I wouldn't like to be like you (The Alan Parsons Project) (LP 4133 - 4137)

The Alan Parsons Project  I Robot (CD, Arista Records, 1977) ****  

The Alan Parsons Project  Pyramid (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1978) ***  

The Alan Parsons Project   The Turn of a Friendly Card (CD, Arista Records, 1980) *****  

The Alan Parsons Project    Ammonia Avenue (Vinyl, Arista Records, 1984) ***

The Alan Parsons Project   The Essential Alan Parsons Project (CD, Arista Records, 2007) ***** 

Genre: Prog rock, pop, rock

Places I remember: HMV, Chaldon Books and Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I Wouldn't Like To Be Like You (I Robot)

Gear costume: Games People Play, Time (Turn of a Friendly Card) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Given Alan Parsons' intersection with The Beatles, I'm bound to be a fan of The Alan Parsons Project, and I am. 

[Yes, alphabetically speaking, we've entered the 'The...' bands. I believe that if a band chooses to use the definite article in their band name, then it should be respected and catalogued in the T's]

I've included The Alan Parsons Project's debut album previously (Tales of Mystery and Imagination), so now we start with I Robot.

The second album is a tack away from the very human Edgar Allan Poe stories to a look at AI via Isaac Asimov's Robot stories. The rise of the machine and the decline of mankind is a very 21st century story and theme, but this album was done almost 50 years ago, in 1977 (the year of Star Wars episode 4 - A New Hope). These guys were on to something!

I Robot sounds very fresh as an idea and as a piece of music because it's anchored in catchy, melodic pop music for the most part. The stylistic changes, often within the same song, keep the interest level high. The changing vocalists mean no big name dominates (Allan Clarke, among many others, appears on I Robot) and the lush production are also plus factors for me. All that, and probably most importantly - the songs are there as well!

What exactly does Alan Parsons do? Obviously, he produces the record, but he writes the songs with Eric Woolfson (they met at Abbey Road appropriately enough) and also contributes keyboards and even backing vocals on I Robot. So, he deserves to have the project named after him, right?

His/their third album after the first two big commercial and critical success was Pyramid (styled as Pyr△mid on the cover and record label). Could they keep the momentum going?

This time the concept centres on the pyramids of Giza, 'the haunting echoes of the past...and the unsolved mysteries of the present' according to the liner notes. The answer to my question is yes, they could keep the momentum going, although it's not as great as those first two albums. 

Pyramid is another lush production with excellent music but no hits. One highlight is Colin Blunstone's vocals on The Eagle Will Rise Again. Eric Woolfson's keyboards are again a strong feature of the music - as distinctive in their own way as Parson's production skills.

Turn of a Friendly Card is next (no Eve yet), and the hits returned - Games people Play and Time are catchy pop songs. Eric Woolfson sings Time and it's fantastic - why doesn't he sing more? This time the theme is gambling, gamblers and their fate. Really, it's a conceit to hang some superb pop songs on and it all works in spectacular fashion. 

Ammonia Avenue is the last studio album on my list (no Eye in the Sky yet). The theme centres on industrial scientific developments from both sides - the public's p.o.v. and from scientists' p.o.v. The album maintains the high production values and was another huge seller. The highlight is the title track's Phil Spector homage.

The Alan Parsons Project has a large number of compilations. I picked up The Essential while in the Middle East. It became a go-to CD in the Tiida as we pootled around Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It collects the essentials songs from all of the albums to that point and is an excellent way to trace their chronological development. Those albums up to and including Ammonia Avenue take the biscuit.

Where do they all belong? I still have a few albums to catch up on - Eve (from 1979), Eye in the Sky (1982).