Alan Parsons Project album-by-album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RickH, Feb 11, 2019.

  1. Jeff McParsons

    Jeff McParsons Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leipzig, Germany
    Concerning the Alan Parsons Project Live from 1990:

    Thank you for posting this, @JulesRules , this was new to me and it was really joyful to see the original musicians (at least some of them) performing APP. It is interesting to see that even then some peculiarities of later shows, even from today are already fully formed out, e.g. the combination of Lucifer and Mammagamma to one instrumental.
    And I think Limelight sounds better than on Stereotomy.


    Concerning the stage version of Freudiana in German:

    Another thing new to me. Quite interesting to listen for me but not quite my piece of cake. The story obviously was constructed around the original pieces of music which were already finished by then. Original Freudiana tells a different story, e.g. "I was alone in my room, feeling sorry for myself", definitely not being locked in the London museum, the story of Dora is totally different and so on.
    While the voices of the singers are good in general the original ones are usually better and more fitting for the songs. Eric Woolfson especially couldn't be replaced. It was nice to listen to this once but the musical genre in general is not for me, so this will not become a part of my "Alan Parsons Complete" playlist. But thank you for making me aware of this!
     
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  2. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    I certainly felt like that after my first listen. But since I had to go through it more often in order to write a good review, I found my initial reservations mostly disappearing. "Doctor Charcot" and "U-Bahn" are two tracks I particularly enjoy now. And I like being able to follow the lyrics in "Es is durchaus nicht erwiesen" better than in "Funny You Should Say That", even if the content is very different.

    It would've been interesting to get an English version of the stage production. Oh well.

    About the live gig from 1990: I've seen it stated again that they actually did three concerts. Due to the orchestra, I assume it was the same setlist every time.
     
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  3. Hawkeye

    Hawkeye Senior Member

    (Second song released from Parsons' upcoming album, From the New World).
     
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  4. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    While I'm still thinking about how to best pick up Parsons' new album, I think I should slowly get this thread back on track. In the period where nothing new was forthcoming, Arista started to release more and more compilations, some of them licensed to other labels. All of them have in common that they include nothing from Tales of Mystery and Imagination or Freudiana.

    Anthology (1991-1993)
    [​IMG]

    1 Genesis CH.1 Vs.32 3:37
    2 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:19
    3 Hyper Gamma Spaces 3:31
    4 You Won't Be There (Vocals – Dave Townsend) 3:37
    5 Damned If I Do 4:50
    6 Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part 1) (Vocals – Chris Rainbow) 2:39
    7 Games People Play 4:17
    8 Time 5:05
    9 Eye In The Sky 4:33
    10 Old And Wise (Vocals – Colin Blunstone) 4:52
    11 Prime Time 5:03
    12 Don't Answer Me 4:11
    13 The Same Old Sun 5:24
    14 Limelight (Vocals – Gary Brooker) 4:39
    15 La Sagrada Familia (Vocals – John Miles) 8:44

    Taken from the LP's:
    - I Robot (1, 2)
    - Pyramid (3)
    - Eve (4, 5)
    - Turn Of A Friendly Card (6 to 8)
    - Eye In The Sky (9, 10)
    - Ammonia Avenue (11, 12)
    - Vulture Culture (13)
    - Stereotomy (14)
    - Gaudi (15)

    Another release called Anthology was released one year later... apparently exclusively in Italy (as part of a budget series called "All the Best"). More curiously, it wasn't just released on CD and cassette, but also a double LP with all 17 tracks!

    [​IMG]

    1 I Robot (Instrumental) 6:02
    2 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:22
    3 Voyager (Instrumental) 2:24
    4 What Goes Up Must Come Down 3:31
    5 Hyper-Gamma-Spaces (Instrumental) 4:19
    6 Lucifer (Instrumental) 5:08
    7 The Gold Bug (Instrumental) 4:27
    8 Eye In The Sky 4:32
    9 Mammagamma (Instrumental) 3:22
    10 Prime Time 5:03
    11 Pipeline (Instrumental) 3:57
    12 Don't Answer Me 4:11
    13 Let's Talk About Me 4:22
    14 Hawkeye (Instrumental) 3:48
    15 Limelight 4:39
    16 Urbania (Instrumental) 4:34
    17 Paseo De Garcia [sic!] (Instrumental) 3:44

    As you can see, both releases take a chronological approach and have a couple of tracks in common (six). The latter one has a lot of instrumentals, but not "Sirius"!

    The Italian comp was later reissued with one of the most horrific covers I've ever seen. Hidden away in a spoiler because it's truly ugly :yikes:
    [​IMG]

    Yet another Italian comp, this time from 1993 and CD only, again from a multi-artist series this time called "L'Album Di...".

