History Music / Time

''Time'' is the ninth album by the Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, released in 1981. 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 ''Music/OutOfTheBlue''. Still, it maintains a rather sizeable cult following to this day (particularly among those interested in {{Main/Zeerust}}), and is generally considered to be one of ELO's more spectacular albums.

"Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow, you still wander the fields of your sorrow."

** In "Here Is The News", trade union discontent is rife - ''especially'' in the space travel sector.

* BadFuture: 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.

* LimitedLyricsSong: The only lyrics in "Another Heart Breaks" are the titular phrase.

* RobotGirl: The android girl in "Yours Truly, 2095".

** GainaxEnding: The traveler becomes stuck in a timeless and barren, place all alone. ("When Time Stood Still")

** AllJustADream: The narrator never went into the future.
** BittersweetEnding: The narrator ''did'' go into the future and came back, but his wife has left in the time he was gone.
** DownerEnding: 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.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: 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.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: The lyrics of "Epilogue" quote "21st Century Man", which is a mere two songs before it.

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 Creator/StudioGainax created [[Anime/DaiconIIIAndIV an promotional short]] for the Daicon IV science fiction convention, featuring a girl in a PlayboyBunny 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 UsefulNotes/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, [[RevivalByCommercialization 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.

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 Creator/StudioGainax created [[Anime/DaiconIIIAndIV an promotional short]] for the Daicon IV science fiction convention, featuring a girl in a PlayboyBunny 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", "Time" 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 UsefulNotes/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, [[RevivalByCommercialization 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.

Lastly, there's the unintentional association this album gained with, of all things, the anime fandom. In 1983, what would become Creator/StudioGainax created [[Anime/DaiconIIIAndIV an amateur promotional short]] for the Daicon IV science fiction convention, featuring a PlayboyBunny 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 "Time" off of 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 UsefulNotes/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, [[RevivalByCommercialization 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.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: The lyrics of "Epilogue" quote "21st Century Man", which is a mere two songs away.

* AmbiguousEnding: Given the ShrugOfGod, several possibilities exist:

* BookEnds: The start of "Prologue" and the end of "Epilogue" are certainly similar enough.

Lastly, there's the unintentional association this album gained with, of all things, the anime fandom. In 1983, what would become Creator/StudioGainax created an amateur promotional short for the Daicon IV science fiction convention, featuring a PlayboyBunny 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 "Time" off of 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 UsefulNotes/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, [[RevivalByCommercialization 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.

** In "Here Is The News", trade unions are rife - ''especially'' in the space travel sector.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"I only meant to stay a while.'']]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elo_time.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''With your head held high and your scarlet lies, you came down to me from the open skies.'']]

The story of ELO's second ConceptAlbum is about someone from TheEighties who is magically whisked TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture - specifically, the year 2095. Things look interesting... [[OhCrap but then he realises]] that he's unable to go back. [[FishOutOfTemporalWater He's there to stay.]] It turns out he's committed an AccidentalTimeTravel, and before long he starts suffering from a constant NostalgiaFilter that nearly all of the album's lyrics go into detail about. And then things go FromBadToWorse; 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 [[ConceptAlbum Concept Albums]] to have TimeTravel as its main plot point. Thirdly, the album is widely considered to be a TropeCodifier for a lot of TimeTravel tropes, in particular the aforementioned AccidentalTimeTravel and FishOutOfTemporalWater ones.

[[AC: Side One]]

# “Prologue” (1:15)
# “Twilight” (3:35)
# “Yours Truly, 2095” (3:15)
# “Ticket to the Moon” (4:06)

[[AC: Side Two]]

# “Rain Is Falling” (3:54)

[[AC: Bonus Tracks]]

''Time'' is the ninth album by the Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, released in 1981. 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 {{Main/Zeerust}}), and is generally considered to be one of ELO's more spectacular albums.

* DownerEnding: The narrator is pretty much trapped in the future forever, so they won't be able to see anyone that was close to them in the past ever again.
-->''Though you ride on the wheels of tomorrow,''
-->''You still wander in the fields of your sorrow.''

* {{Main/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.''