Photo by Time & Life Pictures
R.E.M.’s 1991 LP Out of Time might not be their masterpiece, but it’s arguably their most important album for the way it broke them on mainstream radio, reaching far beyond the commercial potential displayed on 1988’s Green. Out of Time was an LP that redefined R.E.M. as both artists and icons of pop culture, one in which they took a moment to reflect on issues of the heart, mind, and soul. It reached beyond their primary role in the ‘80s as the Reagan era’s most level-headed protest rockers, delving into love in all its forms, from the one-sided ("Losing My Religion") to the abstract ("Country Feedback") to the absolutely pure ("Near Wild Heaven," "Shiny Happy People"). In the last quarter century, R.E.M.’s seventh album has aged beautifully, shedding much of the fanfare surrounding it in 1991, when it seemed to some a sellout moment for the college-rock graduates then tackling their second album for major label Warner Bros.
March 12th marks the 25th anniversary of Out of Time’s release, which will be celebrated this fall in the form of a deluxe reissue from the band and Concord Music Group. Pitchfork decided to celebrate in our own way, speaking with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills — as well as friends and collaborators on the album and beyond — to recount Out of Time’s creation and the band’s central shift in the early ‘90s.
Mike Mills, R.E.M. bassist/multi-instrumentalist: “Starting with Green, Peter [Buck, R.E.M. guitarist] was getting tired of playing electric guitar and wanted to do something a little different, so he started switching it up a little bit by using the mandolin on a bunch of songs. And we just decided to take that further with Out of Time with everybody switching instruments and playing different things.”
Ian Kimmet, studio manager at Bearsville Studio, where much of Out of Time was recorded:“At the time, they were digging into more rootsy music and things. They were definitely trying to broaden their breaststrokes."
Mills: “We had made six records at that point, so we wanted to do something different. Michael [Stipe] was challenging himself to write about love and relationships in very non-traditional ways. We also didn’t want to get pigeonholed. It was always like, ‘Oh R.E.M. is a political band.’ No, we were political people, but we didn’t want listeners to try and find the politics in all of our music. We didn’t want to get stuck with that.”
Peter Holsapple, dB's frontman and R.E.M.'s second guitarist from 1988–1991: “Out of Time is something of a romantic album. I don't know if Warner Bros. came to them and said, ‘Hey, write us an album of love songs.’ I would hope anyone at the label would have enough sense not to do that, but very rarely do record companies have the good sense to let a band continue to develop in their own fashion. And the development of R.E.M. from that little band from Athens had been pretty well documented and pretty extraordinary up to that point, and any record company would've had to play by the band's rules at that stage.”
Kimmet: “To me, ‘Losing My Religion’ is just a classic single. I love that more than anything else, really. It's actually a Southern phrase that was used in terms of anger or frustration, Michael once told me. He said for him, the song was an overture for unrequited love."
Holsapple: “I am so proud to be on a song like ‘Losing My Religion.’ Every time I walk into a K-Mart or something and it’s playing, I think to myself (sings the melody), ‘That's me on acoustic!’ (laughs). It’s such a beautiful and well-executed song. It was so wonderfully written and arranged.”
Steve Wynn, Dream Syndicate frontman, member of the Baseball Project alongside Buck and Mills: “When it came out, Out of Time may have been my favorite of their records since [1985’s] Fables of the Reconstruction. I was deep in the throes of ‘60s pop back in ’91, and Out of Time had a similar kind of sunny yet darkly melancholy shimmer that was exciting me at the time.”
Mitch Easter, producer on R.E.M.’s Murmur and Reckoning:“They were an entirely different beast from when I met them in the early ‘80s. But it seemed like they went from strength to strength. Listening to Out of Time really does illustrate that point. The album is strong in its own kind of way. It’s not just a bunch of hits, as it’s been perceived. It’s a full song cycle, and artistically you can tell they were feeling good about what they were doing.”
Kidd Jordan, legendary New Orleans jazz saxophonist, guest player on "Radio Song," "Near Wild Heaven," "Endgame," and "Low":“Jay Weigel [composer/producer, New Orleans arts figure] called and told me R.E.M. was going to get in touch with me about something. At the time I didn't know who he was talking about. Then he called me again and told me they wanted me to bring as many instruments as I could possibly get on a plane, so I brought my piccolo, my bass clarinet, and a bunch of saxophones (laughs). And when I got there, they told me how they wanted me to play on the session. Whatever they asked me to do or whatever the task, I just did it. They were real nice, real Southern gentlemen. They put me up in a nice hotel. It was a lot of fun.”
Mills: "Kidd was great. He came in and he was a little bemused at first, but he got the vibe pretty quick and was great to work with. It was his first experience on a rock album, but the Venn diagram wasn’t too distant from what he was used to. And we wanted that sound, so it wasn’t like he had to adapt a whole lot, we just wanted him to come in and do his thing, which he did so well."
