Categories
1980 2008 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – The Turn Of A Friendly Card (remastered)

3 min read

Order this CDInspired by the thrills and occasional lose-it-all spills of gambling, The Turn Of A Friendly Card was a turning point for the Alan Parsons Project, turning the band from a strictly underground but well-respected prog rock act known for intricately produced concept albums to a group that actually made a dent on the mainstream charts. For whatever reason, “Time” and “Games People Play” both made an impact far beyond the Project’s usual fan base, creating the anticipation that helped to fuel the meteoric rise of Eye In The Sky (as both album and song).

As usual, the album we’re all accustomed to is remastered nicely, and Turn also boasts, hands-down, the best bonus tracks of this second wave of Project reissues. A lot of the attention on the bonus tracks is lavished on the song “Nothing Left To Lose”, which was, along with the hit single “Time”, one of the first two Project tunes with a lead vocal by Eric Woolfson. “Nothing” is heard in an early instrumental mix, a demo mix with Woolfson’s vocal and a rough synth attempt at the song’s accordian solo, and – the real treat – the multi-tracked backing vocal magic of Chris Rainbow with everything else mixed down. That selection is particularly impressive because the background vocals were literally all just one guy, and it’s beautiful stuff.

The other gem of the bonus material is an alternate take of “Games People Play”, with a slightly different take on the vocals by Lenny Zakatek and a slightly different approach to the percussion (the liner notes booklet even mentions the infamous Christopher Walken “more cowbell!” sketch from Saturday Night Live here). The song isn’t madly different, but it’s neat to hear a slightly altered version of it. “Time” is included as an instrumental, along with an early demo of “The Gold Bug” instrumental. Also rescued from the demo heap is the first attempt at the intro from “May Be A Price To Pay”, which is actually longer in this form and starts to approach the kind of complexity more listeners would associate to the echoplexed keyboards of “Mammagamma”. The bonus material on this album is great listening in and of itself, and though the entire series of Project remasters has promised to bring us rough mixes, alternate takes and other material to let you 3 out of 4hear the evolution of the songs, Friendly Card may be the remastered album that comes closest to fulfilling that promise.

Highly recommended for fans of the Alan Parsons Project, though there may even be some interest in the bonus material for more casual listeners as well.

  1. May Be A Price To Pay (5:01)
  2. Games People Play (4:23)
  3. Time (5:09)
  4. I Don’t Wanna Go Home (4:59)
  5. The Gold Bug (4:32)
  6. The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part I) (2:43)
  7. Snake Eyes (3:17)
  8. The Ace Of Swords (2:58)
  9. Nothing Left To Lose (4:07)
  10. The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part II) (3:31)
  11. May Be A Price To Pay (intro demo) (1:32)
  12. Nothing Left To Lose (instrumental backing track) (4:37)
  13. Nothing Left To Lose (Chris Rainbow vocal overdub compilation) (2:01)
  14. Nothing Left To Lose (early studio version with Eric’s guide vocal) (3:11)
  15. Time (early studio attempt – instrumental) (4:42)
  16. Games People Play (rough mix) (4:32)
  17. The Gold Bug (demo) (2:50)

Released by: Sony / Legacy
Release date: 2008 (original album released in 1980)
Total running time: 64:05

Read more
Categories
1978 2008 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid (remastered)

5 min read

Order this CDThough I reviewed the original release of this album quite a while back, this is the remastered and expanded version issued by Sony after its acquisition of the Arista back catalog. Over the years I’ve waffled a bit on what my favorite Alan Parsons Project albums are, but Pyramid and Eve are the two I keep coming back to, because the melding of theme/concept and music are just about perfect. In its remastered form, Pyramid is quite literally loud and clear, though it’s worth noting that I really didn’t have any complaints about the album in its original form. The remaster adds some alternate takes and backing-track-only mixes – essentially, the musical equivalent of DVD deleted scenes – of ther material that’s already available. There aren’t any unreleased tracks from the Pyramid sessions – or at least, not any that anybody wanted to put on this CD.

The original album tracks have aged gracefully, and if anything – at least to my ears – Pyramid has only gained potency with time. The album’s theme, concerning itself with human mortality and the idea of attempting to attain immortality through what one leaves behind, was quite clearly on display when I first heard Pyramid as a teenager, but with the benefit of 20+ years to think on those topics and to revisit the music, it’s more meaningful now. The entirety of Pyramid is one of the most cohesive concept albums I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, and even with the grandiose, sprawling cinematic arrangements, not a note is wasted. “What Goes Up…” remains one of the Project’s all-time best tunes, while I’ve grown to appreciate “Can’t Take It With You” and “One More River” more as the years have gone by. This is a Concept Album with a capital C and a capital A, an organic entity that needs to be heard all in one sitting, despite most of its individual songs being strong enough to stand alone.

