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R.E.M.
Out of Time
DVD-Audio / CD Edition
(Warner Bros.)
First Appeared in The Music Box, March 2005, Volume 12, #3
Written by John Metzger
During the 2 ˝ years that preceded the release of Out of Time, R.E.M.
spent an exhausting 10 months on the road, took a lengthy sabbatical, and
continued to develop the concepts and ideas that it had initiated on Green,
its major label debut. For once, both the critics and the public at large agreed
— R.E.M. was onto something, and just as Green had propelled the group
beyond the confines of its cult-ish following, Out of Time transformed
the ensemble into a superstar act. To feed its growing penchant for lush
arrangements, however, the band employed, for the first time, an extensive
supporting cast that included the B-52s’ Kate Pierson, rapper KRS-One, The dBs’
Peter Holsapple, a 9-piece string section, a saxophonist, and a flugelhorn
player. Even so, Out of Time wasn’t truly a bold new beginning for
R.E.M.; instead musically speaking, it highlighted a broadening of the
collective’s palette — the Doors-ian poetry of Belong and the Neil
Young-inspired haze of Country Feedback, for example — as well as a
refinement of its previous endeavors. The adornment of pedal steel that shaded
World Leader Pretend was reprised on Country Feedback and Texarkana, and the latter song was itself a throwback to the group’s second
outing Reckoning. Elsewhere, the ornamental mandolin accompaniments from
You Are the Everything and Hairshirt formed the basis of Losing
My Religion; and the bubbly goo of Stand blossomed into the sugary
sweetness of Shiny Happy People. Of course, just as Green provided
clues as to where R.E.M. would soon head, Out of Time laid a similar
series of stepping stones to the future. The moody atmospherics of Low,
for example, paved the way for much of Automatic for the People, and the
baroque-flavored, Beach Boys-inspired swirl of Near Wild Heaven and Endgame would be explored further on Up.
Lyrically, however, Out of Time was a bit of a departure in that after
the opening one-two punch of Radio Song and Losing My Religion —
which respectively attacked the blatant manipulation of the masses by popular
culture and addressed Michael Stipe’s loss of faith in his ability to make a
difference via his chosen art form — R.E.M. shed its politically-slanted
inclinations in favor of ruminations on affairs of the heart. "The world is
collapsing around our ears/I turned up the radio/But I can’t hear it" Stipe sang
as he, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Bill Berry joined the mainstream in an
attempt to subvert it, opting instead to deliver their addresses on the state of
the world through a myriad of video clips, interviews, and stage banter. The
increasingly personal lyrics — most of which were penned from a subjective,
first-person perspective — and the clarity of Stipe’s vocals spawned a plethora
of rumors, but the switch had more to do with his newfound confidence than it
did with a desire to divulge some deep, dark secret. More importantly, it opened
a new avenue of honest, emotional directness for him to pursue, and as he began
fusing personal issues with socio-political commentary, his songs not only made
room systemically for multiple interpretations, but they also resonated with
certain truths about the nature of life. In other words, Out of Time,
much like Green, was another transitional effort on which R.E.M. pushed
to define itself within a new, studio-oriented framework. Although the band was
nearly swallowed by its success, it wisely opted not to tour in support of the
outing, thereby allowing its full-fledged maturation to come to fruition on its
subsequent masterpiece Automatic for the People.
The recent reissue of Out of Time features a run-of-the-mill
documentary about the making of the album along with the controversial, but
strangely compelling, music video for Losing My Religion. As for the
DVD-Audio rendition of the effort, it unfortunately doesn’t benefit nearly as
much from the enhanced sonic features of its new, surround sound mix as much as
some of the band’s other endeavors have. Although the abundance of instruments
are spread across the entire aural spectrum — a baritone saxophone is placed in
one corner, a jangly guitar accompaniment rattles around another, and the string
section peeks quietly around the corners — the embellishments feel superficial
and cosmetic rather than like organically-derived progressions. 
Out of Time [CD/DVD] is available from Amazon.com.
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Out of Time [CD Only] is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005
The Music Box
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