Modern Times, though less calculated in its structure than Al Stewart's previous Past, Present and Future, is also a gloomy concept album, its eight songs contemporary tableaux whose characters are propelled toward self-destruction. One of Stewart's stumbling blocks is the task of making his lengthy narratives tuneful. The two in which he succeeds best are "Carol," the portrait of a promiscuous, cocaine-loving scenemaker, and "What's Going On," a description of her male counterpart, formerly "Mr. Natural," now a glittered up male groupie. The eight-minute title cut, which formalizes Stewart's song cycle, tells of two friends meeting each other in New York after 15 years' separation. The one who became a hippie world traveler declares cryptically: "I've got no use for the tricks of modern times/They tangle all my thoughts like ivy." Throughout the cycle, Stewart runs the risk of intellectual condescension. He is highly articulate; his characters aren't. Yet Stewart's sympathy and concern for them seem genuine, and in his descriptions of urban desolation—verbal equivalents of images from Antonioni films—Stewart sounds almost as depressed and confused as they do. Though I prefer more spontaneity, simplicity and vulgarity in songwriting than Al Stewart allows, I admire Stewart for his studiousness. (RS 188)

STEPHEN HOLDEN