The bonus tracks kick off with a lengthy instrumental suite spanning much of the first side of the album (for those who are old enough to think in terms of albums having “sides,” that is), giving you a clearer listen at the intricate arrangements of “What Goes Up…” and “The Eagle Will Rise Again”. The latter is gorgeous even in instrumental form, with Chris Rainbow’s overdubbed-and-overdubbed-again background harmonies being especially worthy of praise. A frequent collaborator with the Project, he often built the entire backing vocals himself, though his contributions have remained largely – if you’ll forgive the awful pun – unsung by many fans and music historians.

A very early demo version of “Voyager” is paired with “Little Voices”, a song that underwent a major reworking to become “What Goes Up…”; you can hear Eric Woolfson experimenting with many of the melodic and harmonic twists and turns that would eventually feature in “What Goes Up…”, as well as messing around with still only vaguely formed lyrics that clearly were in their infancy. Another early demo shows the early evolution of the instrumental “Hyper-Gamma-Spaces”, though the churning background synth line that became that song’s trademark is completely absent, this demo concentrating instead on the main synth melody. A demo and an orchestra-free backing track show the evolution of the epic instrumental “In The Lap Of The Gods”, which always seemed like a soundtrack cue sitting around waiting for a movie to happen.

If there’s a jaw-dropping shocker in Pyramid‘s bonus tracks, it’s an early demo of “The Eagle Will Rise Again”, showing that song’s early life as an acoustic rocker that wouldn’t have been out of place on any pre-Monster R.E.M. album. In fact, the thought struck me that this instrumental tryout of “Eagle” would segue beautifully into “Losing My Religion”. I’ll admit that I never once heard the finished song and thought of it as being a candidate for this treatment. I almost wish now that it had been finished out in this form at some point, just as an experiment. It’s the same tune, but radically reformatted.

Those wondering where to find the latest trio of remastered Project albums in North America will have to brace themselves for paying import prices. Apparently the two remasters which saw general release in the States (I Robot, Eye In The Sky) slid under the radar for most music buyers, and apparently the label suspected they would, with the remaster of Vulture Culture hitting shops in the U.K. and Europe only. (Fortunately, you can click our link and get an imported copy at a not-completely-unreasonable 4 out of 4price.)

Pyramid is still one of my all-time favorite rock albums, and hearing it with these various “deleted scenes” just helps me to appreciate its strengths and quirks all over again. Definitely one of the better Alan Parsons Project remasters.

  1. Voyager (2:14)
  2. What Goes Up… (3:40)
  3. The Eagle Will Rise Again (4:22)
  4. One More River (4:16)
  5. Can’t Take It With You (5:06)
  6. In The Lap Of The Gods (5:30)
  7. Pyramania (2:43)
  8. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces (4:20)
  9. The Shadow Of A Lonely Man (5:44)
  10. Voyager / What Goes Up / The Eagle Will Rise Again (Instrumental Version) (8:55)
  11. What Goes Up / Little Voice (Early Version Demo) (4:07)
  12. Can’t Take It With You (Early Version Demo) (1:45)
  13. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces (Demo) (2:21)
  14. The Eagle Will Rise Again (Alternate Version – Backing Track) (3:20)
  15. In The Lap Of The Gods (Part 1 – Demo) (3:14)
  16. In The Lap Of The Gods (Part 2 – Backing Track Rough Mix) (1:55)

Released by: Legacy
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 63:33

Read more
Categories
1983 Alan Parsons Project Andrew Powell Non-Soundtrack Music P

The Alan Parsons Project Played By Andrew Powell

While it might be easy to dismiss this as yet another string tribute “Mantovani Mangles Mott The Hoople” train wreck, there’s something compelling about Andrew Powell Plays The Alan Parsons Project – Powell was the orchestral arranger (and in some cases composer) on many of these original songs. He’s not completely removed from the proceedings. In other words, he’s not that easy to dismiss, even though this ultra-obscure 1983 album smacks of “cash in while you can”. (It may or may not be a coincidence that the only Project album with which Powell wasn’t involved as 1984’s Vulture Culture – maybe this is what he was doing with his free time, or someone decided to give him free time as a result of this album. Take your pick.)

The proceedings open in grand style with a musical mash-up combining “Lucifer” (from the Eve album), “Mammagamma” (from Eye In The Sky) and the heraldic opening horns of “May Be A Price To Pay” (the first thing you heard on The Turn Of A Friendly Card). Long before remix maestros were mashing it up for themselves, Powell was doing an interesting job of it himself, and somehow it works. Not everything on the album is so lucky.

I Robot Suite” and “Damned If I Do” are also interesting listens, with the former in particular covering ground that I wish the instrumental backing track medley on the remastered I Robot CD had covered. My one beef with the “I Robot Suite” is that it really plays fast and loose with the tempos of the original songs, moreso than just about any of this album’s other adaptations – “Some Other Time” becomes almost jaunty, something that the song’s subject just doesn’t lend itself to. “What Goes Up…” also fares well, combined with a very cool orchestral interpretation of its lead-off instrumental, “Voyager”, and, at the very end, some surprising (and neat) musical callbacks to “The Raven” and “Genesis Ch. 1 v. 32”.

Not all of these great Alan Parsons Project classics manage to avoid losing something in the translation, though. “Time”, “Eye In The Sky” and “Old And Wise” become – and I mean this in the nicest way – vapid elevator music. “Time” and “Old And Wise”, which leaned so heavily on the orchestra in their original recordings, actually manage to lost something in the transition to purely orchestral music with no vocals. This boggles my mind – I wouldn’t have expected the person who arranged these songs in the first place to misplace the magic. Somehow he does. “Pavane” (one movement of Tales Of Mystery & Imagination‘s “Fall Of The House Of Usher” suite) takes some odd turns in its arrangement as well. “Games People Play”, a largely synthesized song that had virtually no orchestral accompaniment in its original incarnation, at least manages to be energetic like its inspiration, but kicks off with a really bizarre, horror-film-style intro.

The truth is, I’ve heard far worse “string tribute to…” albums out there, and this one at least seems to have benefitted – at least in some places – from the involvement of the musician who concocted the original songs’ orchestral arrangements. Still, where this album misfires, that very involvement is what makes the misfires so utterly baffling. Two thoughts spring to mind: I wonder why some of these tracks haven’t resurfaced as bonus tracks on the songs’ respective remastered albums (does the label that owns these recordings want too much money, or is this album a point of contention between Powell 3 out of 4and his former Project cohorts?), and despite the misfires, I could easily come up with a second album’s worth of suggestions that could do well in this format. Obviously, 25 years later is probably not a good time to suggest either one (or, for that matter, to suggest a new pressing of this album), but it’s a curiosity that serves as an interesting sidebar to the Alan Parsons Project’s legacy.

Order this CD

  1. Lucifer / Mammagamma (5:34)
  2. Time (5:07)
  3. Games People Play (4:16)
  4. I Robot Suite (8:22)
  5. Damned If I Do (3:40)
  6. Pavane (The Fall Of The House Of Usher) (4:44)
  7. What Goes Up… (5:35)
  8. Eye In The Sky (4:27)
  9. Old And Wise (5:04)

Released by: Disky
Release date: 1983 (re-released on CD in 1997)
Total running time: 46:49

Read more
Categories
1976 2007 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – Tales Of Mystery And Imagination

7 min read

Order this CDThe very first album by the team of Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson and their various and sundry cohorts, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe – the album – was originally intended to be known as The Alan Parsons Project. It was only when radio DJs needed an artist/band name to latch onto, and a second album was in the works, that the Project became the name of this new musical entity. One gets the impression, though, that for those involved, Tales remains the favorite project, despite the wider success of later Project albums like I Robot and Eye In The Sky. With no studio pressure to highlight a specific vocalist even if their voice wasn’t right for the song, with no precedent or road map for what they were doing, there was no real boundary for Parsons and Woolfson to adhere to while making Tales. Their first album may well remain the best expression of what the two were trying to do. Part prog rock, part film-score-for-a-movie-that-never-was, there hasn’t been anything like Tales since.

The 1987 disc, which had already been digitally remastered 20 years ago, doesn’t seem to be noticeably remastered any further except to make it louder. (A tangent here: I sometimes wonder if cranking up the audio level and risking signal-flattening compression isn’t the real essence of a lot of modern-day “remastering”. I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case here, but it’s something I wonder about.) Everything still sounds good.

The first bonus track is a series of excerpts from the album’s vocal songs featuring guide vocal tracks by Eric Woolfson. Recorded to give the songs’ actual guest vocalists an idea of how to approach a given song, what these guide vocals may demonstrate most effectively is that Woolfson doesn’t have a voice for every occasion; “(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” just aren’t for his voice. “The Cask Of Amontillado” and “To One In Paradise” fare better with Woolfson vocals, but ultimately other people sang them on the finished recordings, and sang them better. Also interesting is how closely the backing tracks resemble the final recordings – there are only minor differences.

The complete reel of Orson Welles’ spoken-word introductions, interstitial pieces (not all of which were used) and the copy for the radio spots advertising Tales is included, and it’s an interesting listen. There just aren’t too many voices like Welles’ anymore, and the finished radio spot is included in its full glory on the 1976 disc. To the ears of the iPod generation, phrases like “a record album that will live in your memory forever” are either meaningless or ironically humorous; to the ears of someone like me who actually bought this album on vinyl once long ago, it brings a bit of a sad smile.

