By Keefer Mar 13, 2021 A look back at the album that changed everything about the band’s story, and presaged the whole decade to come Thirty years ago, R.E.M. dropped an album called Out of Time— and nobody was prepared for it. “Losing My Religion,” “Half a World Away,” “Country Feedback,” “Near Wild Heaven” — these were the most soulful, gorgeous songs the boys from Athens G-A had ever written. This comeback changed everything about the R.E.M. story, but it also presaged the whole decade to come. They basically invented the Nineties with this album. It was a total shock, after a few years when they sounded like bored rock pros going through the motions. “Yeah, I guess I jangled for a while,”Peter Buck told