CD Odyssey Disc 764: The Alan Parsons Project

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:

1. Tales of Mystery and Imagination: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 409)
2. I, Robot: 2 stars (reviewed back at Disc 97)
3. 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 

CD Odyssey Disc 409: The Alan Parsons Project

I’m pulling an early shift at work this week, and the combination of not feeling 100% healthy and the odd hours leaves me feeling strange and fuzzy-headed.  This is perhaps the best frame of mind for this next review, though.

Disc 409 is…Tales of Mystery and Imagination:  Edgar Allan Poe

Artist: The Alan Parsons Project

Year of Release: 1976

What’s up with the Cover?  A pretty cool cover.  It has that old and leathery manuscript feel, and combined with the line drawing and inset photo of someone wrapped head to toe in tape, captures the creepy world of Edgar Allan Poe perfectly.  Then, separating the album title is a futuristic picture of pillars and a plain stretching away that looks like it was drawn with painstaking care on a very primitive computer, which captures the bizarre synth world of the Allan Parsons Project perfectly.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila put me on to this album, after it was introduced to her by a coworker who knew that I enjoyed concept albums.  I had never heard of it prior to that point, although I obviously knew who the Alan Parsons Project were from their one hit, “Eye In the Sky.”  That song does not appear here.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three Allan Parsons Project albums, and they are all pretty strange.  I’d say this one is the second best, although I like all of them in their own way.

Rating: 2 stars.

“Tales of Mystery and Imagination:  Edgar Allan Poe” (mercifully referred to from here in as “Tales”) is the kind of big beautiful mess that could never happen in the modern record industry, and this knowledge leaves me both relieved and sad.

The album is the creation of prog/concept rockers, the Alan Parsons Project, a group of studio musician types and producers that came together to basically compose whatever the hell they wanted, at a time when the music industry indulged that sort of thing.

Later these guys would be heavily driven by synthesizers, and although it is only 1976, they gamely work early synth into these tracks as well as liberally altered piano and string arrangements.  They use these instruments to try to evoke the fantastic and disturbing tales of 19^th century writer Edgar Allan Poe, and the whole album is a series of songs that reinterpret various Poe stories to music.

The music is a prototype of their later eighties synth sound, and well ‘ahead’ of what else was going on in 1976 in terms of its smooth and seamless production.  Most rock musicians wouldn’t be doing this sort of thing until 1981 or 1982, with ethereal guitar mixed with synth piano and those high, airy rock vocals that strangely passed for manly in the day.

The whole album has a sort of eighties soundtrack feel which is well put together, but out of place with the subject matter.  It reminded me strongly of watching that old eighties fantasy film “Ladyhawke” starring Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.  The movies was a film that took place in the middle ages, but every time a scene called for a little evocative music, the score sounded like some kid messing around with the beat function on his Casio keyboard.

“Tales” is not quite so bad, and if anything it is a marvel that the Alan Parson Project (mercifully to be called APP from here in) is able to capture 19^th century Gothic horror at all with this style of music.  Yet they do it, especially in the quiet moments where they rely on the strings and piano to do their work without excess interference.

The problem with those moments is that it is just like listening to a good movie score, only without the benefit of the movie.  When the songs are jazzed up a bit with some proto-disco beats and synth they sound a lot more interesting, but are now desperately out of place with their subject  matter.

I’ll give the APP some credit though, when they come up with an idea, they stick with it faithfully.  They throw every dreary, mood-inducing sound they can throw into these songs, including rain, thunder and on two separate occasions, long narrated passages from Orson freakin’ Welles.  In one of these Welles goes on at length quoting Poe (I think) discussing the relationship between music and poetry.  As an avowed music geek I was a little embarrassed by how much I enjoyed that part.

The APP boys cover a good run of Poe tales, including songs based on favourites like “The Raven”, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “the Cask of Amontillado” and “the Fall of the House of Usher.”  Regrettably they skip one of my favourite stories, “Berenice” which is about the guy who murders his wife but keeps her pretty white teeth in a box rattling around to remind him of her.  If ever a story called for some piano synth this would be it.

“The Raven” is by far the best track, which begins in glorious anachronistic fashion with synth-altered voice singing lines from the poem, and then transforms into a prog rock song filled with organ and odd drum beats, and big, atmospheric guitar sounds that Pink Floyd themselves might not have thought to come up with.  In addition to being beautifully weird, “The Raven” is easy on the ears – even enjoyable.