Even further afield than the radio spot is a section of sound effects, placed within the context of one movement of “The Fall Of The House Of Usher”, which has the listener walk through a sinister creaky door…and into a busy airport terminal full of sea lions and sheep. The liner notes are pretty clear that this was never meant for prime time, but was assembled by the producers for their own amusement at the time.

The first disc wraps with “GBH Mix: Unreleased Experiments”, revealing bits and pieces of what I suspect are several abandoned songs, including one that would’ve set “The Murders In The Rue Morgue” to music. There’s an incredible disparity between the handful of musical ideas here, and while the liner notes claim that the ragtime-esque portion that opens this track was a step on the road to “Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether”, I’m just not hearing it. Very strange stuff.

The 1976 disc presents Tales as it was originally released in 1976, minus the Orson Welles narrations and the various retouches and remixes done for the 1987 remastered edition. Again, this edition of Tales had already been remastered and re-released (by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, no less, in a limited edition that became a top-dollar collectible like many of MFSL’s re-releases), so it sounds as good as the more recent version.

The first bonus track accompanying the 1976 album is an early, early, early demo of “The Raven”, lacking fully formed lyrics or just about any of the production signatures that would come to be sonically associated with the Project – primarily because the demo pre-dates Parsons’ involvement. About 5/6 of the melody of “The Raven” as finally released is there, but the lyrics are barely recognizable, a bit ranting, and aren’t helped by Woolfson’s strained attempt at hard-biting rock vocals.

The next unreleased track, an Eric Woolfson demo called “Edgar”, is something that the record company strongly urged (i.e., in no uncertain terms) Woolfson to leave off the album, and for once, the suits were right on the money here. While the rest of Tales is derived from Poe’s actual works, “Edgar” would’ve been a piece of conceptual cotton candy amidst the Grand Guignol, something better suited to Woolfson’s stage musical work than to this album. It’s hard for me to really explain why this song doesn’t work, except to say this: instead of being based on one of Poe’s works, “Edgar” is obviously about Poe, and as such it does the musical equivalent of breaking the fourth wall. It’s so lightweight and fluffy that it would’ve been at odds with virtually the entire rest of the album. It’s interesting to hear it as a kind of deleted scene, but yeah, this had no place on this album.

Bringing things to a close is a vintage interview, dating back to Tales‘ original release, with Parsons and Woolfson, discussing – among other things – who came up with the idea of a Poe-centric album, how many musicians (and therefore how much money) were involved. File this one under “interesting time capsule” along with the Orson Welles voice-overs.

4 out of 4With the silly-going-on-insane prices commanded by the Mobile Fidelity re-release of the original Tales, this 2-CD set is easily worth the price of admission to hear both versions of the album, and the selection of bonus material is enlightening. As much as I admire Eric Woolfson’s songwriting chops, “Edgar” and some of “GBH Mix”‘s more bizarre segments make it very clear that Woolfson needed someone to help organize his sonic ideas and restrain some of his more frivolous music hall moments that might’ve been fine on stage but would’ve sabotaged a progressive rock album. Perhaps more than any of the other remasters, Tales makes it clear why we now know this musical entity as the Alan Parsons Project.

    1987 Version
  1. A Dream Within A Dream (4:13)
  2. The Raven (3:57)
  3. The Tell-Tale Heart (4:39)
  4. The Cask Of Amontillado (4:33)
  5. (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether (4:21)
    The Fall Of The House Of Usher
  6. I. Prelude (7:01)
  7. II. Arrival (2:39)
  8. III. Intermezzo (0:59)
  9. IV. Pavane (4:36)
  10. V. Fall (0:51)
  11. To One In Paradise (4:54)
  12. Eric’s Guide Vocal Medley (9:14)
  13. Orson Welles Dialogue (3:08)
  14. Sea Lions In The Departure Lounge: Sound Effects And Experiments (2:38)
  15. GBH Mix: Unreleased Experiments (5:22)
    1976 Version
  1. A Dream Within A Dream (3:41)
  2. The Raven (3:58)
  3. The Tell-Tale Heart (4:42)
  4. The Cask Of Amontillado (4:28)
  5. (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether (4:19)
    The Fall Of The House Of Usher
  6. I. Prelude (5:52)
  7. II. Arrival (2:41)
  8. III. Intermezzo (1:03)
  9. IV. Pavane (4:34)
  10. V. Fall (0:52)
  11. To One In Paradise (4:40)
  12. The Raven (Original Demo) (3:27)
  13. Edgar (Demo Of An Unreleased Track) (3:04)
  14. Orson Welles Radio Spot (1:03)
  15. Interview With Alan Parsons And Eric Woolfson (1976) (8:33)

Released by: Island
Release date: 2007
1987 disc total running time: 63:05
1976 disc total running time: 56:57

Read more
Categories
1985 2007 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – Vulture Culture (remastered)

4 min read

Order this CD in the StoreThe first (and only) Alan Parsons Project album with no orchestral element whatsoever, Vulture Culture has some decent songs, but a few things working against it. By the tiime of this album’s original release, the Project’s home label, Arista, was so enamoured of Eric Woolfson’s voice that they all but dictated that they wanted to hear the bulk of the songs sung by the same voice that had sung the smash hit “Eye In The Sky”. Even two albums on, as much as I like Woolfson’s almost Orbison-esque voice, Vulture Culture features his voice on songs he simply shouldn’t have sung – they just required a different delivery than his sometimes overly sweetened stage-musical sensibilities.

