R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills reflect on their 1991 album Out of Time

Originally published on Nov. 21, 2016

A decade into their career, R.E.M. wanted to change their sound — thus, delivering their 1991 landmark album, Out of Time. 

"At that point, we realized that we had done the R.E.M. thing about as well as we could do it," bassist Mike Mills notes, of where the band was leading up to Out of Time. "We decided to take a big left-hand turn [...] We threw away a lot of songs because they sounded too much like R.E.M." 

That reinvention led to some of the band's biggest hits including "Losing My Religion," which singer Michael Stipe still admits to liking all these years later. He adds: "That song, for me as a writer, was one of the greater moments in our 32 years of writing." 

WATCH | Official music video for Losing My Religion:

The album celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and while Stipe hates the idea of nostalgia ("I smash the rear view mirror, I don't want to look back,") he is now okay giving fans a look at the behind-the-scenes process with their Out of Time demos, which will be included on the album's reissue. 

"You get to hear the making of these songs and they're not altogether pretty," Stipe explains. "I don't care if people hear me at my most vulnerable, I was trying to create something that actually turned out to be quite beautiful." 

WATCH | Official music video for Shiny Happy People: