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Time (Music)

 Time (Music)
type
TVTItem
 Time (Music)
label
Time (Music)
 Time (Music)
page
Time
 Time (Music)
comment
Time is the ninth album by the Electric Light Orchestra, released in 1981 through Jet Records. On release, it swiftly topped the UK Albums Chart for a while before wearing off, and the more immediate retrospective didn't look so kindly on it when comparing it to the likes of Out of the Blue. Still, it maintains a rather sizeable cult following to this day (particularly among those interested in Zeerust), and is generally considered to be one of ELO's more spectacular albums.The story of ELO's second Concept Album is about someone from The '80s who is magically whisked 20 Minutes into the Future— specifically, the year 2095. Things look interesting... but then he realises that he's unable to go back. He's there to stay. It turns out he's committed an Accidental Time Travel, and before long he starts suffering from a constant Nostalgia Filter that nearly all of the album's lyrics go into detail about. And then things go From Bad to Worse; he then realises that he can't see his girlfriend or anyone close to him, because they're all in the past. Or all of this might just be a dream. Not even Jeff Lynne knows the interpretation.There are many reasons as to why this album is one of their more significant releases. Firstly, there's the more polarising aspect of this being the point where "electric" began to completely supplant the "light orchestra"— synthesizers and electronic effects play a much bigger role here, and would go on to play an even bigger role in the next two albums (this is cited as a musical inspiration in itself). Secondly, it was the first and, to this day, one of the few notable concept albums to have Time Travel as its main plot point. Thirdly, the album is widely considered to be a Trope Codifier for a lot of Time Travel tropes, in particular the aforementioned Accidental Time Travel and Fish out of Temporal Water ones.Lastly, there's the unintentional association this album gained with, of all things, the anime fandom. In 1983, a group of amateur animators who would later become Studio Gainax created a promotional short for the Daicon IV science fiction convention, featuring a girl in a Playboy Bunny outfit battling numerous pop culture figures from both Japanese and western media (tying in with the lack of regional limits for represented media at the convention). The animators just so happened to choose "Prologue" and "Twilight" from this album as the main background music for the short— without permission from Jet Records. Consequently, barring a one-off sale of 8mm prints to con-goers as a way to recoup funds, the short has never been able to see an official release; the closest it ever got was an unauthorized LaserDisc run based on a telecine of one of the 8mm prints. Despite this, the circulation of LaserDisc copies of the short allowed it to live on among anime fans, and as the Daicon IV short became a defining element of Gainax's brand, so too did ELO's Time slowly come to be more and more readily associated with the production. In the process, the short wound up giving the album and the band a new audience that they never would've expected to pick up, all because of a small group of amateur animators from a completely different country.Time was supported by five singles: "Hold On Tight", "Twilight", "Ticket to the Moon"/"Here Is the News" (released as a double A-side), "Rain Is Falling", and "The Way Life's Meant to Be".
 Time (Music)
fetched
2024-03-14T10:01:16Z
 Time (Music)
parsed
2024-03-14T10:01:16Z
 Time (Music)
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Time (Music) / int_12610160
type
Computerized Judicial System
 Time (Music) / int_12610160
comment
Computerized Judicial System: "Here is the News" mentions the "Justice Computer" banishing criminals for life to the prison satellite Penal One.
 Time (Music) / int_12610160
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_12610160
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1.0
 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_12610160
 Time (Music) / int_22093e9b
type
New Sound Album
 Time (Music) / int_22093e9b
comment
New Sound Album: Begins the period where ELO used more electronic instruments and less strings.
 Time (Music) / int_22093e9b
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_22093e9b
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_22093e9b
 Time (Music) / int_34f8042a
type
Gratuitous French
 Time (Music) / int_34f8042a
comment
Gratuitous French: The second verse of "Hold On Tight" is the first verse in French.
 Time (Music) / int_34f8042a
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_34f8042a
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1.0
 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_34f8042a
 Time (Music) / int_393ec3f9
type
Zeerust
 Time (Music) / int_393ec3f9
comment
Zeerust: Considering this is an album from 1981 which looks through a crystal ball to a time over 100 years into its future, it's taken the best part of just a few decades for most of the visions to look completely... hilariously unlikely. The robot girl from "Yours Truly, 2095" is said to be an IBM model. In "Here Is The News", trade union discontent is rife - especially in the space travel sector.
 Time (Music) / int_393ec3f9
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_393ec3f9
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_393ec3f9
 Time (Music) / int_40cc0c7e
type
Bittersweet Ending
 Time (Music) / int_40cc0c7e
comment
Bittersweet Ending: The narrator did go into the future and came back to the past, but years later than 1981, and his wife has left in the time he was gone. ("Julie Don't Live Here")
 Time (Music) / int_40cc0c7e
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 Time (Music) / int_40cc0c7e
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_40cc0c7e
 Time (Music) / int_42215dce
type
Ambiguous Ending
 Time (Music) / int_42215dce
comment
Ambiguous Ending: Several possibilities exist, and there's no official answer. All Just a Dream: The narrator never went into the future. ("Hold on Tight") Bittersweet Ending: The narrator did go into the future and came back to the past, but years later than 1981, and his wife has left in the time he was gone. ("Julie Don't Live Here") Downer Ending: The narrator went into the future, but he's pretty much trapped in the future forever, so he won't be able to see anyone that was close to him in the past ever again. ("21st Century Man/Epilogue") Earn Your Happy Ending: The traveler (as he anticipates in the song) joyfully returns his wife and tells her everything that happened, but she thinks he was only dreaming. ("The Bouncer") Gainax Ending: The traveler becomes stuck in a timeless and barren place, all alone. ("When Time Stood Still")
 Time (Music) / int_42215dce
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 Time (Music) / int_42215dce
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_42215dce
 Time (Music) / int_4acee1ed
type
Fish out of Temporal Water
 Time (Music) / int_4acee1ed
comment
Fish out of Temporal Water: The entire album is about a man from 1981 who is given a one-way trip to 2095 and ends up struggling to comprehend the scale of change inside the world that he's stuck in. "21st Century Man" directly discusses this.
 Time (Music) / int_4acee1ed
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 Time (Music) / int_4acee1ed
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_4acee1ed
 Time (Music) / int_4e3d253b
type
Downer Ending
 Time (Music) / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: The narrator went into the future, but he's pretty much trapped in the future forever, so he won't be able to see anyone that was close to him in the past ever again. ("21st Century Man/Epilogue")
 Time (Music) / int_4e3d253b
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_4e3d253b
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_4e3d253b
 Time (Music) / int_5313c266
type
Bookends
 Time (Music) / int_5313c266
comment
Book Ends: The start of "Prologue" and the end of "Epilogue" are certainly similar enough; the end of the album actually loops seamlessly back into the start, suggesting a Stable Time Loop.
 Time (Music) / int_5313c266
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_5313c266
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_5313c266
 Time (Music) / int_53833817
type
Rip Van Winkle
 Time (Music) / int_53833817
comment
Rip Van Winkle: That's more or less the case in "Prologue" where the narrator awakens to find themselves in the late 21st century.
 Time (Music) / int_53833817
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_53833817
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_53833817
 Time (Music) / int_6f2fe973
type
Epic Instrumental Opener
 Time (Music) / int_6f2fe973
comment
Epic Instrumental Opener: "Prologue", which introduces "Twilight".
 Time (Music) / int_6f2fe973
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 Time (Music) / int_6f2fe973
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_6f2fe973
 Time (Music) / int_7464705c
type
Arc Words
 Time (Music) / int_7464705c
comment
Arc Words: "Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow, you still wander the fields of your sorrow." Spoken in "21st Century Man" and "Epilogue", and played as a reversed message in "Twilight" and other songs on the album.
 Time (Music) / int_7464705c
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 Time (Music) / int_7464705c
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Time (Music) / int_7464705c
 Time (Music) / int_7d276626
type
Siamese Twin Songs
 Time (Music) / int_7d276626
comment
Siamese Twin Songs: "Prologue" leads directly into "Twilight", and in live concerts, the two are performed as a single piece.
