Electric Light Orchestra - Time

Time was the last truly great album from the Electric Light Orchestra, released as their world-conquering fame was starting to ebb. A concept album (a brave undertaking in 1981), Time has a space-age theme and is set at the end of the 21st century. What's most remarkable is how all this science-fiction silliness is salvaged by the exuberant playing. "Yours Truly, 2095" uses a number of ELO's hallmarks--a catchy synth riff, sweeping strings, and over-the-top production--to tell a tale of a man in love with a robot; the album's highlight, it should have been a hit single. The epic "Twilight" and "Hold on Tight"--which practically bounces along like an overexcited puppy--also stand among ELO's finest works. Moreover, critical darlings Grandaddy have frequently stated the album influenced their excellent Sophtware Slump, evidence that this futuristic album was itself years ahead of its time. --Robert Burrow Amazon.com

ELO, No Time like this Time.

Out of all the ELO albums I have, ELO's "Time" is my all-time (excuse the pun) favourite. It was 1981 and while Duran Duran's single "Planet Earth" was my song for that year, I must confess that "Time" would be my album of the year. I have been listening to the radio over the years in the 70's and liked what Jeff and the boys brought out; a lot of their singles are my favourites from other albums which are all classics rivalling the Beatles (and better?)-such as `Evil Woman', `Showdown', `Living Thing', `Rockaria', `Turn to Stone', `Shine A Little Love' and `Calling America-just to name a few.

Jeff called "Time" and I quote: "This was one of them concept ideas. It was about time travel, so it's supposed to be all futuristic and daft. None of these ideas have been disproved yet, and only another ninety-odd years to go to see if I was right".

Well Jeff, maybe so, we'll see how this century turns out (and it's not looking good so far), in the meantime (just can't get away from that word) this album can take you on a journey into the future, where you can imagine a world the way you'd like it to be through fantasy of mind and music. It is in some ways innocent in its presentation, the whole album is just fun and uncomplicated in its conception-no thinking required-just listen and enjoy.

All the music and lyrics are by Jeff Lynne, who has after the band's self-titled debut album, wrote and arranged all of the group's original compositions and produced every album thereafter; the man has talent-to-boot.

The album has all the classic hallmarks of the ELO sound classified by the media as progressive-pop-symphonic rock, but for me it is simply synthesizer music (the synthesisers taking a dominate role on the musical journey) with shades of classical instruments and Jeff's leading vocals taking us where we want to go all thrown in for good measure thus developed by the band to form their unique repertoire that has made ELO the band that it once was-their musical sound is unmistakable.

The original album has 13 tracks, but if you are like me get the reissued CD with the three bonus tracks entitled `The Bouncer', which came from the B-side UK 12" single called `Four Little Diamonds', `When Time Stood Still', which came from the B-side of `Hold On Tight' and `Julie Don't Live Here', which came from the B-side 12" single of `Twilight'. These three songs make a good compliment to the "Time" Album and will enhance your futuristic experience, (the song that I heard on the radio was `Hold on Tight' and it was this single that made me buy the album). The album itself time-travelled in the U.K. charts for two weeks and was the last ELO studio album to date to be certified platinum in the United Kingdom and the band also went on their last world tour to promote the album.

My personal feeling is "Time" should have been a double album like "Out of the Blue", with perhaps two 20 minute track instrumentals, Jeff certainly has the talent to do this, just listen to the instrumental `Another Heart Breaks' and get a feel, and what makes this album different from other ELO albums is there is no `gap break' between tracks-instead we have a little musical `link' as it were to join all the songs together-ingenious. The only other bands I can think of that also have `links' between their music on occasion are `The Moody Blues' and `The Alan Parsons Project'. This is why perhaps this album is distinctive and exceptional in its entirety.

If you want just one ELO album in your collection then this is the one you should get and if you want any other material by the group then a compilation is the way to go. December 5, 2008

A Masterpiece

This is an incredibly complex album in so many respects. The level of production, the use of the synthesizer, piano, strings, seamless transitions and a breathtaking vocal track. So much emotion and introspection is crammed into such a tiny space: less than 45 minutes of your time.

I feel that although this will be a very long review, a song by song description could be very helpful in understanding this album. I was shocked to learn that Time was released in 1981. Throughout the album, Jeff Lynne ties in multiple meanings for each phrase. A man is transported from 1981 to 2095, and goes through a kind of a culture shock experience in this new world of the future. He tells his story to the girl he left behind, Julie. Most of the lyrics could pertain to the circumstances of the future and to the protagonist's longing for what he had taken for granted in his old life, including Julie. This is not a happy-go-lucky 80's pop album. This is truly a piece of art.

