After two straight nights in the
gym I’m already feeling the stress of life fade into a manageable shadow in the
background. Eat right, exercise and get some sleep and life suddenly becomes a
whole lot more wonderful. Also, feed the writing bug. For the second straight
night, I’m doing that as well.
Disc 764 is….Eye in the Sky
Artist: The Alan Parsons
Project
Year of Release: 1982
What’s up with the Cover? A gold Egyptian eye on a seafoam green background. Sometimes simple
works and this is one of those times. Or am I just too afraid of Horus to say
anything bad about this cover?
How I Came To Know It: For the second straight review,
the title track of the album was a hit and drew me to the album. I didn’t own
this in 1982 but I bought the CD about ten years or so ago when I was dabbling
in all things Alan Parsons Project.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Alan Parsons Project
albums. I had expected this one to be the best of them all, but minus the title
track it is pretty weak, so I’m going to bump it down to last. Since this is my
last APP review, here is the full list:
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination: 2
stars (reviewed back at Disc 409)
- I, Robot: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 97)
- Eye in the Sky: 2 stars (reviewed right
here)
Ratings: 2 stars
How I wish I didn’t love this album’s title track so
much; it would make it so much easier to get rid of this synth-driven, yacht rock,
geek fest.
For year’s Alan Parsons Project had been fuelled by
their dual loves of pop anthems and geeky literary interests, fusing them into
concept albums that are weird and wonderful, even if you don’t put them on all
that often.
“Tales of Mystery and Suspense” is a love letter to
the works of Edgar Allan Poe, complete with a multi-song epic dedicated to “The
Fall of the House of Usher.” “I, Robot” is a geek frenzy dedicated to Isaac Asimov
and his laws of robotics. Even “The Turn of a Friendly Card” (which I sold) was
an entire album dedicated to a card game. In short, these guys are so uncool
they are cool.
Sadly, “Eye in the Sky” has none of the cohesiveness
of these earlier albums. There are explorations of communication issues, and a
general sense of space that is reinforced by the profligate use of early
eighties synth all over the record but it doesn’t go any deeper than that.
Instead you get the layers stripped away and you see
these two studio engineers having a fun time composing songs that would make a
pretty nifty backdrop to some eighties sci fi film, but is pretty hard to
listen to without an accompanying story. If I want a bunch of crazy synth music
that is vaguely emotive, I’ll put on a John Carpenter soundtrack, and at least get
a cool film at the same time.
The music works for stadium anthems, and our local
hockey team uses “Sirius” when they
take the ice. Even this has been spoiled for me since the local team is the
Victoria Royals, which before they moved were the Chilliwack Bruins. As a Boston
Bruins fan I was pretty chuffed at the idea of getting a team that would
essentially have the same jersey and colours, and just a different letter on
their crest. Instead, the whole team name got changed. When I go to Royals
games I wear a Bruins jersey and I cheer “Go Bruins!” when we score. Yes, I am
that asshole.
But I digress…
Back to this record, which has the most beautiful
title track. “Eye in the Sky” is a
classic yacht rock pop song, smooth and energized. This is a song that makes
you want to sing along as you drive a convertible down some seaside road. Although
the lyrics are creepy (who is this eye in the sky, looking at me and reading my
mind?) it always feels so relaxed it doesn’t bother me. The worse thing about
this song is that I like it so much I might just keep this damned record as a
result.
And let’s be clear, if it weren’t for this song this
album would be gone. Not because it is horrible – it isn’t. In fact, the songs
are beautifully constructed by some guys who clearly understand how to write
and produce a song. If anything they are too good at it – the music is so
smooth and inoffensive that it fails to hold my attention. It is probably the greatest elevator
music ever made. If you heard it as part of an early eighties movie (if not a space
opera, I could see it backing a film about bicycle couriers) then it would be
great.
As a straight up album though, it just bores the
crap out of me.
Best
tracks: Eye in
the Sky
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