Having sold his soul to the gods of disco on "Discovery", Jeff Lynne decided to win back credibility in 1981 by hitching his wagon to Star Wars. "Time" is a concept album for the eighties with its galactic theme and synthesiser driven landscapes. Here I am playing an original pressing that I picked up from eBay a few years ago.
As the needle falls, the slightly hokey vocoder prologue is followed by an Oberheim OB-X blasting out the opening bars of "Twilight". This album is clearly going to lean more heavily on the 'electric' than the 'orchestra'.
"Yours Truly, 2095" is a slightly cheesy vision of the future with its talk of hover cars and IBM robots all played at a canter. "Ticket to the Moon" is a slower piano driven ballad that has a good melody and fits nicely with the aesthetic of the album. However it is less obvious how the derivative Roy Orbison styling of "The Way Life's Meant to Be" support the concept. This isn't a bad song but it is a little incongruous. Side one closes with "Another Heart Breaks" which is a grossly underrated instrumental that sounds contemporary even in 2022.
Side two opens with "Rain Is Falling" which is an impressive ballad that features some fantastic synth work and the welcome return of the orchestra. We pull on our flares and get out on the dance floor again with "From the Sun to the World" and things go a bit reggae with "The Lights Go Down". The space concept is resurrected on the catchy "Here Is The News" and the John Lennon pastiche "21st Century Man". The album closes with the relentless rocker "Hold on Tight" and we are returned to earth by a short epilogue. This is a good record but the application of the concept is sporadic and some of the lyrics sound a little contrived to 21st Century ears. 3/5
