The Time Machine (album)

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The Time Machine
Studio album by Alan Parsons
Released	September 28, 1999
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	51:50
Label	Miramar
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Alan Parsons chronology
On Air (1996) The Time Machine (1999) A Valid Path (2004)

The Time Machine is the third solo album produced and engineered by Alan Parsons following the split of The Alan Parsons Project. (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 favored 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 Prof. 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. The track list here is from the American release; on the Japanese release, the instrumentals here called 'The Time Machine' are named 'H.G. Force' (a reference to H.G. Wells) and a bonus track titled 'Beginnings' is also included.

[edit] Track listing

1. "H.G. Force (Part 1)" ["The Time Machine (Part 1)" in european version] (instrumental) – 4:54
2. "Temporalia" [with the voice of prof. Frank Close] (instrumental) – 1:00
3. "Out Of The Blue" (lead vocal Tony Hadley backing vocal Chris Rainbow) – 4:54
4. "Call Up" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood) – 5:13
5. "Ignorance Is Bliss" (lead vocal Colin Blunstone backing vocal Chris Rainbow) – 6:45
6. "Rubber Universe" (instrumental) – 3:52
7. "The Call Of The Wild" (lead vocal Máire Brennan) – 5:22
8. "No Future In The Past" (lead vocal Neil Lockwood additional vocals Chris Rainbow, Stuart Elliott) – 4:46
9. "Press Rewind" (lead vocal Graham Dye) – 4:20
10. "The Very Last Time" (lead vocal Beverley Craven backing vocal Ian Bairnson) – 3:42
11. "Far Ago And Long Away" (instrumental) – 5:51
12. "H.G. Force (Part 2)" ["The Time Machine (Part 2)" in european version] (instrumental) – 2:14

bonus track

1. "Beginnings" (instrumental) - 4:31
2. "Dr. Evil Edit" (lead vocal Mike Myers) - 4:31

The title track is heavily influenced by the techno style of Robert Miles, indicating a change in style that would be continued in the next album, A Valid Path. There is also a bonus track, the Dr. Evil Edit featuring the voice of Mike Myers from the second Austin Powers movie, The Spy Who Shagged Me, in which The Alan Parsons Project is mentioned.