Originally Posted by
Barry
Very ‘70s, all of the Alan Parsons Project’s outputs are superbly recorded and engineered audio extravaganzas, so it is not surprising they were often used as test discs at the audio shows.
I used to own a few: ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination’; ‘The Eye in the Sky’ and ‘Ammonia Avenue’, and they were all LPs with which to show off one’s hi-fi to visitors.
Listening to ‘I Robot’, a recording that had passed me by at the time, I was again reminded of what attracted me to the Alan Parsons Project: interesting subject matter (some of the LPs are conceptual in idea, being based on books); superb recording; superb production; superb musicianship’ and the fun and games of spotting influences.
On hearing the reverse music of the opening track I thought “Ah Soft Machine” and thereafter heard influences of Floyd’s ‘Atom Hart Mother’; Emerson Lake and Palmer, and of the music of Györgi Ligeti.
Despite having intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics, I very much preferred the purely instrumental tracks here – as I do on all the APP records I have heard. Sounding very much of its time, and being a bit of a curate’s egg to my ears, I’m scoring it with an 8/10 – simply because I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. And because of that I re-listened to ‘The Eye in the Sky’ afterwards and wondered why I got rid of the few APP records I used to own!
Good choice Adrian.