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Alan Parsons - On Air CD (album) cover

ON AIR

Alan Parsons

 

Prog Related

3.09 | 86 ratings

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progaardvark
2 stars On Air is Alan Parsons' second solo album after the demise of the Alan Parsons Project when Parsons and Eric Woolfson went their separate ways. Unlike his first solo album, Try Anything Once, Parsons seems to rehash old ideas and his formulaic approach seems a bit too tiresome now on his 13th studio album (APP+Freudiana+solo). The music seems even more commercial than ever, even wandering into overt dance music with the Apollo instrumental. Even so, the production is the usual and exceptional work we've always admired of Alan Parsons.

This time, Parsons returns to a theme-based album. As expected from the title, On Air covers the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flights of Daedalus and Icarus, to Leonardo da Vinci's designs of flying machines, to hot air ballooning, and finally space exploration. The number of guests on this is considerably larger than usual, including Eric Stewart (Mindbenders and 10cc), Neil Lockwood (ELO Part 2), Christopher Cross, Graham Dye (Scarlet Party), Peter Beckett (Player and Paladin), John Giblin (notable session bassist), and orchestral composer Andrew Powell, among others. Guitarist Ian Bairnson plays a much larger and more significant role in this album, having writing credits for 10 of the 11 songs.

Again, like other recent Parsons creations, this is chiefly pop music, with little or no progressive elements to it. APP fans will probably want this, but the rest of you will probably have no interest in this. Two stars. For collectors and fans only.
progaardvark | 2/5 |

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