•
Rating:
Alan Parsons caught the 90s discopop bug. And so he ruins the evocative instrumental prologue (a classic of his albums) with a club beat. “The Time Machine pt.I” (in the American edition “H.G. Force”) starts the album "The Time Machine" off on the wrong foot.
The general impression is that this time machine is neither fish nor fowl. The album's structure is in the old style of albums like "I Robot", with some psychedelic instrumental tracks and songs between rock and pop. But the tracks in question don't take off, revolving around a pop style with splashes of rock guitars and drums, sometimes ending (as in the case of the title track) being ruined. The lyrics, which are quite evocative and would have more potential, suffer the most. An example of this is “Ignorance is Bliss”.
Where does the album work best?Definitely in “The Call of the Wild”, “Far Ago and Long Away”, “Rubber Universe”. The first is sung, the other two instrumental; here, the experiments and the atmospheres are calibrated with knowledge and alone are worth the purchase of the CD. Secondarily in “Out of the Blue” and “Press Rewind”, two decent songs. And what about “No Future in the Past”, a tribute to the Beach Boys? Not to mention “Dr. Evil Edit”, a bonus track that has little of bonus and a lot of offensive elements (“Alan Parsons Project will destroy Washington DC”???).
In reality, Parsons did not officially compose any tracks, except for the spoken interlude that follows the title track. The main composer here is Ian Bairnson. This might be one of the causes of the sense of incompleteness that "The Time Machine" leaves. Then it should be noted that Parsons started experimenting with new digital technologies and new forms of sound. He will achieve his goal by relying on electronics, a genre much more congenial to him, defined but not too much, with which he brings together the various genres he doses like ingredients in the recipes of his albums. But this only with "A Valid Path" in 2003. "The Time Machine" is practically a transitional album, more or less pleasant to listen to depending on personal taste, but certainly inconsistent. A time travel not without bumps, which in the end does not leave you fully convinced.
The advice in cases like this is the usual: to have if you appreciate Alan Parsons, especially the contemporary Alan Parsons, but without urgency and only after other albums. At the same time, it might appeal more to those who are not crazy about the classic Alan Parsons. After all, time travel has to do with probability.
Loading comments slowly