    [​IMG]

    From "I Robot" To "Gaudi"
    1-1 I Robot (Instrumental) 6:02
    1-2 Don't Let It Show 4:24
    1-3 Voyager (Instrumental) 2:24
    1-4 What Goes Up Must Come Down 3:31
    1-5 Damned If I Do 4:53
    1-6 Time 5:05
    1-7 The Gold Bug (Instrumental) 4:33
    1-8 Silence And I 7:22
    1-9 Eye In The Sky 4:36
    1-10 Ammonia Avenue 6:30
    1-11 Pipeline (Instrumental) 3:56
    1-12 Hawkeye (Instrumental) 3:44
    1-13 Limelight 4:39
    1-14 Urbania (Instrumental) 4:34
    1-15 Standing On Higher Ground 5:02
    From "Gaudi" To "I Robot"
    2-1 Paseo De Garcia (Instrumental) 3:42
    2-2 Where's The Walrus (Instrumental) 7:34
    2-3 The Same Old Sun 5:24
    2-4 Since The Last Goodbye 4:34
    2-5 You Don't Believe 4:26
    2-6 Psychobabble 4:51
    2-7 Mammagamma (Instrumental) 3:34
    2-8 Old And Wise 4:52
    2-9 The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part 1) 2:40
    2-10 Games People Play 4:18
    2-11 Lucifer (Instrumental) 5:08
    2-12 Winding Me Up 3:59
    2-13 Hyper-Gamma-Spaces (Instrumental) 4:19
    2-14 Can't Take With You 5:05
    2-15 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:22
    2-16 Genesis Ch.1 V.33 (Instrumental) 3:37

    I don't think I've ever seen a double CD where the first disc was chronological and the second one went backwards! Interesting idea. Lots of instrumentals, again no "Sirius". :crazy: That double CD is almost an expanded version of the earlier Italian single CD, but three big hits - "Prime Time", "Don't Answer Me" and "Let's Talk About Me" - are missing.:rolleyes:
     
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  5. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I listened to the new album today and really enjoyed it. It sounded like it could have been made at some point in the late 70s/early 80s. I found the last track, a cover of The Ronettes’s Be My Baby to be redundant as you’re never going to top the original and it was basically a carbon copy so it’s not like they even tried to reinterpret it. Other than that though, I thought it was pretty solid and will give it repeated plays.
     
  6. Jeff McParsons

    Jeff McParsons Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leipzig, Germany
    Thanks for showing those Best-of albums, @JulesRules , even when the cover is ugly :D .
    I remember seeing many different albums when checked desperately in my local music shops if there would be something new from APP. I could resist to buy those as I already had all the regular albums (for some time, though ;)).

    @Porkpie
    There is a seperate thread for the "From The New World" album here.
     
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  7. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    More international compilations, mainly because I like the cover artwork...

    Hits In The Sky (1992)
    [​IMG]

    Country: Australia
    1 Eye In The Sky
    2 Time
    3 Turn Of A Friendly Card
    4 Pipeline (Instrumental)
    5 Old And Wise
    6 Prime Time
    7 Don't Let It Show
    8 Ammonia Avenue
    9 Lucifer (Instrumental)
    10 Don't Answer Me
    11 Days Are Numbered (The Traveller)
    12 The Same Old Sun
    13 Separate Lives
    14 Sooner Or Later
    15 Since The Last Goodbye
    16 Hawkeye (Instrumental)


    The Best Of The Alan Parsons Project (1992)
    [​IMG]
    Country:
    France
    1-1 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:12
    1-2 Eye In The Sky 4:34
    1-3 Don't Answer Me 4:10
    1-4 Games People Play 4:19
    1-5 Let's Talk About Me 4:26
    1-6 Time 4:59
    1-7 Pyromania 2:43
    1-8 You Don't Believe 4:25
    1-9 Lucifer 4:10
    1-10 Psychobabble 4:51
    1-11 Damned If I Do 3:34
    1-12 Don't Let It Show 3:30
    1-13 Can't Take It With You 4:43
    1-14 Old And Wise 4:08
    2-1 Limelight 4:39
    2-2 The Gold Bug 4:32
    2-3 The Same Old Sun 5:19
    2-4 Ammonia Avenue 6:30
    2-5 The Eagle Will Rise Again 4:21
    2-6 Mammagamma 3:34
    2-7 Since The Last Goodbye 4:35
    2-8 I Robot 6:01
    2-9 Inside Looking Out 6:24
    2-10 Prime Time 5:00
    2-11 Hawkeye 3:45
    2-12 The Turn Of A Friendly Card (part 1 & 2) 5:54
    2-13 Silence And I 7:07
    2-14 Sirius 1:54

    A French release with liner notes in, um, French. Some weird decisions on this one - why would you stick "Sirius" at the end of a compilation? Sewing the two parts of "The Turn of a Friendly Card" together also doesn't sit too well with me. And yes, "Pyramania" is officially mistitled here.

    The Ultimate Collection (1992)
    [​IMG]
    1-1 I Robot 6:02
    1-2 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:24
    1-3 Voyager 2:24
    1-4 What Goes Up... 3:31
    1-5 The Eagle Will Rise Again 4:23
    1-6 In The Lap Of The Gods 5:31
    1-7 Lucifer 5:10
    1-8 You Won't Be There 3:39
    1-9 Games People Play 4:19
    1-10 Time 5:04
    1-11 The Gold Bug 4:35
    1-12 The Turn Of A Friendly Card 2:42
    1-13 Maybe A Price To Pay 4:56
    1-14 Sirius 1:54
    1-15 Eye In The Sky 4:34
    1-16 Silence And I 7:16
    2-1 Psychobabble 4:51
    2-2 Mammagamma 3:36
    2-3 Old And Wise 4:53
    2-4 Prime Time 5:04
    2-5 Don't Answer Me 4:11
    2-6 Pipeline 3:58
    2-7 Ammonia Avenue 6:31
    2-8 Let's Talk About Me 4:27
    2-9 Hawkeye 3:47
    2-10 The Same Old Sun 5:23
    2-11 Stereotomy 7:18
    2-12 Limelight 4:40
    2-13 Inside Looking Out 6:23
    2-14 Paseo De Gracia 3:45

    A chronological double CD for the Benelux countries (but apparently also sold in Germany). Aside from lacking "La Sagrada Familia", this seems like a very good overview over the Arista albums.

