabelFormatCatalogNotes
AustraliaWarner Bros.Compact Disc box set9362460742Packaged with Green