Album of the day (#1817): Time by Electric Light Orchestra

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Time by Electric Light Orchestra (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1981.
Country:
Overall rank: 806
Average rating: 72/100 (from 134 votes).

Tracks:
1. Prologue
2. Twilight
3. Yours Truly, 2095
4. Ticket To The Moon
5. The Way Life's Meant to Be
6. Another Heart Breaks
7. Rain is Falling
8. From The End Of The World
9. The Lights Go Down
10. Here Is The News
11. 21st Century Man
12. Hold On Tight
13. Epilogue

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[Applerill]

I think this is Trekki's favorite ELO album. I haven't heard this, but that's gotta count for something, right?

Edit: Oh wait, it's just his #3. Oh well.

[Adyman]

I just checked this one the other day, I have to say that I liked it. So why is the score so pretty low? Are ELO underrated or just not the best of the bunch?

[badseed]

ELO were pretty good, but I wouldn't say they're underrated. They have a couple albums in the top 1000 but none in the top 500. That sounds about right.

[AAL2014]

A friend of mine and I were just talking about ELO, and how I have never gotten into to them because I hate the hits they play on the radio and that's all I've really heard. He likes them a lot and thinks I should give them a go. Is this a good place to start?
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Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.

[Romanelli]

ELO was an interesting band. They did some interesting things, and they had a good deal of success. For me, there were always three problems with ELO:

1) Jeff Lynne has never been more than an average lyricist. At his absolute best. He can write some catchy lyrics, but it has always been the case that a walk through the waters of lyrics by Jeff Lynne will barely get your feet wet.

2) Lynne's growth as a producer was interesting to hear from one album to the next...until about Discovery. It was on that album that he perfected what he was going for, and the music started to sound stale because of his overproduction.

3) At about some point during the recording of Out Of The Blue, I believe that Lynne started getting tired of doing ELO. He was starting to downsize his band, and he was starting to move away from what was actually interesting about them: the mixture of rock with string players who were actually in the band. The last four albums before he ended it (Discovery, Time, Secret Messages and Balance Of Power) sound tired, yet overdone and glossed to perfection...something that early ELO was never about. By the end, ELO was down to a three piece (Lynne, Richard Tandy and drummer Bev Bevan, who complained constantly because Lynne was starting to use pre recorded drum tracks) and sounded like they didn't care anymore. More specifically...like LYNNE didn't care anymore. Because it was, after the first album, all about Jeff Lynne.

As for Time...I simply do not get the appeal of this album. Never have. People say they like it as a concept album...yet it's as lyrically bland as everything else Lynne has ever written. It's produced to a fault. (If you want to hear where Lynne's production actually was at its not-overwhelming best and actually has an edge to it, check Eldorado (especially), Face The Music and A New World Record.) And most importantly, it was part of the contractual obligation, I don't care about doing ELO anymore trilogy of albums that actually did more to tarnish the name of ELO than his disco leanings on Discovery did. Time is dull, with "Twilight": and "Hold On Tight" being perfect examples of music overproduced to a major fault (the best track, IMO, is "Rain Is Falling".

Just my two cents...
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Musicians play gigs.
Fans go to shows.

[AAL2014]

[Fischman]

It always surprises me how many people rank this among the top ELO albums; I find it rather close to the bottom. It is moody without creating a mood, probably due in large part to excessive overproduction. This one wears on me long before I can get through it all.

I agree with Romanelli that Eldorado through New World Record is where ELO is at.