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With their six previous anniversary releases, R.E.M. have set very high standards for such reissues, both the packaging and content of equal appeal to collectors and scholars. 2010’s Fables of the Reconstruction box (mini-boxed like this latest one), for example, included a wholly alternate mix of the entire album. And because Out of Time marks a stylistic point of departure unlike any other in the Georgia band’s discography, the challenge is even greater to illuminate the the process that lead to the final production.
In addition to a remastered version of Out of Time, the two-CD package includes nineteen tracks comprised of demos of every number eventually included in the official track list and additional snippets of songs as well such as “Me on Keyboard,” and “40 Sec (40 Second Song Demo).” Cuts such as “Near Wild Heaven,” even in instrumental form, constitute confirmation of the creative impulses that led the band to move away from the stylized sound they had so fully-realized on their commercial breakthrough Document.
Such recording sketches allow R.E.M. to test what previously came so naturally to them, thus allowing for slight but significant variances. “Losing My Religion 1,” for instance, sounds outright doleful at an ever-so-slightly slower pace, while another version including a vocal further emphasizes that mood. And on “Radio-Acoustic,” Michael Stipe pushes the song’s lyrics even further to the forefront, as he also does on this take of “Country Feedback:” has the lead vocalist ever sounded so world weary?
Hearing this content is like the aural equivalent of time lapsed photography: it’s possible to hear Out of Time gaining clarity at each repetition of a number. As a result, to then move to the album proper is altogether startling, comparable perhaps to hearing the album for the first time when it was originally released a quarter century ago. While R.E.M. didn’t wholly forsake the so-called jangle-pop sound it had perfected over the course of its prior albums and the Chronic Town EP, the archetypal DIY quartet, with the encouragement of producers John Keane and Scott Litt, pushed itself beyond previously-set boundaries to include even more varied arrangements than on its predecessors.
The (wry) opening “Radio Song,” for instance, features a momentary insertion of orchestration on each successive bridge. The ever-present organ line offsets the percussion on “Low,” rendering Michael Stipe’s vocal even more foreboding, this in marked contrast to his cheery singalong with B52’s Kate Pierson on “Shiny Happy People.” And, even apart from the highly-clarified remastered audio )or the two early versions here also), it’s easy to hear how “Losing My Religion” might sound with electric guitar(s) more prominently playing the sweeping chords instead of the mandolin in Peter Buck’s hands.
There’s a logic in the sequencing of this second CD, most clearly stated in and “Fretless 1,” that bespeaks as much self-awareness on the part of the band now as when they were recording Out of Time. The well-deserved recognition the record received at the time of its release, including multiple Grammy Awards, further enhanced the group’s elevated status in the hierarchy of American rock and roll bands, a position reaffirmed through the positive hindsight afforded in this 25th Anniversary Edition.
