Time
Studio album by Electric Light Orchestra
Released	August 1981 June 12 2001 (reissue)
Recorded	1980-1981 Musicland Studios Munich
Genre	Rock, Art Rock, Electronica
Length	43:57
Label	Jet Records & Columbia Records Epic/Legacy (latest reissue)
Producer	Jeff Lynne
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link George Starostin 8/10 link Rolling Stone link Popmatters (Favourable) link
Electric Light Orchestra chronology
Xanadu (1980) Time (1981) Secret Messages (1983)
CD insert cover
ELO 1981

Time is a concept album by Electric Light Orchestra released in 1981.

Concept

The album tells the story of a man, circa 1981, who is taken away by time travelers to the late 21st Century. Once there, he marvels at the wonders that the future offers, but is also increasingly amazed to find that he longs for his own time (the past) and the woman he left behind because of his journey forward. Although he has been provided a robot woman, who obeys his every command without question, he quickly realizes that this is a poor substitute for his lost love: the robot companion can never love or be loved by him. His desire to return to the past grows stronger once he is told that he cannot be returned to his own time, and he attempts an escape using his captors' time transporter equipment. His premature escape is foiled by his captors, and he subsequently discovers that they had only been keeping him in their future to illustrate to him how it suffers from the choices that had been made during his time. The man is finally returned to his year of origin (1981), armed with the understanding necessary for him to make a positive impact on the future.

The musical style and theme were echoed in later albums such as The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy, who cited Time as a great influence; and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips.

The theme of Time bears similarities to the group's earlier concept album Eldorado. Although Eldorado features strings much more prominently, and Time features more three-minute pop songs, both albums tell the story of a man who daydreams of being whisked away to a new and better world, only to become disenchanted, homesick, and even alienated by what he finds. Songs like "The Way Life's Meant to Be," "Rain Is Falling," and "21st Century Man" are reminiscent of material from the Out Of The Blue era of ELO, while other tracks explore new influences such as new wave ("Yours Truly, 2095" and "From The End Of The World") and reggae ("The Lights Go Down") with the core ELO sound. The album reached #1 in the UK Albums Chart (see list of UK #1 albums from the 1980s). The hit single "Hold On Tight" proved to be the band's last top-ten single in both the US and UK, and the album itself achieved gold status.

In 2001, the album was remastered and reissued on CD with three additional bonus tracks, two of which ("Julie Don't Live Here" and "When Time Stood Still") were B-side's of singles ("Twilight" and "Hold On Tight" respectively) from the original album, while the other ("The Bouncer") was originally released as the UK B-side of the 1983 single "Four Little Diamonds" from the album Secret Messages.

Miscellaneous

• Rainer Pietsch took over conducting the strings, although Louis Clark did appear (for the first time) playing keyboards in the live line-up on the subsequent Time tour.

• "Twilight" is particularly famous amongst fans of Japanese animation and comics (commonly known as "otaku"). The song was initially used (without authorization) as the theme music for the opening animation for the 1983 Daicon IV science fiction convention, which has gathered a lot of acclaim in the general anime fandom. In 2005, the music was used again for a similar animation that formed the opening for the television series Densha Otoko, a series featuring an otaku as the main character (along with several recurring extras). The song is now considered somewhat of an anthem for otaku.

• In an early 1980s Rolling Stone magazine interview, Steve Winwood said that Time had influenced him.

• In 1999, Cher sampled a synth sound from "Prologue" and "Epilogue" at the beginning of her #1 hit single "Believe."

• Many of the group's fans consider this album to be Jeff Lynne's "forgotten masterpiece," partly due to the perception that Lynne has allowed it to languish (ironically) over the course of time. Lynne has since admitted that Time and the two subsequent ELO albums (Secret Messages and Balance Of Power) were only recorded to satisfy contractual obligations, and while material from every other ELO album was performed during the short-lived Zoom tour in 2001, none of the material from these three albums was included (with the exception of "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" from Secret Messages, although this song was omitted from the DVD release of the kick-off concert).

Similarities to Eldorado

Time was a departure from the musical direction ELO had been pursuing with their two preceding releases, Discovery and the Xanadu soundtrack. While the music on these albums had been leaning more toward a disco/pop style, Time represented a shift in a more "progressive" direction, the most "progressive" ELO album since Eldorado was released six years previous. Time parallels Eldorado, ELO's only other concept album, using a theme involving the escape from a present reality and ending with a return to the point of origin. Both albums were also surrounded by relatively "normal," more pop-oriented studio albums: Eldorado by On The Third Day and Face the Music; and Time by Discovery and Secret Messages. Finally, both albums utilize a prelude and epilogue.

Chart Position

• #1 UK Albums Chart
• #3
• #16 Billboard 200, RIAA certification: Gold

Track listing

• All tracks written by Jeff Lynne.

1. "Prologue" – 1:15
2. "Twilight" – 3:35
3. "Yours Truly" 2095" – 3:15
4. "Ticket To The Moon" – 4:06
5. "The Way Life's Meant To Be" – 4:36
6. "Another Heart Breaks" – 3:46
7. "Rain Is Falling" – 3:54
8. "From The End Of The World" – 3:16
9. "The Lights Go Down" – 3:31
10. "Here Is The News" – 3:49
11. "21st Century Man" – 4:00
12. "Hold On Tight" – 3:05
13. "Epilogue" – 1:30

Bonus tracks on the 2001 edition:

14. "The Bouncer" 3:14 (B-side to "Four Little Diamonds")
15. "When Time Stood Still" 3:33 (B-side to "Hold on Tight")
16. "Julie Don't Live Here" 3:42 (B-side to "Twilight")

Personnel

• Jeff Lynne - Lead vocals, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Acoustic guitar, Piano, Synthesiser
• Bev Bevan - Drums, percussion
• Richard Tandy - Piano, Electric piano, Synthesiser, Guitar
• Kelly Groucutt - Bass guitar, Backing vocals

Tour Line-up

• Jeff Lynne - Lead vocals, guitar
• Bev Bevan - Drums
• Richard Tandy - Keyboards
• Kelly Groucutt - Vocals, Bass guitar
• Mik Kaminski - violin, synthesizer
• Louis Clark - string synthesizer
• Dave Morgan - backing vocals, vocoder, acoustic guitar

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