It starts of with a pretty average by R.E.M. Standards Radio Song
but the great thing was it was nominated for a grammy! So that gives just a little bit of information on REM standards. After that we have The Hug losing My Religion probably the best song of the nineties and won grammy's and 6 Mtv awards. After that we have Low now this song is poor when you first listen to it. But after a few listens Michael's poetic lyrics kick in with a great guitar rave make it a masterpiece. Then Near Wild Heaven just a pure piece of brilliance they dont come much better than this.
Then an Instrumental. The another brilliant funny love able song The Huge Shiny Happy People. I love that song personally becuase its so funny.I have never met a person who doesnt love Shiny Happy People. Belong is then another great heart felt piece of REM brilliance. The Album has now reached its peak of class. Half A World away is excellent. Texarkana Is my favourite on the record just another piece of musical and lyrical genius. Then Country Feedback dark and soothing like low but it also grows on you and when it does it is rewarding. The Final number Me In Honey pulls the curtains on super amazing album. Buy It

Visit www.freewebs.com/rem05


Fabulous   February 1, 2004
 8 out of 14 found this review helpful

Though most REM fans would say automatic for the people is their best album, i can't choose between "automatic.." and "out of time"! This may be the "happier " album, but what's wrong with happy music? A song doesn't have to be depressing to be good! I can't choose a particular fave so Here's my view on each song:

1. Radio song- this song may have slightly dodgy rapping on it but it has a good beat and i think the lyrics are funny. 7/10

2.Losing my religion- wonderful- REM's biggest hit. The mandolin in it sounds fantastic and Michael Stipe sings this incredibly. The lyrics fit the tune perfectly. 10/10

3.Low- This is my least favourite song on the album, but it's still good . 7/10

4. Near wild heaven- this song is lovely. You must listen to this. 10/10

5. Endgame- A nice little tune. 7/10

6. Shiny happy people- a peppy tune about friendship. Kate Pierson's backing vocals are great. I love this song! 10/10

7. Belong- breath taking and tragic. WOW! 10/10

8. Half a world away- this is a great song. Baroque almost. 9/10

9. Texarkana- great guitar and strings, and a great tune. Great lyrics,too. A song you'd dance very crazily to! 9/10

10. Country feedback- Very relaxing song and i don't know why. Great guitar. 7/10

11. Me in honey- Upbeat, but the lyrics aren't-it's about someone who's girlfriend and kid has left them. Kate Pierson is also on vocals on this. 10/10

Beautiful, powerful and peppy. You must buy this. Great album art too.


Good, but Shockingly Overrated   November 13, 2003
 6 out of 11 found this review helpful

When I started to get into R.E.M., I was really excited about buying Automatic For The People and this album. This was to do with the fact that I loved Losing My Religion and also because of the multiple rave reviews it received.

So what's so good about this album that makes it so highly acclaimed? For a start, Losing My Religion is a song that non-R.E.M. fans love. Then there's the cheesily cheery Shiny Happy People. Lovable yet so hateable too. Near Wild Heaven can also sound fun yet stupid, and Me in Honey is one of the best tracks because it is different from the others.

But the one song that stands out is Country Feedback. You'll probably hate it at first, but after multiple listens, you start to appreciate it. If anything, Out of Time is worth the money for this one song.

However, the bad points are shocking. Radio Song, although I love it lyrically, sounds stupid and annoying all the way through. Low is okay, maybe too dull because they vocals don't kick in properly until late on, and it is similar to the pointless Endgame. Belong is like a more 'upbeat' version of Low and Endgame put together, whereas Half a World Away can be very annoying and unoriginal. Don't get me wrong, it can be a good song to listen to, but it's very badly structured. I wish Texarkana had more of a tune to it, because I never remember what the song goes like, and when I remember, I wish I hadn't because of the annoying chorus.

I may have been a little too critical of Out of Time, but I see that it is unbelievably overrated because of the single that made the band big and commercial. I like it for some songs, but I'm always put off it because of others.

If you want to buy an R.E.M. album and don't know which to pick, I recommend you avoid this one for the mean time. Try New Adventures in Hi-Fi or Murmur, two of the finest albums the band have recorded.


Moving   June 4, 2003
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Though there is some debate about whether it is REM's best work, Out of Time is without doubt a classic.

Most people will have only heard of Losing My Religion, deservedly one of their biggest hits, but beyond that the songs that will stay with you just keep coming.

Happy songs are what the album is best known for and the jangling, uplifting pop of Near Wild Heaven, Texakarna and Half A World Away are melodic easy to listen to but with more depth than your average rock song.

The true quality of the album though is in the darker, more introverted songs. Low is a stripped down, rhythmic examination of the end of a relationship, looking back and climaxing in an emotive acceptance of moving on.

Country Feedback however, is my true favourite, an orchestrated ballad of missed opportunities, drenched in fatigue and a general feeling of being washed out and drained (You come to me with excuses/Ducked out in a row/You wear me out). The slow, simple guitar accompanied by strings fills the background while a wailing, almost atonal lead guitar melody weaves around the lyrics and sears its way into your brain.

You need this.


Genius.   March 23, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This was the first REM album I listened to and , although I have listened to all their subsequent albums and Document, Life's Rich Pageant and Green before it, it still remains the most pleasurable. Like most REM albums, it has multiple meanings but it has generally come to be regarded as their 'love' album. This effect is partly achieved by Kate Pierson's warm and lively presence on tracks like Shiny Happy People and Me in Honey. To me, this album sounds like a lost summer, the mandolins and baroque instrumentation mourning loss of love, loss of lots of things. Automatic for the People would wallow more blatantly in nostalgia on Man on the Moon and politics in Drive and Ignoreland and twisted the tunes even more than Country Feedback was threatening on OOT. Their ultimate twisted album to come was Monster, that picked up where Automatic's Star Me Kitten left off.
So Out of Time is a lot of things- KRS-One's funny, ironic rap that makes you think (Radio Song) a sunny surf/road album (Near Wild Heaven, Texarkana), a baroque meditation (Losing my religion, Endgame, Half the World Away), and something inbetween (Shiny Happy People). The likes of Low and Belong sound ancient and tribal, a perfect counter-evolution of the Beach Boy style harmonies. But there is nothing simple about the thought processes behind this album- it takes a lot of intelligence, a lot of avant-garde thinking, to sound this upbeat yet this sombre. Michael Stipe's warm, resonant voice is recorded in digital while the instruments are recorded by analogue. The cover art and inside sleeves are, Green to some extent aside, clear and attractive for a change. Natural images of plant-life and the ocean are juxtaposed with their treatment- rendered in artistic photography, cut up, their colour changed and reinstalled like the marble steps and peep show images displayed in the sleeve's cartoons. The album looks lovely, the sound is crystal clear and it resonates with that sense of being revolutionary yet innocent that fully emerged, blinking in the summer of the very early nineties, from the likes of The La's, The Stone Roses and, in their own, more directly destructive way, Nirvana. To any ordinary band, this would be, undisputedly, their finest moment, but REM, almost unique amongst the majority of bands, have always had the intelligence and staying power to evolve on their best ideas. A work of genius.