ELO's Time is the single greatest album in the history of popular music. You would think it would be all downhill after the stellar and glorious opener, "Twilight." But every single song on the album maintains the high-level set by the opener. Just what ARE the chords Jeff Lynne is playing on Twilight? How does he make this thing work? It sounds like it is from another place, another planet. What zone was Lynne in when he was conceiving, arranging, and performing this? Did anyone get this on video in the studio? My goodness, this is so good it is scary.

Lynne can take a simple chord progression, such as the one in "The Way Life's Meant to Be" in the key of Bflat, and turn it into a masterpiece. He adds layers and embellishments that are the logically PERFECT fit for the track. Every single note is in place; none wasted, none lost, just perfection. And the raucous "Hold on Tight" is, well, another perfect rock and roll tune. The sludgy guitars with soaring vocals, the great French verse, a beat that kicks ass. I mean, what was Lynne on when he conceived this thing? It is beautiful and stunning. There will never be a more perfect assemblage of songs and performances than you have right here, with ELO's Time. It is magnificence raised to the 41st power.

Do yourself a favor when you pick up this CD. Find some quiet time where you know you will not be interrupted. Put on the headphones, and take in the ambience, every single musical note and vocal styling, of this masterpiece. It is a stunning accomplishment. It is the single greatest album ever recorded. Mr. Lynne, congratulations.

I am twenty years old, and fifteen years ago, maybe more, I listened to a cassette tape of this album my uncle made for me. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night without it. That was a long time ago. When the tape broke I forgot this excellent album. Now fifteen years down the road I remember vaguely the songs and I thought I'd look them up on Amazon. I play the samples and I can sing right a long as if I had a copy in my room right now.

This is greatest album in the world...to me. It has all of those elements missing from the latest decades. The album was made during a time when the human race was excited and looking forward to the future. When all the technological and scientifical achievments were priority over political and financial troubles.

That age is past and though humans suffer technology and science we no longer glorify it. But even though it has past, this album is all thats left of our ambitions.

Its aesthetic floaty mood is so comfortable and so easy to listen to, that it makes all other musical sound harsh and abrasive. It has a childish like lullaby sound to it, but even so its probably my favorite album ever.

...and I don't own a copy! WTH am I doing?
Buy one, spin it, and relax!

I'm 35 and I've been enjoying ELO since I was about 13 years old. ELO is such a brilliant group with meaningful and catchy lyrics and a beautiful variety of sounds in their music. I think, by far, ELO: Time was their greatest album. It's a very thought-provoking, cerebral and even sad commentary on technology and how it effects society, both good and bad. I'm heartbroken that their their brand of classic, intelligent doesn't have the following it deserves and is over-shadowed by the shallow, bubble-gum stuff that passes off as "music" today. I'm glad to see that there ARE loyal fans, though.

OLE' ELO!!

Jeff Lynne opted for a change of direction with this album opting for electronics in favour of strings. As with Eldorado it was another Lynne concept album. The concept was time and space and what an album he turned out. It contains a fantastic edge all the way through, the overall power of the album is enormous and the melodies and song structure are truly remarkable.
The concept aside there are some completely unique songs featured on this album the amazing Twilight, Yours Truly 2095,
Ticket To the Moon, the spanish flavoured Way Life's Mean't To Be complete with castanets, the gorgeous Rain Is Falling the potent Here Is The News and of course the smash hit single Hold On Tight. Each song blends perfectly into the next enhancing and illustrating the scenario of the story perfectly for the listener.
A truly great and classic album that would rank with some of the finest work Jeff Lynne has ever produced.

I have read that this isn't the best ELO album, but, if you analyze it as a stand alone production I think it is superb.
It is a "conceptual" album where time (as a concept) is the essential thread thorugh a series of different musical style songs.

