Out of Time by R.E.M.

Out of Time, R.E.M.'s seventh studio album, came out on Warner Bros. on March 12, 1991, and it's the record that turned a beloved cult band into a massive international act. Scott Litt produced it, and the surprise is how gentle a breakthrough it is: instead of cranking up the amps for the big leagues, R.E.M. leaned into folk rock and country rock, a record of shimmering, rustic textures and hushed, knotty melodies that wears its moodiness lightly.

"Losing My Religion" is the center of gravity, a tense, circling, oddly haunting single that had no business becoming a smash and did anyway. Around it the band wanders all over the map. "Shiny Happy People" is a pure sugar rush, "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana" are sunny, harmony-rich pop, and "Radio Song" struts where the rest of the album strolls. At the other end, "Country Feedback" is a raw, aching slow burn, and "Half a World Away", "Me in Honey" and "Belong" fill out a record that sounds like a band stretching in every direction at once and landing on its feet.

The public went for it in a big way. It topped the album charts in both the US and the UK, hung around the American charts for 109 weeks with two separate stints at the top, and lasted 183 weeks in Britain, on the way to more than 18 million copies sold worldwide. At the 1992 Grammys it took three awards: Best Alternative Music Album, plus two for "Losing My Religion".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.