Customer Reviews

Essential Alan Parsons

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Following his own peculiar career path, Alan Parsons became an unlikely star by recording a series of conceptual albums featuring a wide variety of singers and musicians, making rich and complicated music that still managed to cruise onto radio and beak the Top 40. Be they topically based on literature (Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot), art (Gaudi) relationships with the opposite sex (Eve, God and mysticism (Pyramid) or our own foibles (Stereotomy and Turn of a Friendly Card), he managed to create sonic tapestries that few others could match.

This album switches a few tracks from The Definitive Collection, mainly adding the "Turn of a Friendly Card" suite. Dropping "Pyramania" shorts the "Pyramid" album, and offers a few different picks from "I Robot."

Parsons and his creative partner in the APP, Eric Woolfson managed a nifty trick though out their heyday, which was to create complex music and make it sound simple. There were no ELP gymnastics here, no Yes-like side long odes to alternate universes, and no musical condescension that often plagued prog-rock collectives. Just memorable hooks attached to beautifully structured ballads ("Time, "Days Are Numbers") pop (the Phil Spector style "Don't Answer Me," "Eye In The Sky") and Album rockers ("Stereotomy," "Dr Tarr and Professor Feather"). He also had a knack for immaculate instrumentals, some became almost as well known as the hit singles. "Sirius" in particular became a heavily used Sports theme.

Listening to these songs (remastered and sounding amazing) is a reminder of just how beautiful high-fidelity can be in the age of computerized compression and MP3's. Don't get me wrong; I love my I-pod. But in the race to replace fidelity with convenience, artists with a style like the Alan Parsons Project or the equally idiosyncratic Steely Dan find their music less likely to be heard in the manner it is created. And that's a shame. Get this CD now (and others like it, like Parson's work on Dark Side of the Moon) before the CD meets in inevitable doom.

The remastered albums of Tales, Robot and EitS are all worth picking up. One can only hope for the rest of the albums to follow.

THE ESSENTIAL ALAN PARSONS PROJECT, unlike THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION, covers only the years that Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson worked together, and thus includes many great songs not on the earlier set, including the entire title suite from THE TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD. Even so, some great songs, including "Breakdown" and "May Be A Price To Pay", are left off. As a result, to complete your Alan Parsons library, you need both anthologies, I, ROBOT, THE TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD, TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, EYE IN THE SKY, and the work Parsons did for such artists as Al Stewart, the Beatles, and many others.

...if you are truly interested in the real Alan Parsons Project (APP) experience, then skip the anthologies and buy their other complete concept albums.

Before that, though, I need to say that this collection provides the listener with the majority of the most popular APP singles. It is notable for that reason, and it is therefore worth a listen for the person who may be trying APP out for the first time.

That said...

...APP does the concept album better than just about anyone else. They are able to take a concept or idea and expand it to fill an entire album. So if you want to experience a deeper, richer listening experience listen to entire APP albums, not to just the popular tracks.

Try these albums on for size (I recommend listening to them in this order...the original order they were released):

Tales of Mystery and Imagination
I Robot
Pyramid
Eve
The Turn of a Friendly Card
Eye in the Sky
Ammonia Avenue
Vulture Culture
Stereotomy
Gaudi

So, I assigned this anthology 4 stars not because the experience is particularly lacking, but because you could have a more complete and enjoyable experience by listening to the original list of APP discs.

From a 30+ year APP fan. I hope this was helpful!

There are two versions of this collection, this 2-disc version, and a 3-disc import version: The Essential Alan Parsons Project Both sets are missing some essential songs like Breakdown, Voyager, Pyramania and You Don't Believe, although the 2-disc version does include "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether". Overall, The Definitive Collection may a better collection.

Along with The Definitive Collection, The Essential Alan Parsons Project gives the casual fan the proper mixture and proportion of radio hits, Alan Parsons' signature instrumentals, and Eric Woolfsons' thought-provoking ballads. Best of all, SONY/BMG has included the once lost gemstone No Answers Only Questions (Final Version) that Eric Woolfson composed and guitarist Ian Bairnson arranged. Everything has been digitally remastered from the best available source tapes. The end result is a product that sounds very good on a moderately priced home system and stunning on audiophile-quality speakers and equipment. If the casual fan sought advice as to where to begin enjoying The Alan Parsons Project, I would whole-heartedly recommend this collection.