It contains a story that could have two interpretations. One being the melancholic adventures of an unintentional time traveller (Prologue, Twilight, Yours truly 2095), that describes the misfortunes of being lonely in a strange future (Ticket to the Moon, Rain is falling, Here is the news), without love and feeling very nostalgic (Yours Truly 2095, From the end of the World, Lights go down, The way Life's meant to be, Another heart breaks); not missing a chance to criticize inhuman progress (21st century man). At the end, it gives a ray of hope and advice on how to cope with a very unfamiliar World (Hold on tight, Epilogue).

The other interpretation could be that the lyrics are about an aging lonely man, uncapable to adapt himself to a frantic ever changing modern life, thus feeling nostalgic, unloved and wishing to go back to a simpler, happier life:

"Remember the good old 1980s?
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same", Ticket to the Moon, J.Lynne

The strangest thing about Time is that it stands out from ELO's previous concept albums. The album itself is contrast to any concept album, period. Seemingly written like a story from beginning to end, Time evolves from portions of a possible future. By this time, ELO completely replaced the orchestra with synthesizer, which suits the theme in a future sense.

Songs such as The Way Life's Meant To Be and Ticket To The Moon are a bit dark, highlighting the negatives of this story through Time. Other songs like Yours Truly 2095 and 20th Century Man portray a technilogical take over of life.

Basically, Time is more about the meaning than the music. Think of it as a diary from a person in the future.

My older brother (11 years between) had this album on vinyl and played it when I was in elementary school. I did remember that computer-voiced intro and "Twilight"...But I didn't take further noitce and got back to my KISS and AC/DC records...

When I hit the 20s, I found the record at my parents house and started to listen to it for fun...And I played it again. And again. And one more time. And it suddenly hit me. THis was so good I couldn't believe. But it wasn't the songs one by one. Sure they were catchy, but the overall feel was what hit me in the face. It was like watching a fantastic movie, like "taxi driver" or "apocalypse now". I couldn't turn it off. And since that day, it is my all-time favourite piece of music.

The obvious hits are "twilight", "hold on tight" and "here is the news". But the best songs are the one almost forgotten, like "the lights go down", "rain is falling" and the best song of all time, period, the magnificent "21st century man".

Go buy it...NOW!

This is the first album I have memory of playing as a 9 / 10 years old kid. I don't remember if I purchased it along with my old man or bought it alone.

All I remember is that I stayed for HOURS in front of the LP (yes, LP record), listening to this "magical" record that allowed me to travel in time and space. :)

Back then, I didn't even know english well enough to understand the lyrics, but the music was very moving and powerful. Now back in time to 2003... I found this record ... by pure chance ... and purchased the CD.

When I heard again songs like "Rain is Falling", "The way life is meant to be", and the robot-voiced (vocoder) introduction, along with "Twilight" and "Here is The News" (in my opinions two of the best songs in this record), or the '70s disco-sounding "From the end of the world" the goose flesh was instantaneous!.

You have every coincevable rythm on this single album... beatiful instrumental, sci-fi -slightly darkish-, disco, Beatles-sounding "Hold on tight to your dream". For instance "The lights go down" is a mix of ballad, reggae, country and the Bee Gees. Hard to explain, but beatiful. :)

When I heard the record again (after 20+ years since I played it on LP as a kid) some sort of light went off in my head as if to say "That's it! That's the feeling I have been trying to find that expresses what I feel."

I love this record. You will too!!. Everyone should make new generations listen to this... so they can learn what M-U-S-I-C is about before the current cr-p currently sold as music came along (can you say Eminem....

Right from the spine tingling, goose-bump enducing 'Prologue', this album is hugely radiant. I love music that moves you and makes you think. 'Time' is absolutely in that category. Lynne rewards fans by fully exploring the 'space' theme, recurrent in ELO imagery and album art. It's unfairly dismissed by critics as just another concept album, but even forgetting about the concept and listening to each song in its own right shows you just how talented a musician, lyricist and producer Jeff Lynne is. Shamefully, these are all dying arts these days. Just imagine an album chart full of music made because people cared more about the integrity of the music than its market viability. This album really does have a message from another time, but ironically it's from the past and not the future.

