Customer Reviews

Time

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know if its being the first LP I ever bought has anything to do with it, but I've always cherished *Time* and continue to listen to it with surprising regularity. The arrangements are both more intricate and more atmospheric than those on many other ELO albums, and the loose but present narrative thread (of a man lured to an enticing but ultimately lonely future) has always captivated me. "Ticket to the Moon" embodies more than one kind of longing, and its heart-wrenching beauty has few parallels in pop music.

This fresh edition of the album is superlative in almost every respect. The sound, while still dynamically compressed, is extremely true to the astonishing quality of the original LP, with perhaps greater heft in the bottom end (but not so much as to make it sound overly equalized) and of course no surface noise in the quiet moments!

It probably goes without saying that the new version trumps the original CD, mastered by the great Joe Gastwirt in the late '80s. While timbrally respectable, Gastwirt's version still suffered at the hands of the relatively poor-quality analog-to-digital converters of the day, and for some reason certain song transitions did not originally make it the CD intact (track 5 into 6, track 11 into 12); these are restored on this new edition.

The original CD lacked lyrics and complete liner notes, and these also can be found on the remastered disc. The CD's only failing is in the petty "commentary" from Jeff Lynne, who more often belittles than illuminates his music (the commentary on the new box set, *Flashback*, is little better). At best, Lynne offers insight on the keyboard sounds used in the haunting instrumental, "Another Heart Breaks"; at worst he sounds put out at having to say anything at all: his comment for "The Lights Go Down" is merely "I guess the lights went down." One would think this reissue were being put out under duress!

In any case, if you liked this record or are feeling adventurous and want to hear one of the best albums released in the 1980s, add this to your cart!

This album was one of the very first that I'd ever owned and even after all these years, the sheer brilliance of it still leaves me spellbound. Jeff Lynne without a doubt has the gift of melody and storytelling which comes out in great evidence here. Set as a futuristic warning of a space-age, Asimov-style robotic time to come and one individual's successful escape from this experience, we get track after track of just great, well-written songs that only ELO could come up with. It's difficult to single out any weak track here and my favourite which also is one of my all time favourite tracks is "The Lights Go Down" which still gives me a thrill each time I hear it. This is ELO's greatest album of all and clearly showcases all the reasons for what ELO will also be remembered for: great unique blending of the classical and rock genres, great ear for melody and great songwriting. This version of the album has been well remastered by Jeff Lynne and he writes the liner notes as well. Highly recommended!

Time was and is one of my favorite E.L.O. albums. A concept album much in the same tradition of Eldorado, TIME tells the story of a man who is transported from the year 1981 (the year of the album release) to a dystopic 2095. Sound dull? Far from it! E.L.O. has a history of catchy pop tunes with excellent and unusual instrumentals, and this is no exception.

This remastered edition includes a few songs which were "left off" the original album, but are definitely part of the story that the item tells. I heard all of the "extras" on the Afterglow compedium, and I like them as much as the original Time songs. They belong with their brethren, and although I already have a copy of Time, and Afterglow, I could not resist picking up this album to have the entire Time cycle on one CD.

This is truly the way music's meant to be.

I thought I had all the ELO I wanted with their double disc hits collection until one day not too long ago when I woke up with their song "Yours Truly 2095" in my head. I don't know what made this 20 year old song, that I haven't heard in probably 15 years or so, play so vividly in my dreams that morning but it reminded me that there were several songs on "Time" other than the hit singles that I really enjoyed when I had the LP "back in 1981". Since the album has recently been remastered with bonus tracks, I figured the time was right. The album doesn't sound nearly as dated as one might fear. The futuristic concept of the album still sounds amazingly fresh. And when "The Way Life's Meant To Be" came on, I couldn't believe that I haven't owned this CD before. That was always my favorite song on "Time" and it still is. I think "Meant to Be" and "Yours Truly" should have been singles before "Twilight" and "Rain is Falling". The latter two songs are great tunes, but seem in retrospect to have been too predictable as single choices. The bonus tracks were new to me and I love all three, especially "Julie Don't Live Here". It's a really great song and it's strange to think that such strong material had to be left off of the album due to time restrictions. I'm glad to have "Time" again. Now, maybe I need to re-investigate another long lost friend in "Out of The Blue".

I don't think anyone really understands how devistatingly good this album is! It's one of the most consistant and playable albums anyway. A good mix of pop and intelegence that makes it, in my opinion, some of the best pop music from the eighties. Short and sweet, but with a real power and driving force behind it that makes it stand the test of time. I can put it in the CD player and listen to it from beginning to end every time and what a pleasure it is. No one has Lynne's voice - one of a kind. Why can't there be more music like this made today.

This album will be discovered one day and credit payed due. I mean there are not many other that sound like this. It's almost like it's from another planet. It's sounds are out of this world - almost like Jeff Lynne recorded it on the moon or something. This album is to ELO what the Sgt. Pepper's album is to the Beatles - Groundbreaking!!!! A fantastic adventure that pulls you into its own world. I haven't heard much new stuff today that can achieve what this album does to my spine.

