TIME TO TURN

People seem to be divided over which of the two thematically connected albums, Planets and Time To Turn, is the best one. For me there is no doubt, Time To Turn is my favourite Eloy album full stop and, in my opinion, the peak of the band's career. Planets and Time To Turn were originally intended to form one double album, but the record company managed to persuade the band into making two separate single albums instead. This was probably a wise decision even if I admit that it would have been interesting to hear what might have turned out had they made it a double album. Just hearing the two albums back to back as they now are, however, reveals that they do not quite sound like two halves of a double album. When comparing the two like this, one notices that Time To Turn has a somewhat more powerful sound and a bit more punch. Though both albums are rather keyboard dominated, Planets was even more so and the guitars make a welcome return here and the perfect balance between guitars and keyboards is achieved. There is a very appealing variation in the keyboard sounds. The palette of sounds used is impressive. The keyboards on End Of An Odyssey, for example, remind me a lot of those on Camel's Moonmadness.

The songs on Time To Turn are among the strongest and most memorable that the band has ever produced. Frank Bornemann sounds more confident in the vocal department than he ever did and his German accent is less of a problem here than on most other Eloy albums. The compositions blend elements from Symphonic Prog and Eloy's previous more Psychedelic, spacy style to great effect. There is a sense of urgency in the music of this album that I have found somewhat lacking in some other works by Eloy. They songs don't waste time but moves through its various passages in a solid pace.

There is such a good flow to this album that it is hard to differentiate the evaluations of the individual songs. The album works best as an organic unity where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The title track was released as a single at the time and has recently been re-recorded for the very good Visionary album under the new title The Challenge (Time To Turn, part 2) and even this new version has recently been released as a single. The closing number stands out as it is an acoustic song in the style of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here - a great way to end the album.

Eloy's best, a strong four stars!

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