Out of time

After the success of the Green tour, R.E.M. wanted a rest. As Bill put it: "We pretty much got burned out. As much fun as touring has been for us over the years, that one really was like, Whoa!". They wanted songs that were difficult to play live. R.E.M. also had much time to expirement new instruments and song types. The album indeed used much more strings that before. Michael wanted this album to be more personal than previous ones. He said: "The record is about love and it's about memory and it's about time." Recording sessions began at Bearsville Studio, in Woodstock NY in September of '90, and the album was out in March of the following year. There were many titles for the album, Fiction, Catbutt, Borehole and Imitation crab meat until Mike said that they were out of time, and the title was foundIn September of '91, at the MTV music awards, R.E.M. was nomimated for nine awards, and won six of them. R.E.M. also picked up two Grammy awards in February of '92. Out of time went to #1 in the US charts, and around the globe. During all these TV award-expectance, Michael took opportunities to wear shirts and hats with his opinions on them- "Rain forest", "Wear a condom", "Hand gun control now" and others.