Tag Archives: Out of Time

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Song of the Day #5,549: ‘Out of Time’ – The Rolling Stones

April of 1966 saw the release of the first classic Rolling Stones album, Aftermath. Inspired by The Beatles’ Rubber Soul, the band moved away from their R&B staples and recorded a collection of entirely original songs. I love how the hottest bands of that era used the competition to fuel their creativity.

The UK version of this album clocked in at 52 minutes, then the longest running time for a popular release. The American version ran ten minutes shorter, cutting four songs and adding hit single ‘Paint it Black.’ Among the songs left off the tracklist were the great ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ and ‘Out of Time,’ making the American version the lesser of the two (‘Out of Time,’ today’s SOTD, was used beautifully in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.)

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Song of the Day #3,906: ‘Losing My Religion’ – R.E.M.

Funny how opinions change over time. I’ve written about R.E.M.’s Out of Time a few times before but never in a very positive light. In posts eight and nine years ago I described it as one of the band’s weakest efforts.

Yet here I am in 2019, naming it as my #1 album of 1991. And it wasn’t even a tough decision.

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Song of the Day #2,911: ‘Radio Song’ – R.E.M.

outoftimeR.E.M.’s 1991 album Out of Time is a truly bizarre smash hit. It’s the band’s best-selling record and the one that transformed them from a critically admired alternative rock band into a global pop rock superpower, but half of its tracks are the sort of thing I can’t imagine ever playing on the radio.

That goes for powerful, mournful tracks like ‘Country Feedback’ and ‘Low,’ the instrumental ‘Endgame’ and the largely spoken word ‘Belong.’

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Song of the Day #1,181: ‘Half a World Away’ – R.E.M.

R.E.M.’s Out of Time was released in 1991, and marked the band’s giant leap into the mainstream. First single ‘Losing My Religion’ became an unlikely smash, perhaps the first song featuring lead mandolin to reach Billboard’s top five. Guitarist Peter Buck was learning to play the mandolin for the first time when he stumbled upon the riff that would become ‘Losing My Religion.’

Out of Time is an odd mix of some of the best music the band ever recorded (‘Country Feedback,’ ‘Losing My Religion,’ today’s SOTD) and some of the worst (‘Radio Song,’ ‘Shiny Happy People‘).

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Song of the Day #682: ‘Country Feedback’ – R.E.M.

Three years after the success of Green, R.E.M. became superstars with the release of 1991’s Out of Time. Propelled by the runaway success of unlikely single ‘Losing My Religion’ (how many #1 songs feature a lead mandolin?) the album went quadruple platinum in the U.S.

[Note: Sorry, mom, but ‘Losing My Religion’ isn’t my featured song from this album… I’ll post it someday soon just for you.]

Out of Time would prove to be R.E.M.’s pinnacle commercially, if not creatively. The band’s trajectory had been on the rise since their debut and this album helped them punch through the stratosphere. It also marked an interesting turning point for R.E.M.’s sound.

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