Out Of Time

My next R.E.M. album is 1991's Out Of Time. Which is another album, like Green, that I don't listen to as often as I should. This is R.E.M.'s "mainstream" album, the one with multiple Grammys and top ten hits ("Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People"), and probably their top seller to date.

R.E.M. didn't tour behind Out Of Time, so a lot of the songs weren't ever performed live, and they only put one of the songs (guess which one?) on their 2003 In Time best-of, even though there really isn't a single dud on the entire album. And it ends with two of my favorite R.E.M. songs ever ("Country Feedback" and "Me In Honey"). "Losing My Religion" has been a little overplayed over the last 17 years, but it's really a phenomenal song when you listen to it in isolation. The KRS-One cameo on "Radio Song" grates a little, but it sounds like the greatest thing ever compared to Q-Tip's cameo on Around The Sun. "Texarkana" may be a note-for-note rehash of "The Voice" by the Moody Blues, but that's okay because it's a great song that very few people know. The easiest way to stump a bunch of know-it-all pop geeks is by covering a Moody Blues song.

Lots of people don't like "Shiny Happy People" and the band as almost disowned it (other than to perform a special Sesame Street version, "Furry Happy Monsters") but I think it's great for what it is.  If Trent Reznor can make an entire career being gloomy and dour ("I hurt myself today..pa-rum-pa-pum-pum"), what's so wrong with R.E.M. being relentlessly optimistic and upbeat for just one song? Absolutely nothing.

After listening to Out Of Time, I might need to re-rank my favorite R.E.M. albums to put it somewhere in the top five. It doesn't strike the same emotional wallop, but I think that, song for song, it may be better than Automatic For The People. They're both great records, so it's mostly like declaring your favorite ice cream flavor. It all depends on your mood. And today I'm in an Out Of Time kind of mood.