I was a hugh ELO fan in the 70's & 80's. This is by far the best album they ever made. I still listen to this all the time. One of my all time favorites. It has the big hit (Hold On Tight) and also had many other great songs. Several songs from Time are my favorite ELO songs. "Here Is The News", "Yours Truly 2095", "Rain Is Falling", "Another Heart Breaks" "Twilight" & "Ticket To The Moon" are all awesome songs. This is a must have cd. Jeff Lynne definetly has his own place in rock n roll history.

This album is genius. Definately the best of ELO's and one of the best albums in the history of the universe. Their Greatest Hits should have ALL these songs on it, it's just one gorgeous piece of music after another. This is Jeff's masterpiece. It' one of the albums I can just listen to over and over and over and over and love it more each time.

I was first introduced to ELO and this Time album in particular back in 1985. Since that day, I've owned at least three copies from the album days (had 4 total albums), cassette days (13 in total, one for my car, one for work, another for home), and now CD's.

Why in the WORLD was ELO Time discontinued? I've worn out five CD's thusfar and need some replacements. Stock up now, while you still can (seriously, it's that good).

Total copies of ELO Time I've purchased you ask? Twenty-seven and will buy more as current CD's get scratched, lost or eventually wear out.

TIME is the best ELO album without a doubt

I'm embarassed to admit it but I was a huge ELO fan as a child. I spent a lot of time in my room in New Jersey hoping a spaceship would hover over my housing tenament and "throw me down a line." Even today I find it hard to resist classics like "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" and "Overture." Time was certainly a well crafted album musically. I just found the theme (along with the lyrics) a little childish. I guess I had outgrown the fellas by then but lyrics like "with my brand new time transporter" pretty much ruined the album for me. I did enjoy "Hold On Tight." I even liked Lynne's solo album "Armchair Theatre" but this one was just a bit too ridiculous even for a nerd like me.

TIME by ELO is my favorite album of all TIME (no pun intended!) If you are a fan of the Beatles and the Moody Blues you will love ELO's "TIME"... (As you probably know, one of the reasons ELO became ELO was because of the influence of the Beatles I AM THE WALRUS...) TIME captures ELO at their best. Truly a TIMELESS album... Sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released 20 years ago! (HEY CBS/EPIC: I think an ANNIVERSARY DIGITALLY REMASTERED BOX SET is in order here) ...SECRET MESSAGES, the follow up album is also excellent... in fact I always thought the two should have been released as a double album... (HINT to CBS Records) And as we celebrate TIME's 20th ANNIVERSARY... BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THE NEW ELO ALBUM "ZOOM" with the RETURN of JEFF LYNNE to the band... due out this month! (April 2001)

Can you think of any concept album coming out after this one? Let alone one of any substantial quality? I never heard this album until the past year or so and I was quite literally disappointed...that i didnt hear it years ago and have it to enjoy for the past few years! This album is one complete thought, and is a bizarre, dreamy escape to some sort of future dream world. Thats really the best way to describe it. Its one of those albums that is truly appreciated listened to from beginning to end. Picks up sonically where Discovery left off, with stomping beats, added with an interesting mix of orchestral and synthesized backing (the last fully orchestrated ELO album too, i beleive). Any ELO fan, new or old will love this undiscovered masterpiece. The only complaints I have is with the remastered sound quality...it's a bit shrill with too much treble and very little bass. There's also passages where the sound is muffled, like it was taken from an old master tape with wear. You have to strain to listen but it is there. Still not a reason not to buy, but you'll have to fiddle with your sound to get it to sound right.

