A YEAR IN MUSIC: ELOY - Time to Turn (1982)

A YEAR IN MUSIC: 1982
Review by: Alex Alex

Time to Turn released by a German band Eloy in 1982 is the last “true” Eloy album. Indeed, the last song on it, noticeably named “Say, Is It Really True?”, gives an impression of someone awakening from a long dream, so sad and completely un-Eloyish it sounds.

Never reaching the magic of the previous year’s Planets, Time to Turn though works perfectly as the continuation of it. The songs are much shorter, much lighter, much poppier, yet they are all unmistakably Eloy, brewed by the secret recipe which even the band itself completely lost the following year and was never able to find again.

The title song “Time to Turn” is one of a better-known Eloy hits. It can remind somewhat of Pink Floyd, as many other Eloy numbers do. However, as Eloy themselves once put it, there is nothing especially bad in that comparison – Eloy sounding like Pink Floyd is perfectly fine for Pink Floyd could never sound like Eloy.

Overall, for those preferring the “space-rock” Eloy era this album is indispensable. It is best listened right after the “Planets” and knowing the two might be enough for an occasional passer-by. You may then travel back in time and listen to, perhaps more majestic, “Dawn” and “Ocean” or to, somewhat untypical, “Colours”, but those would be very different. Or, out of curiosity you may listen to the 1983’s “Performance” and become speechless seeing how the group inexplicably lost everything in just one year.