    Prime Time (Best) (1991)
    [​IMG]

    1 Lucifer 5:09
    2 (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether 4:19
    3 The Raven 3:58
    4 I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:21
    5 The Voice 5:25
    6 What Goes Up... 3:06
    7 Hyper-Gamma-Spaces 4:17
    8 Winding Me Up 4:01
    9 Damned If I Do 4:50
    10 Eye In The Sky 4:35
    11 Mammagamma 3:34
    12 The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part One) 2:38
    13 Don't Answer Me 4:12
    14 Prime Time 5:03
    15 Urbania 4:59
    16 Too Late 4:29
    17 Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) 4:26
    18 Time 5:08

    Despite the bland cover artwork, this is actually a curious compilation. The German label Zounds supposedly caters to audiophiles (but apparently they don't live up to their promises), but the interesting thing here is that they managed to license tracks from Tales of Mystery and Imagination! It wouldn't be until 1997 that a regular compilation managed to do that.
     
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  8. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Been streaming "Vulture Culture" over the last few days, heard it for the first time since easily 1987 and it's a very solid album. :righton:
     
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  9. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
  10. Jeff McParsons

    Jeff McParsons Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leipzig, Germany
    Great! We are coming to one of the stranger album covers in history :cool: .
     
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  11. idledreamer

    idledreamer Still idle

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    Criminally underrated band.
     
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  12. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    The road from Freudiana to Try Anything Once

    Before we can seriously start talking about Alan Parsons’ “solo” career (you’ll see why I put that word in quotation marks), I’d like to go back a bit and examine the Freudiana aftermath:

    PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

    "I never wanted to make the album into a musical. That was Eric's doing. But then he got into a fight with the producer, went to court and couldn't pay my royalties. A disaster, the worst phase of my career. But the time before that in the Hotel Bristol in Vienna was great: the imperial flair and the boiled fillet - wonderful!"

    I've also discovered a great interview here and snipped out the relevant portion.

    Alan Parsons interview, All Our Yesterdays, Art and Science of Sound Recording

    What are your feelings about Freudiana?

    AP: Well, that, again, started as an Alan Parsons Project concept album, and when we were close to completing it, this theatrical producer called Brian Brolly heard it and wanted to develop it into a stage musical, so we had to literally double the length of it and put new music in, do reprises, and, y’know, write songs for different characters and so on. So it developed from a single album to a double album, and then the feeling was at the time that it was not suitable to be called The Alan Parsons Project, so it became Freudiana, produced by Alan Parsons and with all the same people as The Alan Parsons Project. But it turned out that that was a huge marketing mistake, because nobody knew it was there. Had it come out as The Alan Parsons Project, it probably would’ve done a whole lot better, but as it was… (Stops suddenly, then laughs) Well, a vulture has just flown by my window right now. How’s that for vulture culture?

    BE: (Laughs) Brilliant! So when you think of Freudiana, in your heart, do you think of it as an Alan Parsons Project album?

    AP: Yes, I do, with the slight reservation that it was compromised slightly for the theater. If it had been purely a Project album, I might have done a few things differently. I mean, Marti Webb is a lovely singer and a good friend of mine, but I possibly would not have chosen her had it not been for her musical / theatrical output. And the experience of the musical itself was just a torture for me. It involved personalities and artists that I just had no time for.

    BE: So did you and Eric Woolfson remain on semi-decent terms after that?

    AP: Semi-decent, yeah. It was ultimately the reason that…I mean, Freudiana turned into a very nasty political battle between Eric and Brian, and it ended up being a year and millions and millions of pounds spent on legal costs, and I was sort of caught in the middle of that, and my income stream was cut off for a period. So it caused some bitterness, probably for the wrong reasons, but I think we were still friends. But in the business areas, we were miles apart. Also, it became…we were becoming separate musically as well, because Eric wanted to continue doing musicals, and that was the very last thing I wanted to do, so I assembled some of the previous band members and made my own album, and we took it to the road. That’s when the live Project got under way.

    BE: I’ll tell you, I’m a big fan of the Try Anything Once album. It came out when I was working at a record, and I played it at every opportunity.

    AP: And, of course, that was the album I was speaking of. Well, that’s good. Yeah, I’m pretty keen on it. There was David Pack again.

    BE: And Chris Thompson. I loved him on “Turn it Up.”

    AP: Yeah, we toured with Chris for…oh, a good year and a half, I think. Yeah, he was a great, fun man. Really good.

    BE: Are you disappointed that the industry has changed to the point where, for instance, albums like On Air and The Time Machine didn’t necessarily get the kind of mainstream exposure that your previous albums did?

    AP: Yeah, well, of course it was a disappointment. We’re now in a 3-minute download world, not a 45-minute album world. That’s the way things have gone. Yeah, I’m disappointed, but I accept it.

    BE: Which of your later albums are you the most proud of, that would’ve had a better shot if we still lived in an album-centric world?