The song "Yours Truely, 2095" is, I don't even know what to say, for one thing, bone chilling and scary!!! The orchestra section in this song is, and if you don't agree, listen to it one more time, absolutly frightning but also eloquent and moving. Lynne knows exactly what chords to use in order to strike to right chords in your brain.

Others like, of course, "Twilight", "Ticket To the Moon" and Rain Is Falling" are classics, but the are hidden treasures all over the place. "Another Heart Breaks" is a creepy Pink Floydesk song that's darker tham most usual ELO songs. I like that. There are also many prolific social statements such as "Here Is the News", "The Way Lifes Meant To Be" and "21st Century Man" that are also absolutly priceless.

Where is this music today? Man, if only I was born just ten years earlier instead of the same year this masterpeice came out! Yes, I'm only 21 and I can't say how sorry I am that other kids my age are missing out on stuff like this. This album needs to be reccognized and played more on the radio. I just don't understand why it isn't.

Fun album from another planet, play it loud if you want to!!!

"Time" isn't on any rock bands side. Trends come and go and the music business changes leaving a lot of bands stranded as one-hit wonders or has beens. A decade into their career ELO's "Time" truly holds its own with the great classic ELO albums. Although not quite as powerful as "Eldorado", "Face the Music" or "A New World Record" (to say nothing of the first album "No Answer")it's one of Jeff Lynne's catciest concoctions--rich, creme filled music tied together with a very loose concept of time travel. Darned if this isn't a catchy album filled to the brim with hooks and great harmonies, melodies and --the best bit of all--remastered sound with great bonus tracks.

After the prologue we have the title track "Time" that has one of the catchiest melodies for late ELO. "Yours Truly 2095" should have been a monster single with its dance beat, a killer riff and melody that demonstrates that Lynne can always introduce the latest sounds into ELO's sound without compromising his writing. The tone takes a downturn with the ballad "Ticket to the Moon" with lovely playing by Richard Tandy on piano. Tastefully adnored with strings arranged by Lynne, Tandy and Louis Clark it's a great power ballad with lovely harmonies.

"The Way Life's Meant To Be" takes Lynne's Del Shannon/Roy Orbison fixation and modernizes it opening with the strumming of acoustic guitars. I could easily have seen Orbison covering this as it recalls great Orbison ballads such as "Running Scared". The album has lots of great stuff between this and the bouncy 50's rockabilly influenced "Hold On Tight" one of Lynne's best rock 'n' roll singles.

This album is augmented by three great bonus tracks. "The Bouncer" bops along with a chug-a-lug rock beat courtesy of the great Bev Bevan. It's a great rock 'n' roll tune that provieded a great flip to the single "Hold on Tight". "Julie Don't Live Here" and "When Time Stood Still" would have held their own on the album if they had been released on it. Both are great ballads with "Julie" again boasting a great chores.

A wonderfully rich cake from ELO this has stood the test of "Time" due to Lynne's great melodies, the rich arranging by Lynne, Tandy and Clarke and Lynne's characteristic production touches.

As an album I give it an instant four and a half stars out of five; this is due to the fact that it has several impressive tracks, as well as continuing with the morphed, pseudo-electronica sound from Xanadu (the album that preceded this one) whilst introducing a darker, more sophisticated and generally less disco-poppy atmosphere into what is, after all, a concept album about time travel, all of which adds up to a stunning masterwork by a fully matured band (and also the longest sentence I've written in quite some time).

Highlights of the album are as follows:

First, the intensely poppy Twilight, an exercise in the ultimately genre-defining 'ELO Sound' which features a rock piano reminiscent of Baba O'Riley. Next, Yours Truly, 2095 is a decidedly electronic-bent song, featuring heavy vocoder (chanting 2095, in case you're wondering) and lyrics that call to mind 'Killer Queen' with an overt reference to an earlier ELO hit, 'Telephone Line'. Another Heart Breaks is a Genesis-esque prog-synth exercise featuring exactly three words for lyrics: intermittent, but the synth work is incredible. From The End Of The World is funky, perky and generally space-pop, and the opening vocal falsetto provides a similar effect to Queen's 'Cool Cat' (forgive the multiple comparisons). 21st Century Man is almost certainly an ode to Lennon, in excellent form, with a gentle vocal by Jeff Lynne that is unforgettable.

Why the missing half? Because the concept-album idea is loose at best, with only the Prologue and Epilogue to develop any kind of framework. Without them, there's not a strong link to the time travel at all.

Over all, an excellent release that more than makes up for the band being associated with Xanadu (the film, not the soundtrack). Mature, elegant, yet powerful and energetic. And was that a bit of Floyd thrown in for good measure?

Maybe.

