Time (ELO album)

Time is the ninth studio album by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (credited as ELO), released 30 July 1981 on Jet Records. It is a concept album about a man from the 1980s who is taken to the year 2095, where he is confronted by the dichotomy between technological advancement and a longing for past romance. The record topped the British Albums Chart for two weeks, though it attracted mixed reviews for its heavy use of synthesizers and stylistic shift away from the orchestral rock of previous ELO albums. It has since gained a cult following, particularly among retrofuturist enthusiasts.

Time is a work of synth-pop that combines elements from 1950s music, new wave, reggae, rockabilly, the Beatles, Phil Spector and the Shadows. The album signalled a departure from the band's sound by emphasising electronics over its usual orchestra. It is also the band's second concept album, the first being Eldorado in 1974. The music video created for its lead single, "Hold On Tight", was the most expensive ever made to that point, with a budget of approximately £40,000. Five more singles followed the album's release: "Twilight", "Ticket to the Moon", "Here Is The News", "Rain Is Falling" and "The Way Life's Meant to Be".

The record is considered the first major concept album devoted to time travel as well as ELO's most influential album. "Twilight" became popularly known for its use in the 1983 animated short Daicon IV Opening Animation. In 2001, a CD reissue of Time included three additional tracks that were originally left off the LP.

Background and recording
Time followed the albums Discovery, on which ELO had dispensed with their three-man string section (although orchestration was used on the album), and Xanadu, the soundtrack to the 1980 musical film of the same name, which was met with a mixed reception. On Time, bandleader Jeff Lynne chose to emphasise electronics over the band's orchestral sound. He wrote a collection of songs with a theme that focused on time travel and civilisation in the year 2095. The album's musical style draws from the 1950s, new wave, reggae, rockabilly and the work of artists such as the Beatles, Phil Spector and the Shadows. Writing for PopMatters, Kevin Mathews says that the album reflects Lynne's absorption in the UK synth-pop sound popularised by contemporary artists such as Gary Numan, OMD and Human League.

ELO recorded Time mainly at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, with some sessions taking place at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden.

Concept and storyline
Lynne's comments on the album's concept are as follows: in 1981, a man drifts into a state of twilight ("Twilight"), where he appears to have entered the year 2095, meets a Gynoid ("Yours Truly, 2095"), and reflects on the 1980s, "back when things were so uncomplicated" ("Ticket to the Moon"). Walking down the same street from a hundred years before, he is dismayed by the plastic flowers and ivory towers which have grown on top of it ("The Way Life's Meant to Be"). He attempts to use a time transporter to go back in time, but fails, endling up in a limbo where he can only return to the future (“When Time Stood Still”). Eventually, he manages to get the machine to show him what’s going on in the past, with the machine ultimately revealing that back in 1981, his girlfriend Julie has left him behind and left him behind (“Julie Don’t Live Here Anymore”). Saddened by the results of his time travel, he goes back to the future (“Sad, But It’s True”). As he remains in this future period, he looks out his window depressed, watching the world go by ("Rain Is Falling"). He attempts to send a letter in the form of a dream to his girlfriend in the past, but fails ("From the End of the World"). As his depression deepens (“The Lights Go Down”), he takes a trip onto a satellite heading for the moon, which was mentioned in “Ticket to the Moon”, but appears to have escaped the craft before the satellite left for the moon (“Here Is the News”). As he escapes, he ponders on how he has changed since he time travelled (“21st Century Man”), and begins to make his final plans for heading back to 1981 (“Time Transporter”). The scientists who brought him into the future then invite him to “hold on” (“Hold on Tight”), as he finally heads back to the past. He then returns to Julie, and tries to explain what happened to her, but she believes it was all just a dream (“Do You Remember”).

When asked whether the man's experiences had been a dream all along, Lynne responded: "This is what I'd like to know, because it's baffled me since I wrote it, if he has actually gone [to the future], or if he's just thinking about it. ... It could be real, or it could be a dream... I'm not sure. I'd rather not say, because I don't know either. I'm supposed to, but I don't.” Mathews writes: "Like Eldorado, Time contained a prologue and an epilogue ... Although there is hardly any plot to thread the various songs together, the theme remains largely intact ... they embellish, rather than engage." A recurring line that appears in the album's epilogue is: "though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow, you still wander the fields of your sorrow". Rockol's writer says that the protagonist revisits the place he once lived only to find that it has become unrecognisable ("The Way Life's Meant to Be"). Afterwards, he hopes that he may be able to return home with a time machine, "but with all their great inventions and all their good intentions, here I stay" ("Rain Is Falling"). Following his final attempt to return to the past, the protagonist is invited to "hold on" ("Hold On Tight").

Author Adam Roberts calls Time a "future-set rock opera". According to music journalist Mark Beaumont, it is a concept album about a man who is abducted forward in time to the year 2095, while the web publication Rockol and Stereo Review magazine both recognise Time as being about a man who becomes trapped in the future. The News & Advance's Ben Cates says it "tells the story of a man living in the year 2095 who glimpses enough of the future to know that he wants to get back to the 1980s".

Certifications
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