    AP: I still think “Turn it Up” should’ve been a hit, and I think Try Anything Once should’ve been huge. It did okay. I mean, I think we did two or three hundred thousand, which is a lot better than we’ve done since… (Laughs) …but when you think that all the Project albums sold a million plus… (Trails off)
     
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  13. Jeff McParsons

    Jeff McParsons Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leipzig, Germany
    Great insights, thank you!
     
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  14. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany

    Try Anything Once TV commercial. Notice how Freudiana gets skipped over ("first album in six years").
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2022
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  15. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    Try Anything Once (1993)
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    Studio album by
    Alan Parsons
    Released
    26 October 1993
    Recorded October 1992 – August 1993
    Genre Progressive rock
    Length 59:36
    Label Arista
    Producer Alan Parsons

    Alan Parsons chronology
    Freudiana
    (1990) Try Anything Once
    (1993) On Air
    (1996)
    Singles from Try Anything Once
    1. "Turn It Up"
      Released: 1993
    2. "Wine From the Water"
      Released: 1994 (Europe only)
    3. "Oh Life (There Must Be More)"
      Released: 1994 (US only)
    Professional ratings
    Review scores
    Source
    Rating
    AllMusic ** 1/2[1]
    Deseret News (favorable)[2]

    Try Anything Once is the first solo album by Alan Parsons, released in 1993. It was his first album following the split of The Alan Parsons Project.

    This album features vocals by Ambrosia's David Pack, Jacqui Copland, former Mindbender and 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band frontman Chris Thompson. The album features completely digital recording and mixing. It was recorded at Parsons' first "Parsonics" studio in Sussex England with the orchestra recorded at Air Studios in London.

    There is an Easter egg inside the inlay. One of the pictures is a stereogram; when the viewer looks at it correctly, an image of a man and woman upside down will appear, similar to the other pictures in the album's artwork. This image is also on the CD itself.

    Track listing

    1. "The Three of Me" (David Pack, Andrew Powell) David Pack 5:52
    2. "Turn It Up" (Ian Bairnson) Chris Thompson 6:13
    3. "Wine from the Water" (Alan Parsons, Bairnson) Eric Stewart 5:43
    4. "Breakaway" (Parsons) Instrumental 4:07
    5. "Mr Time" (Stuart Elliott, Jacqui Copland, Richard Driscoll) Jacqui Copland 8:17
    6. "Jigue" (Parsons, Powell) Instrumental 3:24
    7. "I'm Talkin' to You" (Pack, Powell) David Pack 4:38
    8. "Siren Song" (Bairnson, Frank Musker) Eric Stewart 5:01
    9. "Dreamscape" (Parsons) Instrumental 3:01
    10. "Back Against the Wall" (Bairnson) Chris Thompson 4:38
    11. "Re-Jigue" (Parsons, Powell) Instrumental 2:28
    12. "Oh Life (There Must Be More)" (Pack, Parsons) David Pack 6:33

    Personnel
    • Alan Parsons – producer, synthesizer (2, 4, 6, 12), acoustic guitar (5, 7), bass (3), flute (12), background vocals (2, 3)
    • Ian Bairnson – guitar (1-11), synthesizer (2, 5, 10), bass (2, 4, 8, 10), pedal steel guitar (8), background vocals (3)
    • Richard Cottle – synthesizer (1-10), saxophone (4, 6)
    • Andrew Powell – orchestra director, synthesizer (1, 6, 7), piano (5, 11, 12), electric piano (3), bass (1, 6, 7, 11), autoharp (4)
    • Stuart Elliott – drums (1-8, 10-12), synthesizer (5)
    • David Pack – vocals (1, 7, 12), guitar (1, 7, 12), synthesizer (1, 12)
    • Chris Thompson – vocals (2, 10)
    • Eric Stewart – vocals (3, 8)
    • Jacqui Copland – vocals (5), background vocals (2, 10)
    • Graham Preskett [fr] – violin (1), fiddle (6), mandolin (6)
    • Jeremy Parsons – guitar (7)
    • Philharmonia Orchestra arranged and conducted by Andrew Powell – strings, horns & woodwinds (1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12)*
    Charts
    Chart performance for Try Anything Once
    Chart (1993) Peak position
    Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[3]
    64
    German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[4] 78
    Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[5] 34
    US Billboard 200[6] 122

    References
    1. ^ Mike DeGagne (26 October 1993). "Try Anything Once - Alan Parsons | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
    2. ^ Ray Boren (21 December 1993). "'Try Anything Once' proves Parsons hasn't lost touch". Deseret News. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
    3. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
    4. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
    5. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once". Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
    6. ^ "Alan Parsons Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 16 December 2020.

    *The only track for which the orchestra is credited explictly is "Re-Jigue", but I'm sure they're on other tracks too, with varying degrees of prominence.
     
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  16. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    Oh, I just saw this by complete accident on a Facebook group while looking for more interviews. What a coincidence I would revive the thread today. Happy birthday, Ian Bairnson!

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. Hawkeye

    Hawkeye Senior Member

    Happy Birthday to Ian, one of the most underrated guitarists I can think of. I was lucky enough to speak with him on a couple of separate occasions. Unfortunately I believe he is currently battling dementia, and I fear we will likely never hear any new guitar licks from the master. My heart goes out to him. Recently his dear wife, Leila, had a fundraiser to help in the fight against Dementia. After realizing why, it was with sadness that I immediately donated.