This was one of the very first albums I owned. It was given to me in sixth grade and I absolutely fell in love with it. I had been exposed to E.L.O. through a friend's older sister and I knew that I had to have more. I played the LP so much that it eventually got scratched and was unplayable. I worked my way through several cassette copies before finally buying the original CD release of it. When I heard that it was getting remastered and released with all the original tracks added back to it, I knew that I would have to buy it again even though I ahd the bonus tracks on "Afterglow". It was worth every penny. I am transported back to sixth grade every time I play this one. Even the tracks that I didn't appreciate as an eleven year old ("Another Heart Breaks", "Here Is The News") leave me mesmerized all these years later.

In my opinion...this is Jeff Lynne's true masterpiece.

Time. My god, this is the album. Whenever there are official polls on rock magazines about vintage pop-rock music it's always Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, Pet Sounds, etc the ones winning the number one. When you ask me, it is Time.
It is for me the best of all albums I have heard. Maybe the moment of my life it was issued, but also the time travel subject, the unbelievable quality of the melodies, the perfect atmosphere created, the finest ELO execution...

Besides this, I believe Time is also the hugest sound change and brave experimentation of all ELO history. Finally, strings are supressed. Why not, my god, why any artist on earth has to be self-restricted to one idea, for good or original it might have been at the time it was conceived.

When put into context, let's think that the precedent job had been Xanadu: a big single hit with the voice of Olivia Newton John, and a half-album with just nice upbeat pop songs and ballads with banal lyrics (and by the way the soundtrack of an enormous film flop, which made the critics lose all respect due to ELO and Jeff Lynne for becoming to their eyes silly disco freaks crap...)

And one year later, it came out this weird techno-synt-pop thing, with the subject of a lost and confused character travelling through the time, and through his own paths of hope, loneliness and melancholy...

Musically, again a terrific starter, after Prologue, Twilight is like to enter in another world, a super-futuristic-roboticized and nostalgic world about the things that you go on losing day by day until one day you suddenly face and realize.

Musically the album is a turmoil of highlights: Twilight itself is weird, with odd chords and amazing changes. Ticket to the moon is very very very beautiful: try to sing it naked, backed by just an acoustic guitar strumming and you'll find out how gorgeous is this melody. The way life's meant to be: besides great nostalgic lyrics, Jeff finally managed to do the greatest thing with a melody tried a couple of times in previous albums (Across the Border, Kuiama I believe). And the synt-riff in Here is the News, how clever, my God!!! And the beauty of melodies like Rain is Falling and 21st Century Man...and so on, and so on...

How is it possible to have so many fine songs on a single album? Oh, that's one of the wonders of ELO: from Eldorado to Zoom, it is very hard to find a bad song or a clear filler there, and I can't say the same for any other artist I know, can anybody? It's clear Jeff Lynne can't compose poorly even though he tried.

Well, it's a pity this album is somewhat lost (in time? ;-) ), for I am convinced that there are many many people today that would like it a lot just if they know it exists.

1st off This is one of the ONLY ALBUMS ON AMAZON that has a ton of reviews and nothing less then 5 stars from anybody, I've never seen that, and the Reviews are great!! IF any album deserves this, it's TIME and apparently the world thinks so,. THIS REMASTER is one of the best I've ever heard from any artist, as far as concept, Put it up there with Quadrophenia, OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE really, that's the only way I can describe it, It will really bring you on a journey and you will leave this earth if you have the right mind and understand it, it does take a few listens It has a lot going on and it is way to much to soke in, realling in as the best albums of all time, JULIE DON"T LIVE HERE deserves more credit, that song makes me lose it at the end and few people mention it, I love when he sounds like george harrison solo, I sware to god that's George on The Way lifes meant to be, the voices are identical, also in many other songs but that one the most, and the lights go down is another one that is like an old school reggae number, it sounds very similar to Jimmy Cliff and well they always do it right, It's funny because I was this huge ELO Fan and Time I always loved but it wasn't my favorite at all and still might not be. But it wasn''t until-- well a stint of listening to ELO everyday all day for about 2 years and going through the collection thousands of times, It all of sudden hit me, TIME oh my god Time, This album is for the masses, This is it, The ONE, the world needs This. It is Just too perfect every element. I've always been a sucker for later ELO, I still Think BALANCE OF POWER MIGHT BE THE HOTTEST, even though from 3rd day to zoom every song in my opinion is a great thought provoking song and genius fusion of all genres, Balance of power from begining to end, like TIME and OUT OF THE BLUE leave you in awe for days, and it's like impossable that a human being(Jeff Lynne) and some of his crew mostly (Bev and Roy who are serious serious talents that along with Lynne have been doing this since the early 60's-- check out The idle race, and the move if your really interested--) could make this music, It is Just way too perfectly executed, the lyrics strings, overdub, and everything else, VERY VERY Complicated music, Very, Jeff Lynne, Might be the best producer ever to live For Modern Music, and the REMASTERS Prove it. man This Guy Understands music inside and OUT, get into ELO get all the traveling Wilbury's albums, get Armchair theater, Macca's Flaming pie, get everything this guy Touches, it's unbelievable what genius he Is. Get ELO in Your life and it will be a better thing With This Music, and AS a Musician can teach You so Much.