While in Marakesh, Blur worked with Groupe Regional du Marrakech, who provided orchestral arrangement on "Out of Time". According to Ben Hillier, who produced the song, the orchestra's work was "astonishing"; he elaborated that "while I was setting the mics up, they started playing. All the chords sounded fantastic. And I looked out at the end of the session, and none of them had headphones on! What they were playing along to, I have no idea. They must have heard it through the door". In February 2003, it was revealed that the album would be titled Think Tank and the lead single "Out of Time" would be premiered on 3 March, on BBC Radio 1, followed by a commercial release on 14 April 2003, by Parlophone. Composition and lyrics "Out of Time" was written and produced by band members Damon Albarn, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, with Hillier also serving as a producer. Musically, the song has been described as a pop ballad, featuring acoustic guitars and bass, as well as a Moroccan orchestra. It starts with a distant "aaaarrgh" in the opening seconds, before Albarn's unadulterated vocals and "steady, simplistic drums", as well as "ethereal, hard-to-identify" noises. In the middle of the track, an Andalucian string group and a tambourine are present. Lyrically, the song deals with a civilisation that has lost touch, with Albarn singing, "you've been so busy lately, that you haven't had the time, to open up your mind and watch the world spinning, gently out of time". This lyric was also related to Coxon's departure from Blur. According to Stereogums Michael Nelson, "Out of Time" shows Albarn "indulging a bit in his world-music explorations via Honest Jon's". He noted that the elements are blended with James's "loping" bass line, Rowntree's "relaxed" percussion and Albarn's "lazy" vocals. Critical reception "Out of Time" was met with positive reviews from music critics. Alex Needham from NME called it the band's "most straightforwardedly touching single for ages", while Paul Moody from the same magazine praised the song too, stating that Albarn "sings in a voice so pure, clear and welcoming you want to have a shower in it", and "suddenly 'Songbird' doesn't sound so clever after all". Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine thought that "Out of Time" is "lovely", whereas Barry Walters from Rolling Stone called it a "gorgeously mournful single". Kitty Empire of The Observer called it an