I’ll admit that Vulture Culture just edges out Stereotomy for the dubious honor of being my least favorite Project album, but having listened to the whole thing anew with this nicely remastered edition, I have to say that, at least lyrically, I may not be giving this album its due. It’s a somewhat unsubtle commentary on the exploitative side of our culture, but there are nuances I hear in the lyrics now that I just didn’t “get” back in those carefree days when I didn’t have a mortgage, or any concerns about building up savings for my child’s eventual education. The title track hits me in a whole different way now, as does “Separate Lives”.

Added to Vulture Culture for this reissue are both a demo and a finished version of “No Answers Only Questions”, a track recorded for this album, but dropped before the final edit. It brings a more simplistic, direct and altogether less flowery approach to the album’s topical theme, and perhaps is all the better for not burying itself under layers and layers of production. As much as I like the finished version (which was also the “unreleased track” used to lure folks into buying the 3-CD Dutch Collection / Essential Alan Parsons Project / whatever other names the compilation had in various territories), I think I may like the slightly looser, folkier demo version better.

A slightly different mix of “Separate Lives” and a very rough early demo of the instrumental “Hawkeye” are included, as well as the customary “naked” medley, featuring instrumental excerpts from several songs on the album. “The Naked Vulture” also features various improvised spoken word bits by Lee Abrams (credited on the album as an anagram of his name, “Mr. Laser Beam”) which were later edited into transitions between songs. I almost wonder if perhaps the Lee Abrams material shouldn’t have been its own track, separate from the music, because here it shows up repeatedly as a transition, which takes me right out of the music itself when I’m listening.

The booklet surprises me a bit here – it reveals that there’s going to be quite a bit of repetition of the essay material from album to album – and it also dances around the problems that Parsons and Woolfson were experiencing with Arista at the time (from the insistence on Woolfson lead vocals to the disputed, never-released album The Sicilian Defense). Even more surprisingly, it features a coda that hints at possible future collaborations between Parsons and Woolfson, which makes me wonder if perhaps something isn’t already waiting to happen once the remastered albums are all released, a la Crowded House’s “surprise” reunion on the heels of the DVD and CD release of their 1996 farewell concert. Vulture culture, indeed.

Rating: 3 out of 4In the end, sadly, I can really only give this album three stars – while I apprciated the lyrics more, the delivery on many of them is all wrong thanks to Arista’s interference, and the album’s inherent weaknesses carry through to some of the bonus material, which takes the shine off of things just a bit.

  1. Let’s Talk About Me (4:29)
  2. Separate Lives (4:38)
  3. Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) (4:52)
  4. Sooner Or Later (4:24)
  5. Vulture Culture (5:22)
  6. Hawkeye (3:48)
  7. Somebody Out There (4:54)
  8. The Same Old Sun (5:26)
  9. No Answers Only Questions (Final Version) (2:10)
  10. Separate Lives (Alternative Mix) (4:16)
  11. Hawkeye (Demo) (3:17)
  12. The Naked Vulture (10:42)
  13. No Answers Only Questions (The First Attempt) (2:57)

Released by: Legacy / Arista
Release date: 2007 (originally released in 1985)
Total running time: 61:23

Read more
Categories
1982 2007 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – Eye In The Sky (remastered)

3 min read

Order this CD in the StoreAs innovative as Tales Of Mystery And Imagination and I Robot were, and regardless of how forward-looking more recent works like A Valid Path have been, like it or not, for most people the epitome of the Alan Parsons Project is this album. Veering off the band’s prog rock path and into radio-friendly rock territory, Eye In The Sky is tame compared to some of the more literary-minded Project albums, but it still boasts some great songs, freshly-remastered until they’re nice and crisp for this release. As overplayed-by-radio as they were in the day, it’s hard to deny the staying power and just pure catchiness of the Sirius / Eye In The Sky combo, or the popular instrumental Mammagamma. Children Of The Moon, with its lyrics more relevant now than they were in 1982, may be better than all of them put together, but hasn’t had quite the exposure.

