Just 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. I have a message, from another time.
This album is the king of hauntology
Is the dream world as real as our physical world? Can we imagine a future into existence? Time is the canvas and dreams are our paint brushes. I’m listening to ELO’s Time album some 40 years after release.
During a time where many of my generation, although embracing modern technology and using it to the full, can’t help but look back at their youth and ask the question. Were things better for us back then? I’m sure every generation looks back at their past like this and it’s not as if the 1980’s didn’t have bad times with pandemics, famine and the threat of nuclear annihilation. But the interesting thing about ELO’s Time album is that it predicts quite accurately a generation, somewhere in the near future, that would be doing just that—looking back at better times and wondering where it all went wrong?
In the 70’s and 80’s we were looking to the future and using our imaginations. Today, with the popularity of hauntology we seem to be doing a lot of the opposite. But, this album is the king of hauntology. From where I’m sitting, I’m going back to the past, listening to an album imagining the future, imagining the past. Confused? The future is confusing.
Songs like “Yours Truly 2095” predicts our species love affair with technology and perhaps replacing human to human contact because of convenience. Every lyric gives an example of an advantage of said relationship, but then equally gives a disadvantage, asking the question. Is that what you want? What you really really want? The transition to the next song “Ticket To The Moon” can’t be anymore fitting. It’s as though a person is regretting their entire life. The escaping of a cold and bleak future, propelled by machines with machine hearts. “I’ve got a ticket to the moon, but I’d rather see the sun rise, in your eyes.” “Another Heart Breaks” is nearly the halfway point on the album. It’s almost an instrumental of sweeping synths, the beat and baseline plods along representing the passage of time into an even bleaker, where hearts break again and again.
The escaping of a cold and bleak future, propelled by machines with machine hearts.
ELO’s journey through time continues with prophetic messages from the past. With tracks like “From The End Of The World” and “The Lights Go Down.” But it’s “Here Is The News” that really captures my imagination. It begins with a musical ident/logo sound and then a counter bleep before slamming into the track. News and reporter samples pan in and out against a heavy backdrop of synthetic melodies. What I think is interesting about the song is the subject matter of the News. How it can subdue us and keep us in fear. Most of us respond in sadness and fear to negative events around the world. But there was a time when it would take months for news to reach (if it reached at all). Then came print which hastened the flow of information, then radio and television quickened the process giving birth to the age of 24-hour news media. Is this good for us, or can this cloud of negativity affect us negatively and has it been doing? And ultimately, can this manifest into a bleak future that this album seems so intent in warning us?
Time closes on a really positive note though. “Hold On Tight” (to your dream) is a purposely cheesy sounding rock anthem that one cannot resist bopping along to. It completely stands out from the rest of the piece in its positivity. Its message? Basically don’t give up whatever you’re going through. Time is an unchanging will and we exist outside the path that she takes. So try to enjoy every moment in the sun.
You should be so happy. You should be so glad. 21st Century Man. Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow, you still wander the fields of your sorrow. Time, time, time, time…
Time is available on Jet.