    Her's a recent picture of Ian, I believe taken by Leila, that was posted to Instagram.
    [​IMG]
    Leila Bairnson on Instagram: "Ian: my hub, my love, my life❤️❤️❤️"
     
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  18. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    That's very sad to hear (and see) :( He was still in good enough shape a few years ago to record two solos for The Secret, but I guess health can deteriorate quite quickly at that age...
     
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  19. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    Try Anything Once:

    Surprisingly, Parsons was back for one last album on Arista. There is a story that somebody from the label was very confounded at the subject matter of Gaudi. With all the shenanigans between Woolfson and Arista that we already talked about, it’s not hard to see that Parsons and him were keen to get out of the contract, and Gaudi was the last album they had signed up for. (The next projects came out on Mercury and EMI.)

    So what do you do when your main songwriter leaves? Go back to the roots. What are the Project's roots? The musicians playing on the debut Tales of Mystery and Imagination mainly came from two bands that Parsons had previously produced - Pilot and Ambrosia. Now was the time to finally tap into the songwriting potential of those bands.

    Speaking of Ambrosia, I never knew anything by them except the very radio-friendly "You're the Biggest Part of Me", but now I decided to check out their first two albums - one engineered and one produced by Parsons - and they're EXCELLENT! Prog-pop somewhere between Kansas and the APP. I certainly like them more than Pilot, whose songs generally are too lightweight for me, although Ian’s guitar certainly sprinkles a lot of fairy dust onto the songs. I can easily draw a line from Ambrosia’s early work to David Pack’s contributions on this album.

    One musician who had not been in either Pilot nor Ambrosia, but enjoyed a long association with Parsons too, was drummer Stuart Elliott, who now also stepped up to do writing. And another collaborator who had even gotten some official co-writing credits, in addition to creating all the trademark orchestral arrangements, is Andrew Powell.

    If you go back in time, some side projects already showed what was possible if you gave these people some writing space. Powell did two soundtracks, Ladyhawke featuring most of the Project players, who also did the Keats album, on which Stuart Elliott co-wrote two songs with Colin Blunstone, while Ian Bairnson came up with three tracks on his own. (David Paton also wrote two, but he seems to be out of the picture by now.) Given how Keats sounded like Project-lite, it was not a far-fetched idea to continue the well-worn path.

    Thanks to a post by @Hawkeye, I am also aware that Ian had already made unrecognized writing contributions to some later Project albums.

    And of course Parsons had written stuff himself, including most instrumentals (exceptions like the second half of "In the Lap of the Gods" excluded) and the basic ideas for songs such as "Breakdown", "Can't Take It With You", "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned" and "Days Are Numbers". Being familiar with those means that you can usually pick out his writing style, and it definitely shows up on Try Anything Once and On Air.

    Now about the name.

    Parsons nowadays says that The Alan Parsons Project was two people, him and Eric Woolfson. But I don’t think Woolfson would have fought him over the name - especially since Freudiana had already done away with it. So I see the dropping of the “Project” more as a gesture of goodwill. The Project clearly contained input from more people, and most of them stuck around. This is why I will sometimes mix things up in the review and refer to something from Try Anything Once as a Project track or say that this or that hasn’t happened on a Parsons album since whenever. Despite Woolfson’s departure, I find it hard to draw a sharp line between the two entities and Try Anything Once does follow naturally from the Project albums before it (including Freudiana). This is why you’ll also find this album occasionally listed under the Project moniker on review sites and the like, and even represented on an officially sanctioned Project compilation. It's not a debut in the traditional sense, and not a radical departure either.

    Solo-Versuch: "Try anything once" war 1993 das erste Soloalbum, nachdem Parsons das Alan Parsons Project drei Jahre zuvor aufgelöst hatte. Für das Artwork engagierte Parsons Design-Legende Storm Thorgerson (1944-2013). Der sagte: "Passend zum Albumtitel - alles wenigstens einmal zu versuchen - stellte ich mir prompt Bungeejumper vor: Wie kann jemand nur auf so eine halsbrecherische Idee kommen, das zu tun? Ich finde es schon gefährlich genug, morgens aus dem Bett zu steigen."

    Translation of Storm Thorgerson's statement: “The album title “Try Anything Once” immediately made me think of bungee jumping: How can you come up with the idea of doing something that dangerous? I already find it risky to get out of bed!”

    The stereo image is interesting. Depending on how you squint your eyes, you either get the man and woman hanging upside down with quite some space between them OR them hanging far closer... but with a gap in their bodies. I doubt this was an unintentional side effect.

    Anyway, the whole package is well-designed and thought-provoking. Complete artwork (including variations and singles here). Let's talk about... not me (or the three of them), but the music.


    The Three of Me:

    Echoing stabs of keys evolving into a bit of a typcial Parsons soundscape. Then Andrew Powell's neoclassical piano playing over some pretty dissonant proggy changes. The song slows down and settles into a doomy groove that's somewhat Project-like but still far darker than most of what we've heard on anything since the first couple of Project records.

    The instrumental overture lasts quite long - the actual song doesn’t start until two minutes in. David Pack, who co-wrote the song with Andrew Powell, sings and makes you wonder why he was never used by the Project, since his voice is right in their tradition. Interesting lyrics about schizophrenia, I guess. The rhythm sounds complicated.

    The interlude after the harmonized guitar solo again brings the first two APP albums to mind, as it ramps up the tension to extreme amounts with dark strings, weird noises and a blood-curdling organ (even the insane laugh, tried out during the recording of Tales of Mystery and Imagination, finally gets put to good use here). All in all, an excellent opener, and a brave choice to start the new phase with such a challenging piece.

