The Alan Parsons Project
I Robot
Eye in the Sky
Arista/Legacy
by David Chiu
Not exactly the greatest of the progressive/art rock bands, the Alan Parsons Project—fronted by keyboardist/producer Alan Parsons, songwriter/vocalist Eric Woolfson, and a rotating cast of singers and musicians—was at least one of the more commercially successful ones. It’s probably because unlike their hard-core peers, the Alan Parsons Project manages to blend the genre’s orchestrated pomp with some actual pop-friendly sensibilities. I Robot (1977) and Eye in the Sky (1982), now reissued with bonus tracks, are fine examples of the band’s approach. I Robot conveys a futuristic chill thanks to the instrumental title track, although the disco-influenced “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” is a stylistic departure from the rest of the songs. Eye in the Sky could be viewed as more accessible—it contains the enduring hit title track as well as the opening track Sirius, which could be heard at sporting events.
NewBeats 