TIME

The thing about Electric Light Orchestra is that there are fans out there that just can't let go of them. By the time "Time" came out, ELO and Jeff Lynne had sold themselves out to your basic pop music based loosely off of their unique sound. This album might sound good to the masses, but all semblance of progressive rock had left the band's sound by 1981, some people survived the disco era, but it was only a few of the classic bands that would be able to make music as good as they did in the glory days. Oh yes, they are out there, but ELO wasn't one of them. Part of the problem there is that they pretty much gave up on their best output only after their 2nd album. That's not to say that some of those albums weren't any good, most of them had some great music on them, just not up to the progressive standard of the debut album and the second album.

"Time" however, really didn't have much of a chance. Sandwiched in between disco and new wave, they did their best to sound current. They actually did very well because music sales were out through the roof. But the band would also die one hundred deaths, especially when it was discovered that most of their music in concert was pre-recorded. Back then, something like that meant something, even in pop music, but it had a devastating effect on ELO and they actually disbanded when ticket sales plummeted. These days, pop music in concert is pretty much all prerecorded and fans will pay a pretty penny even if its just to see their heroes lip sync.

Anyway, by the time this album came out, I had lost all hope in ELO. The last album that I bought was "Out of the Blue" and, even though it wasn't really progressive either, at least all of the songs still had some heart and variety to them. Each one of the songs on that big double album had its own personality. That all died after that album, and I just couldn't see the point of buying a record full of songs that all sounded the same and had no heart. So, needless to say, I didn't and still don't like this album. Lynne still borrowed from his inspirational artists like The Beatles and Roy Orbison and on and on, but at least, even in their most commercial years, those artists still had soul in their music.

For those who are wondering, Time has nothing progressive on it, and the songs are performed with no emotion. A robot could perform these songs and not sound any different. The fans love it though as do lovers of commercial music, so it gets 2 stars at least.