I thought I would tune into the reviews here and see this disc getting trounced because of it's thin production quality, glad to be wrong. I have always loved this disc. It was actually the 4th ELO disc I had bought and right away I noticed the production was fairly sub-par (almost peculiar), but the melodies/harmonies/and direction are what this cd is about. (It may take you a bit to warm up to this disc; TIME) Certainly as good as Discovery (also a 5 star) in every sense but one; critcal success/respect.

Well now ELO didn't completely abandon the orchestra on this cd, there just isn't much of it. I don't blame them for wanting to experiment with synths. They did a great job, and this cd is my favorite of all their releases. It is packed full of wonderful energetic arrangements. Underrated release? Perhaps, but that doesn't stop ME from thoroughly enjoying it! When I re-purchased "Time" a few years ago after not having heard it for many years, it brought back a flood of memories and emotions.

This album is the best that Jeff Lynne created. Anyone who likes Alan Parsons theme based albums (some rock, some soft, instrumentals and great lyrics) combined with a Moody Blues flair will love this album. From beginning to end this album holds you and won't let go. Very full with instrumentation and excellent keyboard/Synth makes this one of the best albums ever. Many times I have sat in my car waiting for a song to end before shutting off the key. From TWILIGHT's beginning fanfare to HOLD ON TIGHT, everything in between is storylike, fantasy and melodic. Its just a shame Jeff didn't stay on the same course with more like it. Maybe someday??

Funny that a band that use to perform live in a mock spaceship during the 1970s waited until the 1980s to release an album with a science fiction theme. "Time" is a moderately successful experiement with a few great songs, "Twilight," "The Rain is Falling" and "Hold on Tight." The filler material aims for a futuristic mood that it occasionally manages to capture. Though not among their best albums, "Time" is worthwhile for ELO fans.

what can i say. I was browsing through songs at the cd store one day, listening to random bands.. I listened to this cause i remember "don't bring me down" was a great little tune.. thinking i was about to listen to something similar, I heard the prologue intro. This was something different. Every song on the album flows into each other through backard sounds, strange sounds chior sounds, etc. then you'll get surprised by huge drums and stadium sounds, great production.. stereo accoustic guitars, pianos. It's comparable to the great classical music, but not so light.. Like an actual rock orchestral movement in the greatest sense.. none of the cheese. So unique, in it's own catagory. Will surely be an inspiration for musicians to come.

I just love "Time."What a great idea,making a record from the next Century.My Favorite is "Ticket to the Moon." With the line,"Remember the good old 1980's,when things were so uncomplicated." I wore his record out when it came out,and was so glad when it was released on CD."Yours Truly,2095" about having sex with you own robot,is so funny.With the girl robots voice saying,"Is That what you want?" I can't understand why this record wasen't a huge hit.The only single from this tape to chart in Billboard was "Hold on Tight." I remember this song playing all the time when we went to the skating center.If anyone reading this hasen't heard "Time," buy it,and you will not be dissapointed.A fantastic Journey into the next Century.

From the opening notes of "Prologue" you know this is not going to be your typical ELO release. After the ultra-slick pop of "Discovery" and ELO's contributions to the "Xanadu" soundtrack, Jeff Lynne took the group, now a quartet, in a new and unexpected direction. Here ELO's signature strings are very much in the background and it's synths and guitars that drive this release - very much in keeping with the futuristic concept of the CD. Lots of interesting sound and vocal effects also add to the unique sound of this one. All the numbers are linked both musically and thematically in one of the best 'theme' releases of the era - about a "time-traveller" unwittingly trapped in an apparently cold and lonely future.

Jeff's songwriting and production abilities are as strong as ever. Highlights include "Yours Truly, 2095" a humorous, yet frightening number about amorous thoughts for a robot ("I met someone who looks a lot like you, she does the things you do, but she is an IBM"), the Latin-flavoured "The Way Life's Meant to Be", the driving opener "Twilight", and my personal favorite - "The Lights Go Down".

