EYE IN THE SKY

This is the most commercially successful album coming from the Alan Parsons Project, led together with Eric Woolfson by the man who was an engineer on The Beatles' "Abbey Road" and Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon"! It contains many of their big hits such as "Sirius", "Eye In The Sky" and "Old And Wise", the former even serving as the theme song for the Chicago Bulls. The album continues on the road of pop the project would venture out on after their first two albums.

I will start the actual review off with saying the same thing that many other reviewers already have: this is not really prog rock. The album does not have many traits left of ALP's roots in prog rock, as shown in "I Robot" for example. This is a quite poppy and radio-friendly album. That should however not make the album's listening experience any worse in my opinion, and I think it has many traits that prog fans would appreciate. Regardless of whatever genre you ascribe the album to, it keeps a lot of the ALP's artistic values, and you could even go as far as to call this "progressive pop" or "art pop".

When it comes to my overall impression of the album, I have three things to say. First of all, the sound quality is spot on. It should come as no surprise, considering the album comes from the man who was a sound engineer on one of the most successful albums of all time. The sound is extremely clean, probably to the point that some would call it overproduced, and it is no wonder that it was nominated for the Grammy Awards for the Best Engineered Album in 1983. Second of all, with the exception of "Silence and I", the songs are very straightforward, resulting in a good flow throughout the album, like a river that flows into the ocean that is "Old And Wise". And lastly, the album has a lot of personality. A lot of the artistic value is put into the lyrics, making the album just more fun to listen to in general. In my opinion, good albums are those you can build a personal connection to. If this album was a person, they would be a very quirky and friendly type with an emotionally sensitive side.

I will not talk about every single song on the album, but I will bring up some highlights. The opener "Sirius" packs a big punch in barely two minutes with powerful guitar work (including an amazing solo) and a beautiful symphonic atmosphere. I can see why this became the theme song for a big basketball team. The second track, "Eye In The Sky" is the biggest hit the project released. It is an embodiment of soft rock, sounding incredibly melodic with no instrument taking over the song at any other instrument's expense. Three songs later, "Silence And I" is perhaps the album's finest moment, even if it did not become a hit. Out of all the songs on the album, this is probably one that any prog fan would appreciate. It starts off very slow-paced and symphonic and at the 2:38 mark, the tempo shifts and becomes much faster with an explosion of symphonic soundscapes. Not to mention the spot-on guitar solo, of course. "Psychobabble" is just pure fun to listen to, both musically and lyrically. You just cannot ignore the flute lick, and it also has a lot of progressive characteristics. "Mammagamma" is a great funky tune which you cannot help but to dance to. The album is finished off with the rich, melancholic ballad "Old And Wise", which tops the sundae off with a cherry that is the killer saxophone solo in the end.

To conclude, while the album has not much to offer in terms of progressive rock, it is an excellent album for pop rock standards and I still recommend any fan of prog to check it out. If you like Supertramp's "Breakfast In America" and "Even In The Quietest Moments", and ELO's "A New World Record" and "Out Of The Blue", I think you will enjoy this one too, as well as their earlier albums "The Turn Of A Friendly Card" and "I Robot".

I give this one a total score of 8.5/10.