Review Summary: The pinnacle of APP's success, and also one of their most accomplished works.
Engineer, producer and musician Alan Parsons and his colleague, songwriter, pianist and lyricist Eric Woolfson, formed The Alan Parsons Project in 1975. At that time, Parsons had already acted as engineer on The Beatles’
Abbey Road, recently engineered Pink Floyd’s
Dark Side of the Moon and had produced several acts for EMI Records. Woolfson was working as a session pianist at Abbey Road Studios. He also composed material for a concept album, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination and 'The Project' were born.
Throughout its career, The Alan Parsons Project recorded concept albums employing a rotating cast of session musicians to do most of the performing, and a bunch of guest vocalists whom they felt would be appropriate for a particular track. The band hit its commercial peak with
Eye in the Sky, the only album other than
I Robot to reach the top ten. Its songs have grabbing hooks, and are dominated by a lush sound. The songwriting team of Woolfson and Parsons should be mentioned for their versatility and knack for creating great melodies. The Alan Parsons Project is commonly referred to as one of the most commercial artists in progressive rock history, so it is not surprising that they are seen as guilty pleasure by a big amount of prog fans. However, the exquisite and symphonic orchestrations, as well as the tasteful arrangements, keep the band from being discarded as being too pop. Andrew Powell (orchestral arranger, who joined in 1976) served as the ultimate guardian of artistic richness for the APP material.
Eye in the Sky’s title track was the group’s greatest success, charting in the top ten on the pop chart. Although they weren’t able to repeat that success, the band maintained a devoted cult audience. The album’s theme revolves around a cautionary tale about the loss of individualism. It’s all about the emergence of the ‘Big Brother’ idea, previously touched upon in works such as George Orwell’s famous novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The album starts with the well-known
Sirius, a short haunting, bombastic instrumental. The song segues in the hit title track (one of the best pop rock songs of the 80’s), which hit #3 in the US charts. It’s a ‘eight note pumping bass’ format with repetitive, but pleasant enough guitar chugging. The song has a very pleasant aura and an instant catchy melody, and great vocals by Eric Woolfson. Maybe overplayed, but not outdated at all.
Children of the Moon is a mid-tempo rocker that is taken to a proggier dimension thanks to Andrew Powell's exquisite orchestral arrangements. It’s a wonderful versatile piece of work, complete with chords and strings and brass orchestrations. When the song fades away, the ethereal backing vocals go on for a couple more seconds before the song merges into the short
Gemini which has stunning vocal performances.
On
Silence and I (the most prog-oriented here), the band used a complete symphonic orchestra conducted by Powell. The song opens and closes as a ballad (with Woolfson singing). The middle piece is however an enormous energetic sequence using the full capability of a symphonic orchestra. The result is one of the best orchestrated songs APP ever made.
The tempo kicks up a bit on
You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned, and this is really more of an 80’s pop-rock number that borders on sounding like
Electric Light Orchestra. Pretty catchy number that could have been a single.
Psychobabble is a classic, built on a rhythm section, plus the addition of pounding keyboards. APP is well known for their huge use of synth layers and effects, mainly some state-of-the-art digital sampler add-ons. It's one of those APP tracks with an extremely simple but effective bass line.
Mammagamma is an ethereal instrumental, almost entirely played by a computer (programmed keyboards). Repetitive and patterned, but nevertheless very good. It is reminiscent of some electronic artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis or Tangerine Dream, and a very good example of Parsons’ engineering style. For
Step by Step, a very interesting guitar sound was created. Parsons got the idea to plug the guitar straight into the mixing desk without any amplification. The result was a sound which lay in between an acoustic and an electric guitar, and while the idea is interesting, it is the album’s weakest track.
Eye in the Sky concludes with the rhapsodic ballad
Old and Wise, a return to APP’s slow-paced, melodic style. Sung with breathtaking melancholy by ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone, he makes the sentimental lyrics go straight through the heart. His appearance is in fact so defining that the song is a classic because of him, and
Eye in the Sky’s most touching moment, skilfully concluded with a saxophone solo by Mel Collins.
‘As far as my eyes can see
There are shadows approaching me
And to those I left behind
I wanted you to know
You've always shared my deepest thoughts
You follow where I go
And oh, when I'm old and wise
Bitter words mean little to me
Autumn Winds will blow right through me
And someday, in the mist of time
When they asked me if I knew you
I'd smile and say you were a friend of mine
And the sadness would be lifted from my eyes…
Oh when I'm old and wise.’
While APP had a natural ability to enhance their good musical ideas with very good arrangements , it’s pretty clear by the time this album rolled around, APP was far better at writing catchy song than they were at developing them into full blown, mature progressive works.
Eye in the Sky represents perhaps the pinnacle of APP creativity, and certainly the last time they could balance their pop and progressive tendencies so well. Even if there is enough innovation and experimentation to keep it attractive to any classic prog lover, don’t expect to find the actual style here. The Alan Parsons Project were sort of in-between the clashing genres of pop and progressive, and
Eye in the Sky is a fantastic example of how the two could co-exist.
Classics:
Sirius
Eye in the Sky
Silence and I
Psychobabble
Old and Wise
