HYPER-GAMMA-SPACES

Pyramid was the third album of The Alan Parsons Project, and this single -- recycling also the album's cover art by Hipgnosis -- contains two tracks from it. 'Hyper-Gamma-Spaces' is a typical APP instrumental of the second league. That is, the ones that open the albums (such as 'Voyager' on Pyramid) are always more impressive than those that come later on, such as this one. At least for me, they tend to have a slight album filler feel about them, as they concentrate on the technical production values instead of compositional values. The sounds are excellent but the piece itself is going nowhere and lacks emotion.

Curiously it's the B side that has a gorgeous vocal track -- which hopefully was at the time reached by radio listeners too. 'The Eagles Will Rise Again' is sung very beautifully by the ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone, heard also on 'Old & Wise', a better known APP ballad. This is in my opinion equally fine song. Or actually just a bit more exciting and cinematic. Not a bad single at all to have on a local jukebox, but it's the whole album that has more appeal to us.