Oddly enough the hit from this one, "Hold on Tight", sounds almost like it was tagged on as a afterthought. It doesn't seem to fit the theme or style of the rest of the material. Perhaps the label felt ELO needed to add a radio-friendly ditty to sell the album. It's a shame really, as several outtakes, which found their way onto the 3-disc "Afterglow" anthology, are better tracks and would have nicely rounded out the release.

Still, this is ELO's last GREAT album.

Believe it or not, I only logged on to Amazon today for a nolstalgia trip, checking out music I used to listen to and seeing if there's anything I might want to buy (again!).

I listened to the snippet from 'Prologue' on this page and BANG - I'm breaking up, flooded with memories and emotion - this is as close as it gets to Time travel.

Within minutes I will have bought this and it'll be winging its way to me.

How could I have ever forgotten it?

This album reminds me so much of my childhood. I remember my father buying it in 1982 (I was born in 1976) and how we danced in the living room as he played Hold on tight real loud. I discovered the rest of the album on my own, and when I moved out in 1996, the album went with me. Every single song is so amazingly perfect to my ears. I love the lyrics! For years I had a framed paper with the words "On the border of your waking mind, there lies another time, where darkness and light are one. And as you tread the halls of sanity, you feel so glad to be, unable to go beyond" over my bed, and I read those words over and over again. Even though E.L.O's original intention was to send the listener into the future, this album brings me back to the past. With joy.

The Time album by ELO was Jeff Lynne's best work. First the album is like a novel. Describing the events of an individual who is lost.(Lost in Time)The vocals are excellent, the music, and the music mix is futuristic. Jeff Lynne payed attention to details though every track and sound on this album making it the sharpest, clearest and brightest of his and ELO's past works. They were Jeff Lynne was ahead of his time when he produced this album in 1981.

"Hold On Tight" was racing up the Australian charts when I first encountered this album; it was played on Casey Kasem's American Top 40 (which we all listened to in Australia), and so I heard how well it did in the US (top ten). Someone else in my dormitory (boarding school) had the album, and played it nonstop. I listened to it nonstop. I couldn't get enough of it. It's one of those CD's that I can play end to end and not get bored with it... like U2's "Joshua Tree" and INXS's "The Swing." I've introduced this album to people who've not heard it before, and are now huge fans like myself. In fact, I've bought this album almost a dozen times... each time, I let someone listen (and get blown away by it), and then let them have it, and get another for myself. This is definitely on that "5 albums you'd take to a desert island" poll for me. It does sadden me that it didn't get the attention it deserves... that opening piece just sends me away every time. I think, as concept albums go, this is a benchmark. I am glad that others out there like it as much as I do. Way to go, Jeff! Vince

What Jeff Lynne manages to to with TIME is look into the future of music of music. He accomplishes sounds and orchestrations of sounds and song construction that would be emulated for an entire decade. Jeff Lynne prooves his musical genius here as he adapts his idea of what music should be to a changing time when music isn't what anyone ever anticipated. While other 80's Rock Operas push into camp and pretension (Mr. Roboto, The Wall, Quadraphenia, & others) Time manages, at the onset of the decade, to keep a realistic sense of it's own absurdity and work in clever self discriminatory humor into the mix throughout. Time knows what it is and it knows where it's going. Thus, Time is the most underrated albumn in the history of popular music.

I no longer remember how I first listened to the new album by ELO - but I still remember the deep impression it left me with. From the first sounds of the opener, "Prologue", I was led into the beautiful world of heavenly sounds. Until now this album is in my top five all-time favourites. during all these years I had altogether 3 cassettes (they got so worn out it was impossible to use them anymore), and now I have this stunning album on CD, which is not going to wear down!

Truly Jeff Lynne's most complete concept album; more so than Out of The Blue which loses it's way a little towards the end. Time has an intriguing story, a mix of humor and blunt reality to the lyrical themes, and their biggest and best Beatlesque arrangements. This will prove to be the most lasting of all Jeff Lynne's work.