    Turn It Up:

    Brooding intro with gently pulsing bass, soft programming and synthesizer arpeggios. Then the familiar voice of Chris Thompson enters the mix. Like Pack, he's a newcomer to the world of Parsons, but a great addition to his cosmos. Not sure I can say the same about the song, which does feel a bit faceless.

    Oh, what was that? “Sittin’ on fences can make you a pain in the @ss…” Just like The Beatles, the Project suddenly discovered expletives after the split!

    Parsons believes the song should've been a big hit (and it stayed in the live setlist far longer than anything else from his first three solo albums), but I can see why it wasn't. Not just because of the expletive (which, admittedly makes for some nice wordplay, as sitting on a fence can indeed lead to unwanted pain in the backside, but in the context of the lyrics, it also makes the person doing so a pain to deal with for others - as a certified fence-sitter I can testify to that). The verse is just too laid back and the chorus sort of stays unresolved, with not much happening between those two chords.

    A weakness of Parsons' solo work already becomes obvious - stretching songs out way beyond their content. There’s some beautiful soundscaping in the middle, but that polyrhythm is a bit too close to Tubular Bells for comfort. It leads into a good, but short solo by the song’s writer, Ian Bairnson. All of this was cut out for the single edit, but I’m not sure that was an improvement either. After all, that build-up to the solo and final chorus is probably the best thing about the song, along with the motivational lyrics.

    The production is crystalline though. And I like that it doesn’t fade out, but come to a real ending.

    (Something is whispered at 3:56 but I can't understand it even when I, um, turn it up. Oh well.)

    The song was the lead single and also got an excellent, typically surreal video by Storm Thorgerson, basically turning the cover into a mini-movie:



    Wine from the Water:

    Three songs in and we've arrived at the most Project sounding track. The electric piano, the ticking beat - not too far from the likes of “Eye in the Sky” and “Prime Time”. The lyrics also evoke a similarly ominous omniscient narrator as “Eye in the Sky” and “You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned”. The fact that he’s a trickster fits well with Parsons’ interest in magic (we’ll get back to that subject much later). I already mentioned how Eric Stewart has a similar timbre to Eric Woolfson, so inviting him again after Freudiana was a great move. It’s also quite audible that Parsons co-wrote this one with Ian Bairnson (who plays a wonderfully understated solo), as his typical chord sequences are there for all to hear. And Parsons’ voice is also audible in the low harmonies.

    One thing I love about this song is the high synth line over the chorus. A simple but extremely effective device - Supertramp have also used it on tracks like "Cannonball" or "Sooner or Later". The different electric piano sounds (the clavinet in the chorus is quite funky) and the laid-back backing vocals make this song sound like it came straight from the 1970s. Oh, and Bairnson smuggled another smutty line in there (“no cunning stunts”).

    Again, a weakness, aside from the somewhat underwhelming first part of the verse (Woolfson would’ve written a more distinctive melody) is the disproportionate length. There just aren’t enough ideas for six minutes (which is why the single edit is markedly shorter). Though I like the vocal ad-libs at the end, which remind me of "Standing on Higher Ground". And the Hammond organ, an underused instrument in the Project catalog. (Uncredited, like quite a few things on this album.)

    Breakaway:

    Nice flageolet part coming out of the previous track’s ending, and then a minimal keyboard pattern starts playing that’s very reminiscent of “I Robot” (both in terms of sound and the actual notes). Clearly, this is a Parsons instrumental. Richard Cottle’s sax part is… OK, I guess. A guitar part interacts nicely with strings.

    It's not particularly innovative - stick “I Robot”, “Sirius” (the ascending strings at 1:50), “Hawkeye” (the jerky sax), “Pavane” and “Lucifer” (the big chiming keyboards) into a blender, and you'll end up with this track. But it is trademark Parsons, and highly entertaining. Thus, it comes at a good spot on the album.

    What makes things interesting is the clicking sounds and the busy double-time rhythm, giving the track a sense of urgency. And thankfully, Parsons has not discovered techno (yet). So this is one of the last old-school “Project” instrumentals.

    Mr Time:

    Drawn out intro with some nice guitar soloing by Ian, very much in the David Gilmour vein. Then a woman starts singing - Jacqui Copland, who had toured as a backing vocalist with Duran Duran and co-wrote the song with Stuart Elliott and Marion Driscoll (whose only other credit on Discogs is playing the triangle on Al Stewart's 1976 album Year of the Cat, which was produced by Parsons and featured, among others, Project and Parsons regulars Stuart Elliott, Andrew Powell, David Pack and Phil Kenzie). Apparently this is a "cover", since the song was written in 1990 by Copland's band The Dreamfield, but I'm not sure their version was ever released.

    Gotta admit that the loping shuffle is quite attractive. And once the chorus starts pumping, it's got lovely reminiscences of the Pyramid and Turn of a Friendly Card albums with its lush arrangement full of chiming guitars and percussion. If you always liked "The Gold Bug" and the spacey parts of "One More River" and "Can't Take It With You" (oh, and not forgetting “Freudiana”), here is some ear candy. Copland has a great voice - airy, assured and emotive. The lyrics are thought-provoking too (“Mr Time” is a thinly veiled euphemism for death). But oh, the length. It's the longest song on a Parsons album so far (not counting the five-part suites “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Turn of a Friendly Card”) and simply doesn't justify the length. The bookending guitar solo at the end is superfluous. Great song, too long.

