Review of Relax Listen In Time album by Relax Listen

I have always been fascinated by any aspect of time, particularly the concept of time travel. I have seen countless films relating to time, but never heard an album of music devoted to it, so it was interesting to me to review the album “Relax Listen in Time” by Relax Listen:

The album begins with “At Present” which is the here and now for the individual listening to the album, it has a pleasant melody and beat.

“Change Clocks” follows nicely on from “At Present” and is about the perceived power to alter time.

“A Unit of Time” is an original idea for a track, based on the principle of the historical and cultural base unit of time is a second which is multiplied by 60 to make a minute then the minute is multiplied by 60 to make an hour which is multiplied by 24 to make a day or there are 86,400 seconds in a day.

Track 4 is the interestingly titled “Lapsed in the past”. “The Clock” is the first track to use a ticking clock as a metronome (a device that produces a steady pulse to help musicians play in time).

“Fall Back” has a cool, swinging beat to it which very appropriately fits the mnemonic “Spring Forward, Fall back”, which is the way I actually remember which way to move the clocks in March and October myself.

“Soul Tree" is described as “a place to hang your hopes and dreams”. I particularly like the sound of the piano in the background on this.
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“Last Tuesday” - Relax Listen give food for thought with the question, “ if we are in the middle of the week and I want to refer to a day just passed in the same week, such as the case in the title, would I still say, for example, last Tuesday? Or would that mean the Tuesday before the one I mean?

As with “Last Tuesday”, we have much to ponder with this track as “time is regarded as the 4th Dimension because in relativity, we have to include the time coordinate in describing events fully in space along with the time, called the space-time coordinate or spiritually it is the level where pleasure is mild and taken for granted for the first time.”

“Again in good time” - this is one of my favourite tracks on the album. It is very slightly reminiscent to me of the “Stranger Things” theme, but is actually a re-working of the track “in good time” which was originally released as a part of the Relax Listen album “Gallery (a collection of pictures) in 2010. It also features a ticking clock to keep time.

The track “Remission” is about a state of period during which something is remitted, cancelled or refrained from and could sum up lockdown for people.

“Tic Toc” is phonetic respelling of the Tick Tock of a clock and is an interesting lively track.

“Not enough hours” is about the concept a lot of people can relate to that sometimes there are not enough hours in a day to get things done.

“Time” is actually my favourite track of the album. It is highly original and features a speaking clocks voice (belonging to the now deceased actor Brian Cobby), and maniacal laughter provided by a younger version of Andy Hubble (Relax Listen). It was recorded before the millennium and never released up until now. The technology used to record this track was the first of its kind on the market and features an Akai S612 sampler and a Yamaha DX7 synth, cutting edge for the time. It is a very fitting way to round off this unique album.    Karen Hill