For this most popular Project, there are only a few bonus tracks, and how much you’ll get into them is really going to rely on how “into” the Project and its recording process you are. Early Eric Woolfson guide vocal versions of “Silence And I” and “Old And Wise” are presented here, the latter of which is interesting since he didn’t sing on the final recording. There are also rough demos of the instrumental “Sirius” and the unfinished Woolfson tune “Any Other Day,” which is heard here in such an early form that it doesn’t even have lyrics. The intro for “Any Other Day” became the intro to a big orchestral bridge section for “Silence And I,” though the liner notes say that Woolfson is just now finishing “Any Other Day” for inclusion in an upcoming stage musical.

The real meat and potatoes of the bonus tracks can be found in the form of two medleys, “The Naked Eye” and “Eye Pieces (Classical Naked Eye)”. The former presents stripped-down excerpts from the recording sessions, showing how some of the songs might have developed slightly differently (especially “Psychobabble” and “Mammagamma”). But the latter is an impressive collage of the orchestral and choral overdubs, heard here without any band tracks whatsoever and edited into a medley that’s almost a cohesive, self-contained composition. Starting with the foreboding brass of “Children Of The Moon” and taking in some of the more memorable moments from “Silence And I”, “Old And Wise” and “Mammagamma”, “Eye Pieces” is how these montages should be done from here on out. It’s no exaggeration to admit that the first time I heard this track, I put it on “repeat” for about an hour and just basked in it.

Rating: 4 out of 4The bonus features are a bit hit-or-miss, but combined with a solid album, they make this reissue worthwhile for both fans and casual listeners too. Though I’m hesitant to say this about a title from the first “wave” of Alan Parsons Project remasters, this may be as good as these reissues get.

  1. Sirius (1:55)
  2. Eye In The Sky (4:36)
  3. Children Of The Moon (4:51)
  4. Gemini (2:10)
  5. Silence And I (7:20)
  6. You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned (4:22)
  7. Psychobabble (4:52)
  8. Mammagamma (3:34)
  9. Step By Step (3:54)
  10. Old And Wise (4:55)
  11. Sirius (Demo) (1:53)
  12. Old And Wise (Eric Woolfson vocal) (4:31)
  13. Any Other Day (Studio Demo) (1:41)
  14. Silence And I (Eric Woolfson vocal) (7:33)
  15. The Naked Eye (10:48)
  16. Eye Pieces: Classical Naked Eye (7:51)

Released by: Legacy / Arista
Release date: 2007 (originally released in 1982)
Total running time: 77:04

Read more
Categories
1977 2007 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – I Robot (remaster)

4 min read

Order this CD in the StoreIf someone was deliberately trying to drain my wallet, one could hardly concoct a more diabolical scheme than releasing remastered CDs of classic ELO and Alan Parsons Project albums, with extra tracks and bonus material, at the same time. This is indeed happening, and all under the watchful eye (in the sky?) of Sony, no less. As a preamble, I’ve always felt that if you’re already a fan of either ELO or Alan Parsons Project, you’re primed to be a fan of the other. Musically, they’re miles apart, with the lyrical and thematic gloominess of Parsons and Project partner Eric Woolfson counterpointing Jeff Lynne’s “Mr. Blue Sky” cheer. But stylistically, these two very different groups are in the same ball park: lush orchestration, banging against the walls of what constitutes rock and threatening to leave a hole big enough for classical to seep into the room – to say nothing of mesmerizing overdubbed harmonies and widescreen production. I’ve always loved both.

Released in 1977, I, Robot is the Project’s second album, but its first for the Arista label, which would release the rest of the group’s output until it disbanded in 1990. (Sony’s acquisition of Arista and its back catalog is what brought these remastered editions about; the rights to the groundbreaking first album are held by Mercury, which will capitalize on remaster fever by reissuing that album as a double-CD set later this year.) While at times this album seems to be trying a little more self-consciously to “fit in with the times” (“The Voice”‘s brief dive into disco territory, “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You”‘s funky rhythm section), it’s also surprisingly forward-looking for relatively mainstream ’70s prog rock.

In addition to the outstanding original album, presented in crystal clear remastered sound (coincidentally, with the help of Jeff Magid and Tim Fraser-Harding, who oversaw the recent ELO remasters), which upon more recent listening has withstood the test of time better than I think I’ve previously given it credit for (despite elements that clearly mark it as a creation of the 1970s), there are a few early demo recordings and instrumental mixes. There’s a fantastic instrumental of “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You”, missing only the vocals and Ian Bairnson’s ferocious guitar solo, as well as demos of “Day After Day”, “Breakdown” (sounding almost like a soulful ballad) and “I Robot” itself, the latter being a weird experiment using the sound of metal balls bouncing. “The Naked Robot” is a medley gathering instrumental bits, pieces and snippets from several of the songs, including a great many elements and ideas left on the cutting room floor, never to be heard in the final album.