    Jigue:

    Graham Preskett on fiddle playing, surprisingly, a jig. (Nomen est omen.) This may be the first time Celtic influences have been heard on a Parsons album (even though Eric Woolfson was from Glasgow) but certainly not the last. The track moves back and forth between the folky dance bits and Ian Bairnson countering with guitars. It all brings Mike Oldfield to mind (again), especially since Bairnson's tone on the acoustic guitar (at 1:54) is quite close to Mike's. His electric, however, still anchors it (somewhat) to the Project - as do the castanets! - although even there I hear some percussive bits around the 2:45 mark not unlike a certain part of “Tubular Bells” (“Fast Guitars” on the 2003 re-recording).

    Then Richard Cottle's sax, coupled with the music going from minor to major key, suddenly turns it into a Supertramp track. Weird.

    This is a good interlude, but you can hear that there is an ongoing search for new ideas.

    I'm Talkin' To You:

    I'm delighted by the many segues on this album. David Pack is back, again co-writing with Andrew Powell, but this is a slightly more upbeat song than "The Three of Me". There are interesting things happening in the drumming department again. The post-chorus (“One star rising…”) seems to be in 17/8?! And the bridge (“On and on”) is in 7/4. It's not miles removed from something Woolfson would've written (again with the electric piano providing the backbone). The main guitar part is apparently played by Parson's son Jeremy - with Pack, Bairnson and father and son Parsons that makes four guitarists! And we get the Powell horns, although they show up briefly.

    Again, a good, but maybe not amazing song. Just something missing. However, after many listens it does stick in your mind.

    Siren Song:

    Now here is where the attempts to replace Eric Woolfson's writing get ridiculous, as this is simply a re-write of "To One in Paradise" by Ian Bairnson and songwriter Frank Musker, and featuring the Woolfson-esque voice of Eric Stewart again. And somebody (no other vocalist is credited) has also taken on the role of Chris Rainbow.

    The lyrics, like "Mr Time", seem to deal with death and the possibility of an afterlife. The song also has a lyrical callback to "Wine From The Water" (and Pyramid!). It’s nice, but if there wasn’t so much aping of an existing song going on, I could enjoy it more. It's a pleasant facsimile, but a facsimile nonetheless.

    Wind noises take us into...

    Dreamscape:

    The aptly titled third instrumental, a duet by Ian Bairnson (whose guitar sounds like a cross between Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour, á la “Coming Back to Life”) and Richard Cottle that's oddly credited to Parsons alone, despite him not playing anything on it.

    It's pretty beautiful, but nothing more than an interlude. (Maybe an aural imagining of the afterlife?) And that same transition already occurred on Stereotomy.

    Back Against the Wall:

    The Bairnson/Thompson writing/singing constellation is back. And so is the shuffle, but this one kinda limps along at a snail's pace. The electric piano again sounds 70s-like, and Chris’ voice is totally naked at first. The Project doing blues? Well, sort of. Remember how I suggested “Let Me Go Home” might be a Bairnson song? Same kind of harmonies and chord changes.

    And wow, the expletive is back too - Chris has to sing the line "$h*t there's no one there to call". Like the "pain in the ass" line, this seems like a rather feeble attempt to write something a bit more daring, a bit tougher than the polite soft pop that had become the Project's calling card. But those "street fighter" lyrics don't really suit Parsons (Thompson more so - at least he’s done things like this before, e.g. “Demolition Man”, “Going Underground” and “Who Are the Mystery Kids”) and they also don't sound like Bairnson really knew what he was doing. It's a mismatch.

    The transition into the faster part (with some Stereotomy-like sounds) is a nice touch. Generally, the song sounds like it belongs on Vulture Culture or Stereotomy, it almost sounds like a demo. Bereft of the reverb that graces the other tracks, it exposes the still rather thin digital sounds at the core.

    An aside: Why was Chris Thompson never used by the Project? In his prime, he was one of the best rock singers; by the 90s, his voice had already gotten a bit raspy, but it was still listenable. Maybe because he was featured on Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, a multi-vocalist rock musical not unlike the Project. What’s also weird in this context is how Manfred Mann’s Earth Band became more and more The Manfred Mann Project due to Chris announcing his leave and Manfred not finding a suitable replacement, leading Chance to have six lead singers and Somewhere in Afrika having four.

    Re-Jigue:

    Just as on Freudiana (and several other Project records), the instrumentals have a grouping function. "Jigue" ends the first half of the album, and "Re-Jigue" wraps it up. Almost.

    It starts with the orchestra reprise of the “Jigue” theme, and gets quite pompous in the usual vein with stately French horns and busy strings. Andrew Powell really cuts loose here (and the placement near the end is suspiciously similar to the orchestral reprise of “Freudiana”). Ian plays a nice elegiac solo (the track is now at half-time).

    Oh, Life (There Must Be More):

    Parsons on flute! This is the big ending ballad, but it doesn't strike me as a wannabe-Woolfsong. It does its own thing. Powell on piano, David Pack sings and again sounds like one of the best fits for the Project I’ve ever heard.

    At first, I think I was a bit fatigued from the length of the album, but during my third or fourth listen - finally paying proper attention to the lyrics - it brought tears to my eyes. The guitar solo is emotional too - apparently Pack plays this too.

