Sextet blasts off but remains in orbit
Those who’ve come to love The Apples in Stereo for the band’s colorful, high-energy tunes won’t be disappointed by its seventh studio album. Travellers in Space and Time leans heavily on futuristic kitsch, sporting campy touches like robotic pulses, vocoder sound-scrambling and intermittent directions from a Charlie’s Angels-esque commander.
“Whether you are lying down or seated in a chair, adjust yourself to your most comfortable position,” the British-accented man intones. The songs don’t exactly span the musical solar system, maintaining the same general tempo and flow throughout the fifty-minute ride, but despite its rather static, predictable quality, Travellers managers to take listeners on a journey out of this world, but just barely.