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Nov 17, 2016Scott Litt's crisp, clean production always had a plangent directness that suited Out of Time perfectly, and any remastering tweaks are pretty imperceptible. Disc two here is entirely comprised of demos, many of them instrumental, and certainly not something to repeatedly listen to in a single sitting.
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Dec 2, 2016If anything, the album now sounds more like the masterpiece it felt just short of at the time, a work nearly on par with its more universally regarded, nocturnal sequel Automatic for the People.
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Dec 2, 2016Listening now, it’s easier to understand. Buffed to perfection by Scott Litt and John Keane, Out Of Time is a proudly pop album that demands new audiences. ... For hardcore fans, the extra material is a full but mixed bag.
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Nov 18, 2016The demos make a case for what the album would've sounded like had it been released when they were on I.R.S. and furthermore, some songs (most notably "Texarkana") have totally different lyrics.
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Q MagazineNov 17, 2016It was the album that cleared the way for them to become one of the '90s biggest bands. Country Feedback is still one of their best songs, a plaintive, alt-country ballad that allowed Michael Stipe's voice to shine. [Dec 2016, p.117]
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UncutNov 17, 2016Out Of Times sounds slight, so pop-driven that it feels weightless; in '91, it sounded like a triumph, but really it was a herald of triumphs to come. There is, however, something extremely reassuring about the volatility of this album, its out-of-time-ness, which suggests that the music isn't simply confined to the past but thrives in the present. [Dec 2016, p.46]
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Nov 17, 2016An extra disc of 19 newly remixed demos is more than window dressing. Stripped from the production flourishes, these early raw versions of every OOT track show the songs taking shape with hummed sections where words hadn’t been written, different lyrics and sometimes no lyrics at all. Not just for fans, these bring us closer to the creation of the tunes, generating a terrific alternative version of one of R.E.M.’s finest collections.
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Nov 17, 2016Shiny Happy People still feels like an irritant, while the Turtles-y Near Wild Heaven is pleasant at best. By contrast, the muted baroque of Low and the anguished beauty that seeps from the heart of Country Feedback--so intense in the live arena that Michael Stipe often sang it on his knees, with his back to the audience--are classic examples of the band at their moody, mysterious best.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 20 out of 22
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Mixed: 1 out of 22
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Negative: 1 out of 22
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Feb 19, 2019Wonderful album. Every one of these tracks are timeless and could be singles if they wanted to. My picks from this are "Near Wild Heaven" and "Low".
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Dec 30, 2017
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Aug 7, 2017