The Alan Parsons Project

The 12 tracks that appear on The Best of the Alan Parsons Project include some of their greatest singles, like "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from 1977's I Robot and the inducing "Games People Play" off of The Turn of a Friendly Card. Even though these songs are splendid all by themselves, they seem to lose their conceptual weight when taken away from their original albums. As singles, they do act as a fine representation of how The Alan Parsons Project's music sounds and conveys its mysterious air, but even with a dozen singles on this album there's just too much of their other worthy material that is sadly left off. Present is their biggest single and most alluring piece, "Eye in the Sky," from the album of the same name, and the entrancing "Time" from Turn of a Friendly Card.

The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 typically picks up where its predecessor left off. With 11 tracks covering seven albums, including Gaudi, Stereotomy, and Vulture Culture, the songs here are a tad weaker than those on the first collection, since some of the albums that these songs originate from were not of this band's finest caliber. The highlights here include both "Prime Time" and "Don't Answer Me" from Ammonia Avenue, and the provocative instrumental "I Robot," the only non-vocal track on the album. All of the selections on this package convey their purpose much better within their former albums, since each song is a link in the album's conceptual chain.

Alan Parsons studied a number of musical instruments in childhood but, like many of his peers, settled on the guitar in his early teens. His job in the late 1960s at the EMI tape duplication facility allowed him access to many classics of the day, including the tape master of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), which fired him up to become a recording engineer. He subsequently managed to get work at the Abbey Road Studios and participated in the creation of The Beatles albums Let It Be (1970) and Abbey Road (1969) and the infamous Apple rooftop session. He also went on to work as mix engineer with Paul McCartney and George Harrison after The Beatles split…

The 12 tracks that appear on The Best of the Alan Parsons Project include some of their greatest singles, like "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from 1977's I Robot and the inducing "Games People Play" off of The Turn of a Friendly Card. Even though these songs are splendid all by themselves, they seem to lose their conceptual weight when taken away from their original albums. As singles, they do act as a fine representation of how The Alan Parsons Project's music sounds and conveys its mysterious air, but even with a dozen singles on this album there's just too much of their other worthy material that is sadly left off.

The 35th anniversary Eye in the Sky collector's box set includes 3 CDs (CD1: Original Album Expanded + bonus tracks, CD2: Eric Woolfson's Songwriting Diaries, CD3: Previously Unreleased Bonus Material and Disc 4: 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo HD version of the original album on Blu-ray)…

It seems as though the Alan Parsons Project's conceptual grandeur began to lose its potency right around the mid-'80s. With Stereotomy, the message that Parsons is trying to reveal by way of his music begins to dissipate quickly, and the album is saved only somewhat by a couple of interesting instrumental pieces…

This album has many rhythmic & atmospheric modern keyboards, a bit like on the "Stereotomy" album. The vocals are still very good, and the songs are more pop than progressive; the tracks are although well made and catchy enough. Not bad at all, this album has quite good keyboards textures and electric guitar solos…

Limited deluxe three CD + Blu-ray + double vinyl LP (pressed at 45RPM) box set of the classic album Ammonia Avenue by The Alan Parsons Project. The set has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes under the supervision of Alan Parsons and features an additional 53 bonus tracks drawn from Eric Woolfson's songwriting diaries, studio session out-takes and stunning new 5. 1 surround sound and stereo mixes from the original multi-track master tapes by Alan Parsons and the promotional videos of 'Don't Answer Me' and 'Prime Time'…