This is best Jeff Lynne album.Very melodic , soft & cool music.If you want rest from pop-crap buy this album.

TIME (1981) is a very ambitious and important album in the tradition of ELO's 1974 masterpiece, ELDORADO. Sonically, it is much different, with the chill of synths replacing ELDORADO's warm washes of orchestral grandeur. Nonetheless, the two albums both touch very profoundly and effectively on the potency of dreams. "Twilight" is an incredibly powerful statement musically and lyrically...it's one of the greatest techno-rockers ever recorded. Certainly, it was a pioneering track in terms of much of the synth-rock that followed throughout the 80's and 90's, though few of those other other bands were ever able to match ELO's excellence. (Keyboardist Richard Tandy proves once again on TIME that he belongs in the pantheon of great rock instrumentalists.) "Yours Truly, 2095" is funny, sad, prophetic, and disturbing all at once. "Ticket to the Moon" begins with a great melancholy line: "Remember the good old 1980s/When things were so uncomplicated." It's the perfect sc-fi weeper love song. "The Way Life's Meant to Be," "Here is the News," and "21st Century Man" were all hits in England, and should have been smashes in the U.S. All of them are insightful lyrical observations on the human condition, with all the pop brilliance of a Phil Spector or Brian Wilson masterpiece. "Rain is Falling" is one of a series of cathartic Jeff Lynne "rain" songs, which surface on a number of ELO's albums. The pinnacle of the album is "Hold On Tight," which is one of the most effective inspirational rockers ever recorded. It's got a good beat, and you can think to it. As one listens to the entire TIME album, what appears at times to be a bleak meditation on the future finally breaks free into the sunlight of hope for a better tomorrow. At least, that's the way life's meant to be.

This CD is a little "harder than the other ones by ELO, but it still sounds like ELO! It's very good, but not the best.

This is my favorite ELO album.This is a great futuristic journey from 1981 to the present.Just the right amount of orchestral and technological touches to make a package that only ELO can do.In Yours Truly,2095 computers are portrayed much as they are today.All the songs are good.This album first came out in 1981.

"Time" is the last of what can be called E.L.O.'s "concept" albums (like "Eldorado" and "Out of the Blue"), in which the songs somehow share the same theme, if they don't exactly tell a complete story. It is one of the band's best, but it is probably also the most underrated album ever released by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Jeff Lynne's lyrics tell of a disturbing not-to-distant future in which man is over-dependant, and overshadowed by machines. The setting may be the near future, but the themes are as contemporary as anything currently in the charts.

Songs like "2095", "The Way Life's Meant To Be" "From the End of The World" and "Ticket To the Moon" show humankind in the future longing for a simpler time and a simpler way of life, and do so brilliantly. The images these songs evoke of a future dominated by technology and machines are a bit creepy, but that is probably the point.

Musically, the album is yet more proof that Jeff Lynne is one of this century's musical geniuses, and the brilliant and original use of synthesizers actually predates the Techno-Craze that was to follow starting in 1982.

When I first bought a vinyl copy of this album in 1981, I played it so much I wore it out and had to buy another one!! Ditto a cassette copy.

The rocker "Hold On Tight", with half the lyrics sung in French, was the only single that charted significantly in the U.S., reaching the Top Ten, but ALL the songs are equally engaging.

This album reached platinum status in the U.S. In the UK, it actually went to Number One. Go Figure!! The Brits sure know a good album when they hear one. Definitely something to think about.

If you are a fan of the original Electric Light Orchestra (I have never listened to E.L.O. Part II; I'm sure they're great, but to me, E.L.O. without Jeff Lynne is not E.L.O.; it's like the Beatles without Lennon/McCartney/Harrison or the Who without Pete Townsend) and/or Jeff Lynne, you will not be dissapointed by this album. I am willing to bet you will love it!! If you don't have it, by all means, BUY IT!!