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Losing My
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So
this is my favourite REM Album ,and come to
think of it, one of my all time favourite albums.
Now I know that REM have given us some less than
brilliant music recently, but do not discount their
earlier work. This album sounds like an instant
classic, yet still matures with every listen. The
music is intricate, passionate yet still retains
utterly memerable and uplifitng mood throughout.
Without doubt one of the albums of the
90's.
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It has, by the standards of the
once-prolific R.E.M., been a long time. They toured the
world with 1988's GREEN, returning as world stars, but as
obviously frayed around the edges as world stars are
supposed to be. Now comes OUT OF TIME. It is not, as may
have been expected, an album to tour the world's stadia
with. Instead it's an intimate, almost folksy affair that
would have been too slight and chary, were it not for the
fact that these are by some distance the best set of songs
R.E.M. have yet written. If they don't top OUT OF TIME,
that's fair enough, they've done their bit for music here
and now.
The mandolin-powered "Losing My
Religion" is a significant signpost and quite possibly one
of the songs of the decade. Michael Stipe's slightly obscure
lyrics still sound uncomfortably personal ('That's me in the
corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion'),
the many melodies tinkle around beautifully and the whole
experience is almost too intense for mere pop music, yet pop
music is unashamedly what it is.
There are others too. The more each
individual song on OUT OF TIME is played, the better it
seems: surely the ultimate arbiter of the sheer greatness of
an album. "Near Wild Heaven" is a heartbreaking "ballad" of
indeterminate topic; "Shiny Happy People" benefits (as do
several other tracks) from B-52 Kate Pierson on backing
vocals. Whatever it's about, it sounds somehow sinister and
celebratory at once. "Me In Honey" sounds like it's the most
important song in the world; "Belong" has some genuinely
funky bass as Stipe's vocals sound like Elvis Presley.
You'll find your own favourites, it's that sort of
album.
Ultimately, OUT OF TIME is what
R.E.M.'s champions have been on about all these years. It's
one of the albums of this or any other decade.
"seems a shame
to waste your time on me"
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