Wow! What can I say - I have every Alan Parsons album (in CD format), so I knew exactly what I was getting here. This is a fantastic collection of the most widely known APP material, and a few deeper cuts. In addition, the mastering is great and the sound quality is phenomenal.

There is an interesting bonus to the last track "Standing on Higher Ground." The song is longer than on the original album "Gaudi," and it is fantastic. The song has a very upbeat and exciting ending, and in this version, you get to hear it go on for the length it should have in the first place. I am sure that on the original "Gaudi" album (which is terrific), the song was faded out sooner to fit everything in on the original vinyl version. The remastered version of "Gaudi" does include the longer version.

The selection and sequence of tracks gives you material from each of the ten "The Alan Parsons Project" albums, in order of release. Track 11 on Disc 2 is a previously unreleased song, between the albums "Vulture Culture" (1984) and "Stereotomy" (1985). This collection was released in 2007, and represents APP albums released from 1976's "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" to 1987's "Gaudi." Later material released under the name "Alan Parsons" (without "project") are not represented here, but I would not expect them to be. After Eric Woolfson left to pursue his solo career, Alan dropped "project" from the band's name.

Alan Parsons' music has made a tremendous impact on me, and it was instrumental in helping me move out of a dark time. I discovered the amazing catalog of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson album-by-album, but you cannot go wrong if you start with this collection. It may inspire you to dive deeper into the APP catalog. You will certainly find this music uplifting and thought-provoking, and perhaps even life-changing, as I did. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Alan Parsons, the late Eric Woolfson, and company for their inspiring music.

Having lived through the vinyl era of the original issues of his amazing albums, I have replaced a couple thus far but this encapsulates all the old favourites beautifully, as well as showcasing Alan Parsons' versatility and class. Well worth checking out, especially if you'd prefer not to buy up all the originals. Yet another master of the 70's diverse offerings proving they just don't lose their appeal, or 'date'.

I don't give a CD a 5 star rating too often and I am often disappointed by other reviews who automatically give everything they buy a 5 star rating for the music alone without considering all the aspects of the package (production, engineering overall sound quality of the CD). That said I have always loved Alan Parons Project and have (I think) everthing on either vinyl or CD. The music is "majestic" and in my opinion the musicians and singers are great. That being said what about this collection.

Since I already own a number of Alan Parsons CD's I put off buying this. I had 90% of it on individual CD's already but.......I was so curious. As a long time musician I have my own home studio and for a number of years back in the 80's-90's I worked as an audio recording engineer at a pro (24 track analog) studio. Alan Parsons work has always been a great source of sonic inspiration for me. Most engineers run some music of their choice in the studio before a mixing or mastering session to prepare their ears for proper tonal balance. My choice was often an Alan Parsons CD. It is fairly accepted that Alan Parsons ranks amoung the worlds best recording engineers and producers (does it get better than his engineering work on the Beatles "Abbey Road" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"?). Along with Bob Clearmountain, Alan Parsons is my favorite producer. So why buy this collection if you already have most of it?
I recently got into mastering for local musicians who already had recorded material so I know what it involves. I just had to hear what Alan Parsons Project material would sound like remastered by Alan Parsons himself. To get to the point; this stuff is amazing. I thought it impossible to make these recordings sound better, but they do. Just get this set and play a song you are familiar with like "Time" or "Eye in the Sky". They are crisp and clear with a transparent bottom end that will just amaze you. I played these disc on my studios monitors and just set my system EQ completely flat. There was no need to add or take away anything. This will become the standard set up disc in my studio. (Oh did I mention the music is great.)

This disc has excellent music. However, I don't understand how someone could possibly leave out Breakdown when compiling this set. It is a great song. Those who buy this set will definitely be robbed of one of their greatest songs.

Alan parsons project have always reminded me of a lighter less dark pink floyd. No suprise considering that alan parson worked on Dark side of the moon with the floyd. This is a superb collection of APP music spanning there entire career. APP usually had conceptualy based albums, rather it was over use of electronic surveliance (I Robot) or gambling addiction (Turn of a friendly card). They walked a fine line between pop and progressive rock to create a more radio friendly body of work than lets say a band like yes did. There is no shortage of great music to find on this generous double disk set. The brilliant vocal work of eric woolfsen on tracks like Eye in the sky the disco funk swagger of I wouldnt want to be like you and the early 80s radio anthems like Games people play leave listeners with a collection of songs to be treasured.