R.E.M. - Out Of Time

Second major label R.E.M. record and check it out:

It has:
Their biggest hit.
One of their more annoying songs.
A wonderful song w/ Mike Mills doing more of the lead vocal.
A bunch of crap.

I mean, I lurv me some R.E.M., I mean, I invented Michael Stipe. I went into Athens, GA and pushed him out of my skull and into a grade schooler's facial mold and he came out born an 8 year old bald-headed boy. But that's beside the point. Most of the songs seem NOT COMPLETED. NOT FINISHED. HALF-ASSED.

I mean, obviously there's a reason people like this album. It's because people don't listen to full albums anymore. I mean, you got "Losing My Religion", then skip to "Near Wild Heaven" the go past all the slow dirge-y boring garbage to "Shiny Happy People" and then turn off the CD and listen to "Full Moon Fever" by Tom Petty. Gah! And I love me some R.E.M., after all, I gave Bill Berry a root canal with my feet while he tried to record back-up vocals during this album. But enough about my past with William.

See, here, R.E.M. just doesn't seem to be trying. I mean, one this album, you've got vocal spots my KRS-One (of rap fame) and Kate Pierson (of B-52's fame), and then a bunch of strings and garbage. I mean, "Endgame"? Really? A 4 minute song with no lyrics other than "La-da-da-da-da" then a frickin' FLUTE coming in and mimicking that? What the hell?? Such utter garbage. Some poor excuse for being all "ethereal" and "expanding boundaries". At what point did Athens, GA become Athens, Greece and did Peter Buck turn into Yanni? I mean, I remember when I first showed Peter Buck how to bowl using a fake hand crafted from a longshoreman's peg leg, but that doesn't MATTER. or VELOCITY. or VELCIRAPTOR. Christ! This fargin' song is still going??????


GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

"Half a World Away" sounds like a crappy "Swan Swan H", "Texarkana" is worthless and is showing the uptempo "Rockers" you'd find on such BANGING albums like "Reveal" and "Up", which sucks because Mills takes the vocals again! And I love Mike Mills! He's my favorite member of R.E.M. I mean, I remember when I taught Mike about listening to Beatles albums backwards to find hidden meanings like "Do LSD" and "Start a race war" (to my suprise, those messages were already ON the Beatles LPs, but playing them backwards was much more amusing to the peach-fuzzed Mills).

And "Belong"? A song with a bass riff with some mumbling from Stipe and then a chorus of only backing vocals? Not inventive, but rather, STUPID.

Christ, did they actually write any SONGS here??

Honestly, there isn't much to like here. These songs are more ideas rather than fully formed musical statements and honestly, if you're going to say that R.E.M. "peaked" with songs like "Losing My Religion", I'd have to say you're as wrong as school on Sunday - NO CLASS.

Wait, that didn't work there.

OVERALL RATING - GREAT! If you like 2 or 3 songs and 37 minutes of metaphorical crapping on a band's previous legacy.
KEY TRACKS - "Near Wild Heaven", "Low"