"Losing My Religion"

R.E.M.
(Warner Bros., 1991)

Green had broken R.E.M. and now Out of Time nailed them. Old fans complained that they liked Michael Stipe's lyrics better when they were mumbled, and what was with those strings? It mattered not: in no time college parties were rocking to the acoustic-guitar-and-mandolin groove of "Losing My Religion" and singing along en masse to those ambiguous, self-reflective lyrics about . . . self-reflexiveness? For the tortured freshman in all of us.

-- Jon Garelick