Holsapple: "I was on the basic tracks of a lot of those songs. So we did a lot of tracking in the big room at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY, and that was the part I was really involved in most of all."
Kimmet: "Bill Berry [R.E.M. drummer] really loved the drum sound in studio A in Bearsville Studio. That's one of the reasons why they always came to Bearsville, which is absolutely understandable. It was a great studio."
Kate Pierson, B-52's singer and multi-instrumentalist, guest vocalist on "Shiny Happy People," "Near Wild Heaven," "Me in Honey": “Bearsville was just the most amazing studio. The drum sound is what the studio was famous for, there was this huge drum room with high ceilings, and it was just perfect for that old big booming drum sound that nobody has anymore. The B-52's recorded some stuff there too with [producer] Don Was, which was pretty amazing.”
Mills: "We all liked Woodstock, and the studio was really cool. You could stay there in the apartments. It was just an interesting little town, and we really enjoyed the vibe there. You can only stay there for so long because you run out of places to eat and things to do, but we always enjoyed being there. One night at the Little Bear, I performed 'The Weight' with everyone in The Band except for Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel. It was pretty cool. I played bass and Rick [Danko] sang and Garth [Hudson] was on keyboard and Levon [Helm] on drums. It was pretty intense."
Kimmet: "I would dine with them all the time. I remember Peter Buck saying he needed a new pair of shoes, so there was a little store in town called Kenco. We went in there and he tried on a bunch of different kinds of boots and was really happy. I thought it was great that he got his boots there at a local shop."
Mills: "We also recorded the album at John Keane’s studio in Athens as well as Paisley Park [outside Minneapolis], which was great. I met Prince in the hallway once and we smiled at each other, which was apparently a big deal because he doesn’t allow people there to make eye contact with him (laughs). Peter and I actually went to the premiere of one of his movies while we were there, I think it was Graffiti Bridge, although I don’t really remember much about the film, which is not surprising (laughs)."
Pierson: "Recording up in Prince’s studio was a great time. And there was a huge snowstorm while I was there, and Michael and I had a big snowball fight outside of the studio, which was really fun. It was a very, very cool place, very comfy and colorful and different. I wish I had taken more pictures."
KRS-One, OG rapper, guest on “Radio Song”: "The first time I met Michael I was actually with Billy Bragg in Washington, D.C. for Artists for Democracy in Haiti. Shortly thereafter, Michael invited me into the studio to record 'Radio Song.' What was crazy was that I initially was trying to show Michael how to rhyme. I told him, ‘Yo, you should try and spit this rhyme.’ And he was great! His accent got in the way at the time. Today, that Southern style is big, but when we were working it was still very much New York based and that NYC accent. He had fun with it. But that’s not what happened in the end. What actually went down was he asked me to rhyme on the album, and no one knew what it would become. We were in the studio just messing around, and I was talking about the radio playing the same records every day, so I wrote up this rhyme about that for the song."
Pierson: "Whatever they were going for with 'Shiny Happy People,' it was definitely a bit tongue in cheek and it was certainly not their usual vibe. Also, their friend April Chapman was a school teacher and she had her students design the whole set for the video. Michael was happy as a clam, making up dances and getting all the school kids dancing. It was just a blast doing that video."
Mills: "You have to keep the audience entertained, but you have to keep yourselves entertained as well, and that’s one of the reasons we started switching things around."
Holsapple: "As an artist, you try to keep yourself interested. And if the audience comes along with you, that's really great. But I think R.E.M. has always wanted to keep the music interesting for their sake, because they could have just gone out and played the favorites on Murmur and Document and Green every night and just line their coffers."
Easter: "I was listening to Out of Time today, and it did strike me at how they were clearly at a creative peak on that record. There was always a sense of clarity to what they did, but they were really at home with the clarity at that point. But it does have an experimental thing going on as well. I kind of forgot about that song 'Country Feedback,' which is so cool and strange. They were never afraid to confound anybody and I'm sure they were like, 'Yeah, well half our fans will probably hate this.' But they didn't care, they were really artists. They did what they were feeling."
KRS-One: "If you have really good artists who were turning out innovative music and it was reflected in sales, the record company would let the artist just do their thing. Jive Records did the same thing with their roster of artists as well. The idea of artists competing with each other was not such a big deal back then. Every artist had their own fanbase and you work your fanbase. For instance, R.E.M. didn’t try to work Madonna’s fans and Madonna wasn’t trying to work R.E.M. fans. It was just a natural progression."
Mills: "If you’re lucky enough to grow and have an audience that grows, there’s always going to be first-time listeners. We just got big enough where radio couldn’t ignore us anymore."
Wynn: "There's nothing like a band that believes without a doubt they are at the top of their game in every way and knows that a hefty amount of people in the world feel the same way. You hear it in Revolver, you hear it in London Calling, you hear it in Exile on Main St. and you hear it on Out of Time. My buddies made a lot of great records before and since and this one holds up with any of them."