Out Of Time

It has been a weird year for me when it comes to listening to music. I've been kind of lost and searching for something different to listen to, and I've found myself gravitating towards bands and styles that have been a bit unexpected. I spent a lot of time last year with new hardcore records, but this year I've just felt kind of indifferent. I can feel that changing a bit as we approach the end of 2024, and I'm starting to listen to some newer shit more and more, but overall, my listening habits this year have been odd and all over the place. Case in point... R.E.M.

I've listened to more R.E.M. this year than I probably have ever in my life. I mean, I liked the band in the early 90's, but even then I didn't listen to them as obsessively has I have this past year. After spending over a decade thinking that I never needed to listen to them again, my enjoyment of the band has grown over the last couple of year. This year, however, I just keep returning to them again and again... specifically their 1991 album, Out Of Time. I don't know what it was about this record, but I've listened to it a lot. Before this year, I don't think that I'd listened to it but two or three times over the past 30 years... it has never been my go-to R.E.M. record, but when I gave it a casual listen back in January it hooked me hard, and I've easy listened to it more than any of their other albums this year.

I've listened to Out Of Time so much that I needed a copy in my collection. I thought that I'd be able to pick up an old copy of it for cheap, but I guess that since it was released in '91, when vinyl was in a decline, those original pressings may have seen smaller numbers, and therefore are more expensive than I expected. Since an original press was priced the same as a newer colored vinyl press, I decided to put my money toward the newer version. That yellow vinyl looks so good that I couldn't resist.