The Time Machine (Alan Parsons album)

The Time Machine

Studio album by Alan Parsons

Released

28 September 1999

Genre

Progressive rock

Length

51:50

Alan Parsons chronology

On Air
(1996)

The Time Machine
(1999)

A Valid Path
(2004)

Singles from The Time Machine

"Out of the Blue"
Released: September 1999
"The Very Last Time"
Released: 1999
"The Time Machine"
Released: 2000

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Allmusic

The Time Machine is the third solo album produced and engineered by Alan Parsons following the split of The Alan Parsons Project.

While the sound of this album is recognizably similar in style to some of the soft, ethereal tracks from certain Alan Parsons Project albums, it is noteworthy that none of the writing or performance credits in the sleeve notes (of the CD edition) go to Alan Parsons, except for one short and simple instrumental part on "Temporalia", and that the album lacks much of the rock edge of the previous albums; his relation to the album is almost exclusively as producer. "The Time Machine" (Parts 1 and 2) are in a similar style to that of Robert Miles's first album Dreamland, and not to other Alan Parsons instrumental tracks or the rest of this album.

The track list here is from the North American release; on the Japanese release, the instrumental here called "The Time Machine," is named "H.G. Force" (a reference to H.G. Wells) and a bonus track titled "Beginnings" is also included.

The themes of time, time travel, and memory of the past had been suggested by Parsons as subject matter for the second Alan Parsons Project album, but writing partner Eric Woolfson favoured a purely futuristic theme of robotic beings eventually displacing the human race, which eventually resulted in the album I Robot.

"Temporalia" features a narration by professor Frank Close on the idea of the universe itself acting as a sort of time machine, whilst "Press Rewind" ponders what we might do if we were able to reverse time, and change decisions we have made. The track "The Call of the Wild" is notable for featuring the vocal talent of Máire Brennan from Clannad with lyrics and music by Ian Bairnson.

The album cover has several images related to time and popular time-travel icons, including a photography camera, a clock mechanism, a police box as a reference to the TARDIS in Doctor Who, as well as a wormhole-like tunnel effect from the opening sequence; a DeLorean DMC-12 sportscar referring to the Back to the Future series; and a child playing with a model ship from the Star Trek franchise.

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Wikipedia