''The Time Machine'' is the third solo album by English rock musician

Alan Parsons Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Parsons was the sound engineer on albums including the Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' (1969) and '' Let It Be'' (1970), Pink Floyd's ''The ...

. While the sound of this album is similar to some of the soft, ethereal tracks by

the Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock music, rock duo formed in London in 1975. Its core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared w ...

, none of the writing or performance credits in the sleeve notes go to Alan Parsons, except for one short and simple instrumental part on "Temporalia" (the other instrumentals were written by drummer Stuart Elliott and guitarist Ian Bairnson), the Japanese bonus track "Beginnings" which also features his voice, and organ on "No Future in the Past"; his relation to the album is almost exclusively as producer.

Concept

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 Eric Norman Woolfson (18 March 1945 – 2 December 2009) was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of the band the Alan Parsons Project, who sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Woolfson also p ...

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; this is an extract of "Equinox – The Rubber Universe" (a film directed by

Storm Thorgerson Storm Elvin Thorgerson (28 February 1944 – 18 April 2013) was an English art director and music video director. He is best known for closely working with the group Pink Floyd through most of their career, and also created album or other art f ...

and with background music by Parsons). "Press Rewind" ponders what a person might do if they were able to reverse time, and change decisions they had made. "Out of the Blue" relates to a time traveller from the future. "Call Up" is about great people from history and, according to Ian Bairnson, "the effect they would have on the World right now, if they were here". "Ignorance Is Bliss" talks about how sad people are in comparison to ancient and simpler times, and the possibility of change for good to a simple way of life. "Rubber Universe" is named after the aforementioned film about the expansion of the universe and the search for the

Hubble constant Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faste ...

. "The Call of the Wild" talks about a future when mankind will be one without any separation (ethnicities, faith, nations, etc.). The melody of this song is a variation of the traditional Irish folk song " She Moves Through the Fair". "No Future in the Past" talks about avoiding repeating past mistakes. "The Very Last Time" is a song about people that have gone and never been seen again. The song was written about Bairnson's recently deceased dog, Gemma. "Far Ago and Long Away" is a play on words, as in relativity space = time, so "far away" = "far ago" and "long ago" = "long away". The album cover has several images related to time and popular time-travel icons, including a photography camera, a clock mechanism, a

police box A police box is a public telephone kiosk or callbox for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police. It was used in some countries, most widely in the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century from th ...

as a reference to the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

in ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', a wormhole-like tunnel effect from the opening sequence, a DeLorean sports car referring to the ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...

'' series, and a child playing with a model ship from the ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' franchise.

Video promo

The video promo of "The Time Machine" was completely made (3D modeling, animation and rendering) by

Ben Liebrand Ben Liebrand (; born 27 September 1960) is a Dutch dance music disc jockey, DJ and remixer. He has record producer, produced for artists such as Forrest (singer), Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Alexander O ...

and was released on 1 September 1999. It includes two designs created by

(

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group, based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black S ...

UK) and translated by Liebrand into a 3D composition. He made everything in four weeks using Softimage 3D Extreme.

Track listing

#"The Time Machine (Part 1)" ( Stuart Elliott) – instrumental – 4:54 #"Temporalia" (Parsons) – instrumental with narration by Professor Frank Close – 1:00 #"Out of the Blue" (Bairnson) – lead vocal Tony Hadley – 4:54 #"Call Up" (Bairnson) – lead vocal Neil Lockwood – 5:13 #"Ignorance Is Bliss" (Bairnson) – lead vocal

Colin Blunstone Colin Edward Michael Blunstone (born 24 June 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Blunstone came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band the Zombies, which rel ...

– 6:45 #"Rubber Universe" (Bairnson) – instrumental – 3:52 #"The Call of the Wild" (Bairnson) – lead vocal

Máire Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

– 5:22 #"No Future in the Past" (Elliott) – lead vocal Neil Lockwood – 4:46 #"Press Rewind" (Elliott) – lead vocal Graham Dye – 4:20 #"The Very Last Time" (Bairnson) – lead vocal Beverley Craven – 3:42 #"Far Ago and Long Away" (Bairnson) – instrumental – 5:14 #"The Time Machine (Part 2)" (Elliott) – instrumental – 1:47 Bonus tracks #

"Beginnings" (Elliott/Parsons) – instrumental with narration by Alan Parsons – 4:31 #

"Dr. Evil" (edit) – instrumental with the voice of

Mike Myers Michael John Myers, (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood W ...

– 3:23 On the Japanese release, "The Time Machine" is named "H.G. Force" (a reference to

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

). "Dr. Evil" (edit) is a remix of "The Time Machine" that features the voice of

from the second Austin Powers movie, '' The Spy Who Shagged Me'', in which

is mentioned. It is available on most releases which feature a bonus track. The title track was also released as a single with more remix variants. "Beginnings" is available only on the Japanese release, which does not include the "Dr. Evil" remix.

Personnel

– keyboards, organ, composer, engineer, producer, narration on "Beginnings" *

Ian Bairnson John "Ian" Bairnson (3 August 1953 – 7 April 2023) was a Scottish musician and member of Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project. He was a multi-instrumentalist, who played saxophone and keyboards, but mainly performed as a guitarist, which he pl ...

– guitars, mandolin, bass, keyboards, saxophone, backing vocals, composer * Stuart Elliott – drums, drum programming, percussion, keyboards, keyboard programming, orchestral arrangement, composer * Richard Cottle – keyboards, additional keyboards * Robyn Smith – keyboards, piano *

John Giblin John Giblin (26 February 1952 – 14 May 2023) was a Scottish musician who worked as an acoustic and electric bass player spanning jazz, classical, rock, folk, and avant-garde music. He was a member of Simple Minds from 1985 to 1988, and w ...

– bass guitar * Kathryn Tickell – bagpipes, Northumbrian pipes on "The Call of the Wild" * Julian Sutton – melodeon on "The Call of the Wild" * Claire Orsler – viola on "The Very Last Time" * Jackie Norrie, Julia Singleton – violin on "The Very Last Time" * The Philharmonia Orchestra – strings, brass, horns * Clio Gould – orchestra leader *

Andrew Powell Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is a British musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He moved to Wales in 2003. Early life Powell was born in Surrey, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and later atte ...

– orchestral arrangement and conductor * Tony Hadley, Neil Lockwood,

Moya Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

, Beverley Craven, Graham Dye,

Chris Rainbow Christopher James Harley, known by the stage name Chris Rainbow (18 November 1946 – 22 February 2015), was a Scottish pop rock singer and musician whose songs "Give Me What I Cry For" and "Solid State Brain" were often played by British radio ...

– lead vocals * Chris Rainbow, Stuart Elliott – backing vocals * Frank Close – narration on "Temporalia"

Charts

References

* Personnel: https://www.discogs.com/fr/Alan-Parsons-The-Time-Machine/release/492948

External links

''The Time Machine''
at Ian Bairson Official Site {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Machine, The Alan Parsons albums 1999 albums Albums with cover art by Storm Thorgerson Philharmonia Orchestra albums