 Time (Music) / int_7d276626
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_7d276626
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_7d276626
 Time (Music) / int_82accf22
type
Gainax Ending
 Time (Music) / int_82accf22
comment
Gainax Ending: The traveler becomes stuck in a timeless and barren place, all alone. ("When Time Stood Still")
 Time (Music) / int_82accf22
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_82accf22
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_82accf22
 Time (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
type
Mood Whiplash
 Time (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
comment
Mood Whiplash: The somber "21st Century Man" and "Epilogue" are separated by "Hold on Tight", a more upbeat and traditional rock-and-roll tune with much more optimistic lyrics.
 Time (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
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 Time (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
 Time (Music) / int_ad5283e1
type
Robot Girl
 Time (Music) / int_ad5283e1
comment
Robot Girl: The android girl in "Yours Truly, 2095". Manufactured by IBM, the latest in technology and comes with a telephone.
 Time (Music) / int_ad5283e1
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1.0
 Time (Music) / int_ad5283e1
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1.0
 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_ad5283e1
 Time (Music) / int_b02f21f
type
Digital Destruction
 Time (Music) / int_b02f21f
comment
Digital Destruction: Due to a mastering error, initial CD releases include a pause between "21st Century Man" and "Hold on Tight", disrupting the intended use of Fading into the Next Song. The 2001 remaster fixes the error, restoring the segue.
 Time (Music) / int_b02f21f
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 Time (Music) / int_b02f21f
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_b02f21f
 Time (Music) / int_db26451e
type
Limited Lyrics Song
 Time (Music) / int_db26451e
comment
Limited Lyrics Song: The only lyrics in "Another Heart Breaks" are the titular phrase.
 Time (Music) / int_db26451e
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 Time (Music) / int_db26451e
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_db26451e
 Time (Music) / int_deb39de3
type
Bad Future
 Time (Music) / int_deb39de3
comment
Bad Future: The year 2095 isn't described in a particularly positive light. There's weather events like meteor showers, prison satellites are a thing, and even the crime and justice system is dominated by computer automation. "The Way Life's Meant to Be" and "Here is the News" describe a lot of plastic in use to imply a flimsy, disposable future.
 Time (Music) / int_deb39de3
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 Time (Music) / int_deb39de3
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_deb39de3
 Time (Music) / int_ea85d6ea
type
All Just a Dream
 Time (Music) / int_ea85d6ea
comment
All Just a Dream: The narrator never went into the future. ("Hold on Tight")
 Time (Music) / int_ea85d6ea
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 Time (Music) / int_ea85d6ea
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_ea85d6ea
 Time (Music) / int_f32d85ab
type
20 Minutes into the Future
 Time (Music) / int_f32d85ab
comment
20 Minutes into the Future: The year is 2095. Among other things, space travel is now a fact of life as are trips to the moon, and automation technology has advanced considerably.
 Time (Music) / int_f32d85ab
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 Time (Music) / int_f32d85ab
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Time (Music) / int_f32d85ab
 Time (Music) / int_f511ea9b
type
Product Placement
 Time (Music) / int_f511ea9b
comment
Product Placement: "Yours Truly, 2095" mentions a Robot Girl manufactured by IBM.
 Time (Music) / int_f511ea9b
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 Time (Music) / int_f511ea9b
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 Time (Music)
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Time (Music) / int_f511ea9b
 Time (Music) / int_f64a9cf7
type
Earn Your Happy Ending
 Time (Music) / int_f64a9cf7
comment
Earn Your Happy Ending: The traveler (as he anticipates in the song) joyfully returns his wife and tells her everything that happened, but she thinks he was only dreaming. ("The Bouncer")
 Time (Music) / int_f64a9cf7
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 Time (Music) / int_f64a9cf7
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Time (Music) / int_f64a9cf7
 Time (Music) / int_name
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ItemName
 Time (Music) / int_name
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 Time (Music) / int_name
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 Time (Music) / int_name
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Time (Music) / int_name
 Time (Music) / int_name
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Time (Music)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Time (Music)
hasFeature
British Music / int_b61ae1c8
 Time (Music)
hasFeature
Epic Instrumental Opener / int_b61ae1c8
 Time (Music)
hasFeature
Mime and Music-Only Cartoon / int_b61ae1c8
 Time (Music)
hasFeature
Progressive Rock / int_b61ae1c8