The booklet itself is a wealth of information, revealing that Parsons and Woolfson actually approached Isaac Asimov to sound him out on the idea of basing a prog rock opera on “I, Robot”, but since any adaptation rights were tied to the long-stalled film rights, they had to knock the comma out of the title and adjust their thematic Rating: 4 out of 4approach every so slightly. The book also pins a lot of the group’s success on the coincidence that I Robot arrived in record stores immediately on the heels of Star Wars with a robot on the cover and a futuristic theme in its music. It might be true, who knows? But it certainly didn’t hurt that it was a great album to begin with.

  1. I Robot (6:02)
  2. I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You (3:23)
  3. Some Other Time (4:05)
  4. Breakdown (3:53)
  5. Don’t Let It Show (4:25)
  6. The Voice (5:23)
  7. Nucleus (3:22)
  8. Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) (3:57)
  9. Total Eclipse (3:12)
  10. Genesis Ch.1 V.32 (3:30)
  11. Boules (I Robot Experiment) (1:59)
  12. Breakdown (early demo) (2:11)
  13. I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You (backing track rough mix) (3:29)
  14. Day After Day (early stage rough mix) (3:41)
  15. The Naked Robot (10:19)

Released by: Legacy / Arista
Release date: 2007 (originally released in 1977)
Total running time: 62:51

Read more
Categories
2005 A Non-Soundtrack Music

Afro Celt Sound System – Anatomic

Afro Celt Sound System - AnatomicIt took me an unusually long time to warm up to Anatomic, the latest from the re-renamed Afro Celt Sound System (who had dropped the “Sound System” from their name on their previous album, to the dismay of some longtime fans). It’s not that it’s not good music – it most certainly is – but this group is renowned for knocking down so many boundaries of style and genre and categories in music that, by comparison, bits of Anatomic seem tame – particularly after the rousing entry that was Seed. This may be a case where the band’s long term fans, the folks who get to hear and appreciate the album tracks and not just the singles, will love it, but listers who sample the group more casually may not get it.

There’s no one common thread that ties the strongest Anatomic songs together – “Beautiful Rain” is an almost hypnotic song with gentle male vocals, “Dohl Dogs” is a rousing instrumental number with a solid wall of polyrhythmic percussion, and the title track, also an instrumental, hearkens back to the System’s best Celtic-heavy fusion dance numbers. The album opens strong with “When I Still Needed You”, and though it’s a 3 out of 4slower track, I like “Mother” as well. But some of the other tracks just couldn’t hold my attention – again, they’re not bad music, but they’re strong candidates for background music.

Which may actually be what devotees of this band are looking for, for all I know. At any rate, there’s good stuff on here, but it’s an uneven listen to plow all the way through the whole album.

Order this CD

  1. When I Still Needed You (8:16)
  2. My Secret Bliss (7:04)
  3. Mojave (10:35)
  4. Senè (Working The Land) (5:59)
  5. Beautiful Rain (4:59)
  6. Anatomic (5:24)
  7. Mother (6:29)
  8. Dohl Dogs (6:25)
  9. Drake (6:04)

Released by: RealWorld
Release date: 2005
Total running time: 61:15

Read more
Categories
2003 A Non-Soundtrack Music Tori Amos

Tori Amos – Tales Of A Librarian

Tori Amos - Tales Of A LibrarianReally more of a contractual obligation than anything, Tales Of A Librarian brings Tori Amos’ contract with Atlantic Records to an end and provides the fans with her first official best-of compilation. As with so many greatest hits collections, the main critique is going to be in the selection of material, though in most cases Librarian gives you what you’d expect; there’s a heavy emphasis on Little Earthquakes, represented by “Tear In Your Hand”, “Me And A Gun”, “Winter”, “Crucify”, “Precious Things” and “Silent All These Years”. Under The Pink is represented by “God”, “Cornflake Girl” and “Baker Baker”, while “Professional Widow” (wildly reworked; see below), “Way Down” and “Mr. Zebra” are here from Boys For Pele (what, no “Caught A Lite Sneeze”?).

There’s a surprising omission in the selection of songs from from the choirgirl hotel as well, as “Raspberry Swirl” is nowhere to be found; that album’s selection instead consists of “Spark”, “Jackie’s Strength”, and a version of “Playboy Mommy” that I’d swear has been, if not re-recorded, then at least heavily remixed. (All of the songs have been subtly reworked at least a little bit, but this is the most extreme example of that.) Perhaps not surprisingly, Strange Little Girls doesn’t make a showing at all, while only “Bliss” is drawn from the double album To Venus And Back.

The early era of Tori’s career – in some ways her most creatively energized years – is also represented by the Little Earthquakes-era B-sides “Mary” and “Sweet Dreams”, though they aren’t the original recordings.

