29. Electric Light Orchestra--Time
#29: Electric Light Orchestra--Time (1981)
Top-Notch Tracks: "Twilight," "Hold On Tight," "Here Is the News," "Yours Truly, 2095," "Ticket to the Moon," "Rain Is Falling," "From the End of the World"
Album Depth: "The Way Life's Meant To Be," "21st Century Man," "The Lights Go Down," "Another Heart Breaks"
Weak Links: None.
Stand-Out Lyrics: "It's either real or it's a dream--there's nothing that is in between."--"Twilight"
"When you need a shoulder to cry on. When you get so sick of trying. Just hold on tight to your dreams."--"Hold On Tight"
"I met someone who looks a lot you. She does the things you do. But, she is an IBM."--"Yours Truly, 2095"
"Remember the good old 1980s, when things were so uncomplicated? I wish I could go back there again, and everything could be the same."--"Ticket To the Moon"
"Somebody has broken out of Satellite 2. Look very carefully, it might be you."--"Here Is the News"
"Early in the morning the sun was up and the sky was very blue."--"Rain Is Falling"
"A penny in your pocket. A suitcase in your hand. They won't get you very far, now you're a 21st Century Man."--"21st Century Man"
"As I wander around in this wreck of a town, where people never speak aloud. With its ivory towers and its plastic flowers, I wish I was back in 1981."--"The Way Life's Meant To Be"
"She has an IQ of 1,001; she has a jumpsuit on; and she's also a telephone."--"Yours Truly, 2095"
"I paid the fare, what more can I say? It's just one way."--"Ticket To the Moon"
"The weather's fine, but there may be a meteor shower."--"Here Is the News"
"With their brand new time transporter, they'll think maybe I fought to get away. But with all their great inventions, and all their good intentions here I stay."--"Rain Is Falling"
"One day you're a hero. Next day, you're a clown. There's nothing that is in between, now you're a 21st Century Man."--"21st Century Man"
"Accroche-toi a ton reve."--"Hold On Tight"
"Is that what you want?"--"Yours Truly, 2095"
"You brought me here, but can you take me back again?"--"Twilight"
Album cover: 4 out of 10. Where's the damn spaceship??? You've got an album about time travel, but you ditch the spaceship? What the hell, man?
Comments: If you could board a time transporter and return to 1981, would you? It would definitely be tempting, but in the end I think I would say no. The life I have right now is pretty darn good (mostly), and it wouldn't take much time travel shenanigans to screw it up. That said, if I did go back there's a few things I'd do differently, like put aside a bit of money from every paycheck, invest wisely in the stock market, and convince myself to drop the Minnesota Vikings in order to become a fan of the New England Patriots so I could experience the joy of having a team I cheer for actually win a championship.
This album was quite a departure for Jeff Lynne and the gang. They ditched the orchestra and went all in on the synthesizers. Do I miss the violins? Yes. Do I think the songs work without the violins? Yes. Do I think that maybe Jeff Lynne knows a little bit more about music than I do, so maybe I should trust his instincts here? Yes.
Why does a group come up with a concept album? Is it because they have an incredibly creative idea? Is it because they're bored with putting out regular old albums? Is it because they have a story to tell? Is it because Dennis DeYoung is a crazy bastard who thinks he can write a broadway show about robots? It's hard to say. But, as concept albums go, this one is pretty darn good, and fairly simple: a man goes to the future (or does he?), finds he is lonely and not particularly fond of the future, and returns to his own time. But, did he really go, or was it just a dream? Even Jeff Lynne doesn't know. (Or does he?)
(There's nothing that is in between.)
Up next: It's not unusual (to be loved by anyone.)
When we started the Top 60 album list, I was really looking forward to hearing some records with songs that were good on their own, but they sounded even better when placed within the context of an album that had its own distinctive theme. Time is the epitome of that kind of album.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the hit songs off this album many times before thanks to an ELO greatest hits compilation received as a gift from HondoJoe many years ago. And I like the songs off this album so much that "Hold On Tight" even made it onto my Top 200 list. But I don't think I've ever listened to the entire album from beginning to end before. And I have to say that it was exactly the kind of rich, full-album listening experience that I was hoping for. It has a coherent theme that flows from song to song not only because of the music or lyrics, but because of the flow of emotions that are experienced all the way from the Prologue to the Epilogue.
But as with all time-travel stories, the story doesn't really end with the epilogue. There were three other songs that were recorded around the same time as Time.
"The Bouncer" was recorded with the other Time songs, but it wasn't released until two years later on a B-side of "Four Little Diamonds." The music seems a little different from the other Time songs, but the lyrics definitely fit into the theme of the Time album, and I can see why it could be considered to be worthy of inclusion as a bonus track on the 2001 CD release of Time.
https://youtu.be/tTkGiRfZyBU
"The Bouncer" was originally recorded to be the B-side for the "Hold on Tight" single, but it got replaced by the song, "When Time Stood Still."
https://youtu.be/4Tls8Neie2Q
The other bonus track on the 2001 CD release is "Julie Don't Live Here," which was the B-side to the "Twilight" single.
The music and lyrics of these other two bonus tracks definitely fit in with the other Time songs. But if you include them with the story portrayed in the original Time album, the ending of the story is slightly different. Instead of the protagonist staying in the future and "Holding On Tight" to his dreams, he instead returns home and finds that the woman he loved is, as Jeff Lynne said, "now in another dimension." I like this alternate "Julie" version of the story better, because I like to imagine that the Julie the protagonist loved back in 1980 is the Julie that I love now in 2021. But I can certainly respect the choice of any ELO fan to ignore these three bonus tracks and stick with the original storyline of the original Time album.
That is, unless, there is no original Time album. It might just be a dream. Or it could be, like Jeff Lynne said, living in another dimension, which would mean it's neither real nor a dream--so there IS something that is in between!
Nardo