Not so, “The Tell-Tale Heart” which sounds like something out of Phantom of the Opera crossed with the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I have no doubt APP band members had seen a few times.  Although it could be catchy, “The Tell-Tale Heart” sounds too much like a character singing dialogue in a stage play for me to enjoy it.

Better is the “Cask of Amontillado” which retells the Poe classic about a man who murders his rival by walling him up in the basement, on the pretext of sharing a cask of wine with him.  Poe keeps the tale of murder worse through the distant and gleeful tone the narrator employs in retelling it.  The APP use slow-paced high harmonies of both the narrator and the tearful pleas of his victim, Fortunado, played against occasional frantic violin sets to accomplish the same thing.  It is more music for music nerds, yes, but that doesn’t make it bad.

The fourth stand-alone song is “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” is based on a story I was unfamiliar with, and the song is one I wish I were still unfamiliar with.  The music sounds like a combination of Pink Floyd guitar, the Beatles at their silliest and a Pepsi commercial jingle.

The latter half of the album sees the APP boys go all the way down into the rabbit hole, with “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a twenty minute instrumental geek fest with five movements, including such classically named silliness as “III:  Intermezzo.”  This song is a huge mess of classical constructions, synthesized production layering and what seems like a hundred instruments.  The worst part about it is that I kind of liked it.  Not so much to say it was a “best tracks” moment, but enough to be embarrassed that I was drawn in by the APP’s weird, wonderful, inspirational effort.

This album is not for everyone, but if you like to be challenged by musicians who aren’t afraid to take an idea and run a weird marathon with it, then it’s worth a listen.

Best tracks:  The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado.

CD Odyssey Disc 97: The Alan Parsons Project

Back at Disc 70, I reviewed ELO's Time, and said that it was a:

"unique blend of pop music, sci fi imaginings, a cohesive album concept and not a small amount of disco. You'll likely never see that again. Er...on second thought, The Alan Parsons Project's "I Robot", also gets a tick in all those boxes, but that is for another review."

Well, here is that other review.

Disc 97 is...I Robot
Artist: The Alan Parsons Project

Year of Release: 1977

How I Came To Know It: Hey - who doesn't know "Eye In The Sky"? No - that song is not on this album. This album is me drilling after getting another APP album. That album also did not have "Eye In the Sky" I think Sheila rekindled my interest in this band after decades of dormancy, sometime about 4 years ago. I've only had "I Robot" for a couple years, though.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Alan Parsons Project (APP) albums - each more ridiculous than the last. I'd put this one probably last, but it has its moments. Also it is better than the fourth APP album I bought, "The Turn of a Friendly Card". That album was so bad I sold it.

Rating: 2 stars, but definitely a guilty pleasure.

APP really stuck their necks out on this record, and went in a whole new direction - a heavily synthed concept album about some weird otherworldly themes.

Just kidding - APP always sings about that kind of stuff. You should hear their homage to Edgar Allan Poe's work - my first foray courtesy of Sheila. I'd love to talk about that album, but that's for another review.

For this one, APP decides to take on sci fi, and the story of "I Robot." I don't know how truthful they remain to the original Asimov story of the same name, since I haven't read it. My only frame of reference is the recent movie adaptation starring Wil Smith (which I liked).

APP sums up "I Robot" in their liner notes with the following:

"The story of the rise of the machine and the decline of man, which paradoxically coincided with his discovery of the wheel...and a warning that his brief dominance of this planet will probably end, because man tried to creat robot in his own image."

As liner notes go, that is a pretty cool one in my books.

As I noted earlier, the album musically is heavy with synthesizers and futuristic sounds - mixed up with that pervasive disco groove that was in a lot of late seventies pop.

I personally think the combination is pretty avant garde for the music scene in 1977, and for the most part it works. The instrument-only tracks (there are a few) are a bit too similar to soundtracks, and can easily fade into the background without keeping your active attention. However, they do provide a continuity of mood to the album, which is important to maintain in any concept album.

Of the "singles" (or what passes for a single on a seventies concept album), I like a few, but they don't blow me away. If the album had a few more high points, I think it would earn 3 stars, but as it is, I couldn't do it.

My favourite track is "Don't Let It Show" which was remade two years later on Pat Benatar's "In The Heat of the Night" album. APP does a good job, but I do prefer the Pat Benatar version. Also, Pat is way better looking. APP is another example of video killing the radio star.

So if you like sci fi concept albums based on short stories written 60 years ago, then this album is for you. And me. It is a guilty pleasure, and I'm guilty.

Best tracks: I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You, Don't Let It Show, Breakdown.