‘Time Passages’ marks the end of Al Stewart’s golden period, but it’s another classic album by him. Actually I slightly prefer ‘Time Passages’ to its predecessor, mainly because I find it more melancholic. It also resonates a bit deeper emotionally with me than ‘Year of the Cat’. The title track, which opens the album, was a big hit for him. It features lovely and timeless (!) melodies, and never fails to get me in a good mood. Of course, this song (and the album for that matter) is totally late 70’s-sounding, with its slick production and the obligatory sax solos, but I kind of like that – at least when the songwriting is rock solid as this. The album also, thankfully, features some great folky songs – not at least ‘Lucy’. This is an underrated gem in his catalogue, for sure. Here, Al Stewart is back as a folk rock troubadour. Other acoustic gems are ‘A Man For All Seasons’, ‘Timeless Skies’ and the utterly romantic closer ‘End of The Day’. The most catchy song (besides the epic title track) is ‘Song On The Radio’. Some might find it a bit too cheesy sounding, but personally I have always loved it. It’s just something about Mr. Stewart’s vocal delivery combined with the slick but wonderful melodies that ‘gets’ me every time. There are also a couple of darker songs here, namely ‘Palace of Versailles’ and especially ‘Life Under Water’. These are both more rock oriented, and feature fantastic guitar work. So this album comes highly reccommended, even though you won’t find much folk here. But it’s all very atmospheric, and none of the songs are bad. What he did after this album is reserved for completists, I would say. But from 1968-78 he was a fantastic and utterly unique singer/songwriter – first in a very folky vein, and after that more soft rock oriented, but the consistently high level of craftmanship from this artist up until the 80’s simply cannot be denied.
Al Stewart – Time Passages (RCA Victor 1978)
