ELO Head to Space on a Synth Pop Ship (Time - Electric Light Orchestra)

Member Name: Scottyboy_Peanut

Product:	Time - Electric Light Orchestra
Date:	09/05/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great melodies and vocals throughout

Disadvantages: Some cheesey lyrics

Listening through the back catalogue of ELO leading up to this album it goes from the sublime Out of the Blue, then came Discovery which was merely good but worse was to come with the Xanadu

Time was to some extent a return to form and is at least as good as Discovery. On this outing Jeff Lynne was experimenting with what I guess would be called synth pop but not pure synth pop because pianos and guitars are prominent and often the driving force of the backing track.

Time is indeed a concept album with space as it's theme and it works quite well even though it does lead to some strange lyrics in songs that honestly could have done without them.

What this album offers is plenty of creativity, enjoyable melodies, memorable riffs and of course great vocal harmonies. It gets off to a great start with the Prologue and transition into the upbeat Twilight and that sets the tone of what is to come.

The Way Life's Meant To Be is another of the stronger tracks here and will sound very familiar to ELO veterans because it has the same melody as Across The Border from Out Of The Blue. It's not a carbon copy thank goodness as there are enough stylistic differences to make this sound like a totally different song but it was a little jarring for me because I noticed the melodic similarities on my first play.

The song the average music lover is most likely to be familiar with from this album is Hold on Tight. I have to admit this isn't one of my favourites and if it isn't one of your favourites either don't be deterred because that isn't the highlight of the album and not typical of the music here.

For me the highlight on Time is a pretty ballad called The Rain Is Falling. It has a great lead vocal climaxing with a slightly fragile sounding falsetto from Jeff Lynne that somehow adds to its charm.


Despite is being more electronic than the music I usually listen to I enjoy this album and have done so for quite a few years now. I would not however view it as a starting point for a potential new fan because it is just average by ELO's high standards.

For the uninitiated I would recommend Out of the Blue or Eldorado as a much better starting point.

Summary: An enjoyable electronic outing for ELO