Only album I ever owned was' Eye in the Sky' which I bought on the back of liking `Games People Play`. However didnt particularly like the album so didnt venture any further . Have a gut feeling I should maybe explore a bit more of his catalogue! Where should I start ? Fanx !
Games People Play was on Turn Of A Friendly Card. If that album (his second or third best ever IMO) was not your cup of joe, then you may well not like APP. Or at least, you may want to stick to one of the 'Best Of' compilations.
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Yes ...fanx for the correction ! It's been such a long since I played it . I am not generally a fan of albums which use multi-vocalists, which after just checking out his discography seems to have been a common theme !Originally Posted by 3LockBox
Maybe your right ...a compilation CD may be my best bet ?
Tales of Mystery and Imagination and I Robot were my favorites years ago.
I Robot is a must have. What a fantastic album that sums up all that is good about prog and all that was good about 70's rock yet still sounds fresh to this very day. I Robot still blows me away.
I'm a big APP fan but if multi vocalists are not for you, then APP may not be your cup of tea. All APP have some pop in them. But more so in the later albums. Turn of a friendly card is one of the best but it would not be where I would send someone to start. If you want more nonpop Take up Camelogue's suggestion and try one of the first two albums. I would go with I Robot because the first album has a long orchestrated instrumental track. Works for me but YMMV. I Robot is proggie and it rocks too. For more intelligent pop leanings head to Eye in the Sky
I love I Robot and Tales of Mystery and Imagination. I think Tales of Mystery and Imagination has aged better than I Robot, but both are excellent.
I have Pyramid, but have rarely played it.
I actually think Turn of a Friendly Card or I, Robot both make good starting points.
I totally agree. I Robot is definitely Alan Parsons best album. Every track is good. I think they should play this whole album live on a future tour.
I Robot. I Robot. I Robot.
I'm also partial to Ammonia Avenue.
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Don't Answer Me is a guilty pleasure. Used to see the music video all the time on VH1 Classic. Was it a nod to Dick Tracy? I love the video, and that track's wall-of-sound production.
I Robot put him on the map. Tales of Mystery and Imagination was a very good start. Pyramid is my favorite. Turn of A Friendly Card is also quite good.
I would recommend those 4, then, The Definitive Collection and The Instrumental Works to round out the best of the non-essential albums.
I have all of Alan Parson’s albums and don’t think he has made a bad one, but some are better than others. I would say the top tier ones are:
Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (Great debut album)
I Robot (Many think this was his high point)
Pyramid (Kind of underrated, but very good)
Turn Of A Friendly Card (Best album about gambling / Las Vegas ever made)
Ammonia Avenue (One of his most underrated IMO)
Try Anything Once (this one has grown on me a lot over the years)
His biggest seller was “Eye In The Sky” which I think is good, but not great.
There are some really good 2 CD compilations out there if you are looking for just the more popular stuff. Many of his albums were conceptual though, so some of the songs taken out of context won’t make as much sense.
Steve Sly
Those 1st 3. I love Tales, I *really* love I Robot, but I think Pyramid is darn nearly as good as them, maybe a bit better than Tales. I'm a bit surprised people hatin' on it here...Then everything else=total shite. Although I vaguely remember thinking Stereotomy was ok.
The cover was interesting anyway.
I have just about all of their albums, but really have trouble remembering which album is which. To me, they all have the same kind of sound.
Which probably sounds like a bad thing.
But it's not. For me, it's kinda like comfort food. Parsons' production, Bairnson's guitars, the crystal clear vocals - they transport me to a different time.
I never really cared much for Eve, but I agree with most of the other recommendations here. The first three, along with Friendly Card, are probably my favorites. But I'd guess that if you like any of those, you'd probably like most of the rest, too.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I only have three APP cds:the deluxe version of Tales Of Mystery And Imagination(with both the original vinyl version and the '87 remix), I Robot(the Legacy reissue), and Eye In The Sky(the Legacy reissue). To me, the first two are more progressive sounding, while Eye In The Sky is more commercial sounding, I love all three releases, although I haven't listened to Tales Of Mystery And Imagination in a while. I do love it, but it's sometimes difficult to sit through the deluxe edition.
Gotta agree with most everything Steve said. I would swap out Pryamid with Eve, but that is nitpicking. Try Anything Once, an Alan Parsons solo album, is excellent but perhaps a song or two too long. All of the albums have something to offer. For the bizarre, try and find Freudiana. It's the group and album name which started as APP's 11th, but Eric Woolfson took it solo. So all of the usual suspects are on it. It's prog / pop meets Broadway. It's not for everyone but I really enjoy it.
Last edited by Tangram; 02-27-2013 at 11:55 PM. Reason: Add info
Nope, not Stereotomy- it was On Air that I remember liking. Haven't heard it in 20 years though. I could be wrong
I've just completed my collection and truth be told I wanted to like it all more-after having the greatest hits 1 and 2 for years. I find them all to be pretty evenly dispersed between decent instrumentals, soft Asia-poppy ballads and decent rockers. After all the songs I've heard I found myself really enjoying a song off of PYRAMID called "The Eagle Will Rise Again" and a nice ballad sung by a female vocalist on EVE called "If I Could Change Your Mind". Otherwise I was pretty much thinking the songs on the greatest hits sufficed as a cross section of the APP's whole career.
Asia-poppy-ballads? I've always thought that APP(even in ballad mode) sounded like a cross between Pink Floyd and Camel. Besides, APP never had a keyboardist like Geoff Downes.
No, I don't hear any Asia-isms in Alan Parsons [Project] either. In fact, I think they had one of the most unique sounds in Proggish rock. Some early 80s Camel ('Stationary Traveller') sounds a bit Alan Parsons-ish at times, but there's some obvious reasons for that, with several APP members moonlighting in Camel during that brief period.
If you don't like any of the first five or so albums, then they're simply not ever going to be your cup of Earl Grey. But I've got a big soft spot for all of the original APP albums right up to 'Vulture Culture'. After that things took a bit of a downturn, and for me 'Gaudi' and some of Alan Parsons' most recent albums (e.g. 'A Valid Path', 'Time Machine') have been weak - though 'Freudiana' had some good moments, and 'Try Anything Once' and 'On Air' are right up there with my very favourites.
If I had to pick one album, it would be either 'Turn of a Friendly Card' or 'Try Anything Once'. Nobody did mellow pop prog better than Alan Parsons - well, maybe Supertramp...
Totally forgot about Try Anything Once, as it's not really a "project" album (missing Woolfson), but it's definitely one of the best.
I once convinced a friend that the opening track was from Trevor Rabin's new solo album.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I find something to enjoy on all of the APP albums, but to me I've always seen I ROBOT, TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD, and PYRAMID as a sort of prog-pop trilogy. My least favorite is probably EVE, but there are several good songs on there as well. As others have said, the later stuff is a bit more poppy, but it's mostly good pop, IMO.
As someone else mentioned, Woolfson's FREUDIANA is interesting and different, and I like it a lot. And the first few Parsons solo albums still have Bairnson on guitar and Elliot on drums, and sound a lot like the Project.
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Interesting......I find "Eve" to be one of his weakest albums. It does have some good songs, but overall it does not quite stack up to "Pyramid". I would agree that "Try Anything" might have been better with a song or two cut out, but it has a lot of great stuff on it. David Pack (Ambrosia), just kills it on the finale of the album "Oh Life". I would also agree about "Fruediana". Some of the broadway-ish stuff might be a little hard to take for some folks, but there is some fantastic songs on that one, and it really showed just how much Woolfson's work meant to the whole APP years.
Steve Sly
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