The story begins with the first track, PROLOGUE, setting the tone through a vocoder. In TWILIGHT, the protagonist has just entered into the future, and is filled with feelings of euphoria, overwhelming awe and excitement at the world he has suddenly been transported to. YOURS TRULY, 2095, a ground-breaking song which is particularly under-appreciated, is a realization of his inability to return to the past, and his feelings for the girl he left behind in comparison to the perfect woman: a robot.

TICKET TO THE MOON is a sad song. In the future, he can have everything he could possibly imagine, even a ticket to the moon. But all he wants is to come home to Julie, who he imagines waiting for him. In THE WAY LIFE'S MEANT TO BE, he recognizes that in the future he is a stranger from another time. Although he is physically in the same place on earth, the way of life he was accustomed to is gone forever: "When I see what they've done to this place I called home, shame is all that I feel." ANOTHER HEART BREAKS is mostly instrumental. He is increasingly convinced that the future is a cold, calculated, machine like place with no emotion.

Another sad song, THE RAIN IS FALLING shows his transition from a confused stranger to a citizen of the future: he tries to only occasionally think of Julie now, because it is too painful to dwell on. He continues to dream of Julie in FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, and although he longs to see her he knows it is impossible.

I don't even know what genre THE LIGHTS GO DOWN fits in to, but it is my favorite song on the album; although each song is an important chapter in this beautiful story. He has decided that he must move on in order to live without constant pain. "The way that I feel is wrong, so wrong, but I gotta carry on when you ain't around."

Ahead of his time in many respects, Lynne predicted the future's sensationalist television in HERE IS THE NEWS. The protagonist resents this, and cries, 'Here is the news: I want to go home, I want my baby back. Here is the news: I want to go back!'

21st CENTURY MAN: the turning point in the story. Just as he has reluctantly accepted being stuck in the future forever, he is suddenly home. Was it a dream? All he has to show for it is the memory, and the feeling of discomfort associated with a traumatic experience.

HOLD ON TIGHT is the moral message of the album. I didn't like this song until I listened to it this way and thought about in the context of the album. Now I love it. The EPILOGUE takes pieces from other songs and the lyrics from 21st CENTURY MAN to drive home the man's feelings of tragedy over the terrible place that the future will be, and the lessons he has learned.

The bonus tracks are not integrated into the story as well as the original tracks, but they are still additional pieces of the same story, helping to uncover more about what he experienced and the emotions he felt, as well as the name of his lover from JULIE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE. THE BOUNCER has wonderful lyrics, and WHEN TIME STOOD STILL manages to be one of the best tracks on the album. And it's a bonus track!

Buy this album! November 14, 2008

Great

This is my favorite album from the year 1981 and one of Jeff Lynne's most creative moments. Recently hearing it again takes me back to that year, what I was doing at the time, etc. I had this on vinyl and transferred it to a BASF cassette, which I played in my Ford Pinto's cassette player! Anyway, this is a wonderful ELO release, which kind of signaled the end of ELO's run was near - how could they have topped this? Another reminisce: the local FM album rock station in Raleigh played "Prologue/Twilight" when it had just come out and after the song was over, he mentioned that he got a LOT of calls asking who the song was by. Absolutely essential listening for lovers of melody, tight production, Beatlesque inspiration. John Lennon himself once had complimentary words about ELO - I believe he would have loved this album. October 10, 2008

CD - Time by ELO

Brings back fond memories of the concert I attended in 1981 in Philadelphia. Great concert; great music. One of my favorite musical groups. April 17, 2008

Like fine wine, gets better with `Time'

I don't believe I've ever written a CD review before but feel compelled to drop a note on this beauty from one of the most underrated bands of all `Time' (pun intended).

When the album came out in 1981 it was WAY ahead of its `Time,' to the point it only got limited airplay--though I, like others who have posted reviews here, bought it soon after it arrived at stores. Perhaps the futuristic sounds and theme were too much for most folks to comprehend, or maybe it was the Discovery-Xanadu hangover. Regardless, I always thought it was one of ELO's most unappreciated albums...

How ironic that more than 25 years have passed, and so many people have written reviews here...or a car company is now using "Hold on Tight" (hardly the best song on the CD by the way, just a good rocker) in its commercials. Maybe we needed a world filled with computers in our day to day lives to really soak in what Jeff Lynne was writing about a quarter-century ago! There's so many subtleties to this album I won't even try to mention them all, from revisiting places you grew up in ("The Way Life's Meant to Be"), the obvious tribute to John Lennon ("21st Century Man"), stirring ballads...it's all here. "Yours Truly, 2095" in itself is a peak into a new world of "memory banks overlow" where we might "kiss her interface"...who even knew what these terms were when the Time first hit the streets? April 16, 2008

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