    Starting with a song about multiple schizophrenia and ending with one about depression and suicide, this definitely isn't a "happy" album.

    Rather amazingly, there was a promo single with two different edits. Just like another suicide epic released as a single - “The Great Escape” by Marillion, a mere year later - it obviously didn’t turn into a hit.




    In some ways, Try Anything Once is exactly what you expect it to be. Astounding sound, good performances, four instrumental tracks, an overriding feeling of melancholia. But there is definitely a Woolfson-shaped hole.

    And Woolfson isn’t the only name missing. This line-up has no bass player, and this after the 1990 shows had not one but two (David Paton and Laurie Cottle)! The bass duties are divided up by Powell, Bairnson and Parsons.

    Initially, I said that the album went back to the roots. Aside from the stronger involvement of Andrew Powell, there are musical reasons for that description too. In its strongest moments, it's a much proggier affair than the more recent Project albums. Despite the lack of an overt concept, it plays like a well conceived album, with lots of cross-fades between tracks (always one of my favourite tricks; almost all the songs are connected except "Mr Time" > "Jigue" - which is the break between the two original LP sides). The jaunty, bouncy backbeat that had crept into a lot of Woolfson's songs is mostly gone, as is the touch of musical theater, leaving space for more dark and open moments in the line of the first three albums.

    The production also marks a drastic turn away from the 80s records. While I wouldn't call it muddy, it places much more emphasis on lows and mids as opposed to treble. Freudiana already had some signs of this change, but it's more pronounced here. This probably has to do with the changes in the musical mainstream, which now favoured guts over sheen. The dynamics are actually quite bad considering Parsons’ usual track record and the fact that the loudness wars were only starting in 1993. The Japanese edition from 2019 is even worse in that regard. And the 24K gold disc doesn’t seem to differ from the normal mastering, if the DR readings are to be believed. However, a German edition has slightly better values, which is curious (I’m gonna see if I can get that one).

    All in all though, a well done upgrade of the Project style for the early 1990s. Which is not to say there aren't 80s remnants. The drums still have a lot of reverb (but sounding more like "The Boxer" than "In The Air Tonight") and the lack of a dedicated bassist (there isn’t anyone credited for bass on “Mr. Time” and “Oh Life”) also works against it sounding even more organic.

    If you ignore Freudiana, Try Anything Once should feel like a return to form. But Freudiana was a better album IMO, so it's easier for me to see the flaws of Try Anything Once.

    Of course, Parsons & Co. were not in an easy place. Deviate from the formula too much and you get things like "Jigue" (which is good, but a bit confused) or "Back Against the Wall" (derivative and not particularly convincing). Mimic Woolfson's style a bit too closely and you get the self-parody of "Siren Song". It's a tightrope.

    At this point, Parsons clearly embraced the “Adult Contemporary” tag that the Project had been fighting on Stereotomy. There isn’t anything here that would naturally appeal to a younger audience.

    While it's not as long as Freudiana, one hour is still pretty damn long. Parsons must've realized this, as his next albums are generally just a bit over normal LP length. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t call any of the tracks on this album poor or anything. It’s just not all top-tier material. But it is more consistent than quite a couple of Project albums, which is already an achievement, also considering that there are more writers involved than on the Project albums.

    The album was actually released on a single LP but with “I’m Talkin’ To You” and “Dreamscape” removed, and “Breakaway” shoved in the place of the latter between “Siren Song” and “Back Against the Wall” (Europe, Brazil, Spain), bringing the side length down to 26. In 2015, Music on Vinyl finally released the complete set of songs on a double LP, which was available as a green transparent or green/black version and normal black. In either case I have no idea how the transitions are dealt with.

    Finally, the Allmusic user review by Paul Nugent has a good crack at the common thread: "The 'theme' of this album seems to be what you accomplish in a lifetime and how you should give it your best shot."
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2022
  20. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I've not heard anything by Parsons post-Gaudi, but this review has piqued my interest, so I'll at least have a YouTube listen.
     
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  21. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    I didn't know anything from this album prior to this thread except "Wine from the Water" and a short bit of "Turn It Up" (both of which I had recorded off the radio), so I had to listen to it quite a few times to come to any sort of conclusion. It didn't immediately wow me like much of Freudiana, but it helps to adjust the expectations a bit, and I've listened to On Air and The Time Machine a lot already too so I got a feel for the Parsons "solo" style from the period that several of the Project collaborators were still with him.
     
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  22. iskiv

    iskiv Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Ambrosia are great, and go much deeper than their soft-rock hits. Their first album in particular is a favourite of mine.
     
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  23. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
  24. David Bostock

    David Bostock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Ambrosia are indeed great--especially the first album--they are regularly on my play list.

    Try Anything Once is great and I really liked it when it came out, but I find it just hasn't aged as well for me. Jules, I really look forward to your reviews of On Air and The Time Machine. Before them, though, I wonder if you might take a short side trip to the 1994 "The Very Best Live"? I find it an extraordinary live recording with very dynamic sound and includes a lot of the APP favorites. It was also mastered by Simon Heyworth who usually does a terrific job. It's one of my top APP sets.
     
  25. JulesRules

    JulesRules Weaponized, Deranged Warthog Thug

    Location:
    Germany
    I'm definitely going to cover that live album (sorry if I gave the impression I wasn't), but I'll probably not have as much to say about it as about the studio albums. And it's not going to be as positive as your comment. To me, that album is a huge missed opportunity.
     
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