“Mary” and “Sweet Dreams” were both re-recorded from the ground up for this album, and both of them receive a somewhat more raw, stripped-down treatment than their original versions. “Sweet Dreams” was always a bit of a jaunty, rollicking little number, with Tori backed up by the Subdudes, only here it’s arranged a little more loosely (though still with a full band backing), perhaps a little more representative of how it would sound today played live. It’s also shifted down a couple of keys, losing some of the original’s soaring backing vocals in the chorus. “Mary” has undergone an even more striking change, though – it’s gone from the traditional Little Earthquakes-style piano solo to a laid-back full-band arrangement similar to “Sweet Dreams”. And while I prefer the originals of both songs, these new arrangements aren’t bad. Just different. I’ve actually grown to like this alternative reading of “Mary” quite a bit.

Completely new on Librarian are “Angels” and “Snow Cherries From France”, which of course follow the same style as the rearranged B-sides: laid-back, with a small band, something that wouldn’t have been out of place on Scarlet’s Walk.

The whole re-recorded B-side thing bugs me a bit, because there’s something that would easily fulfill the contractual obligation and please the fans: Tori’s B-sides are a goldmine of fantastic material (in fact, while I rarely review CD singles here, I made an exception for some of Tori’s early CD singles because they were actually better than some of the album tracks). Not only are they good material, but they’ve become fairly scarce on CD. Surely a best-of-B-sides collection is waiting to happen somewhere.

Similarly, the bonus DVD of live material, while nice, misses the boat too – for years, Tori’s fans have been waiting for a video compilation on DVD. At least half of the tracks on Librarian have music videos that are just begging for an official release, and they’re some of the best examples of that medium in the past 15 years. Atlantic has announced and then cancelled a Tori Amos music video DVD at least twice to date; rating: 3 out of 4perhaps Librarian could’ve been a simultaneous multimedia release with these same hits receiving a long-overdue DVD treatment.

As it is, though, Librarian is a nice chronicle of Tori Amos’ career, with some interesting tracks that span the gap between where she’s been and where she’s going next.

Order this CD

  1. Precious Things (4:32)
  2. Angels (4:29)
  3. Silent All These Years (4:12)
  4. Cornflake Girl (5:08)
  5. Mary (4:44)
  6. God (3:56)
  7. Winter (5:45)
  8. Spark (4:15)
  9. Way Down (1:52)
  10. Professional Widow (3:50)
  11. Mr. Zebra (1:07)
  12. Crucify (5:02)
  13. Me And A Gun (3:45)
  14. Bliss (3:37)
  15. Playboy Mommy (4:08)
  16. Baker Baker (3:14)
  17. Tear In Your Hand (4:40)
  18. Sweet Dreams (3:41)
  19. Jackie’s Strength (4:27)
  20. Snow Cherries From France (2:56)

Released by: Atlantic
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 79:20

Read more
Categories
2003 A Non-Soundtrack Music

Afro Celts (Afro Celt Sound System) – Seed

Afro Celts - SeedSo, according to the press blurb, the Afro Celt Sound System shed the “sound system” portion of its name because the band is refocusing on a more organic, acoustic sound. Yes, that’s why their new album opens with a vocoder-and-synth solo, because they want to sound more natural. In all seriousness, though, the “more acoustic” claims aren’t entirely unfounded. What they’re talking about is a more audible presence for some excellent and decidedly non-electric guitar in many of the ten new songs. It may not seem like this would make a huge difference, but you’d be surprised.

Other than that, the band’s sound is largely the same. Where their third CD Further In Time found the Afro Celts trying to reach for a world music fusion that seemed to reach well beyond the ethnic implications of the band’s name, and it was a truly lovely thing to behold. With Seed, they come down unquestionably on the “Celt” side of Afro Celt, and while the polyrhythms are still present, the focus this time around is definitely on the Irish sound. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you.

The album’s first two tracks remain my favorites, despite the incongruity of “Cyberia”‘s “more acoustic” vocoder opening. The title track is a sweeping epic along the lines of Further In Time‘s “Lagan”, another favorite of mine. The4 out of 4 guest vocalists this time around aren’t quite the high-profile rock legends that the group welcomed on their previous album, but that’s okay too. It may just be that the band has found a sound that could get some attention and airplay without the publicity stunt of a famous voice in front of the mix.

Excellent stuff, even if I do keep calling them the Afro Celt Sound System.

    Order this CD in the Store
  1. Cyberia (7:41)
  2. Seed (6:25)
  3. Nevermore (4:45)
  4. The Other Side (7:01)
  5. Ayub’s Song / As You Were (7:32)
  6. Rise (3:07)
  7. Rise Above It (10:11)
  8. Deep Channel (6:48)
  9. All Remains (7:30)
  10. Green [Nevermore instrumental] (5:57)

Released by: RealWorld
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 67:00

Read more