EVE

In 1979 they all went "disco" somehow - as if there had been any need to follow the Bee Gees ! I remember I felt devastated at the time, what f.e. had happened to ELO ? Even BJH had started their first Album without Woolly with an attempt at filling dancefloors ( "Love on the Line" )... and The Alan Parsons Project sounded like a flat edition of themselves with "Lucifer". "Nevermind, Roop, that's the single and it's a hit, not really bad but listen to the album, it's Alan Parsons Project and they haven't made a bad one yet !" was what I was thinking. And I was absolutely disappointed. Then. "Lucifer" appeared to be the only track of any merit, even the other instrumental failed to have any impact... and the songs ? Boring. Bland. Emotionless.

The years have passed and I consider "Saturday Night Fever" as the best "phase" the Bee Gees had, starting with "Main Course" and ending with "Spirits ( having flown )". It's brilliant stuff. I have come to terms with Roxy Music's later phase ( love much of it now ) and even enjoy "Discovery" by ELO, BJH's Album - as my favourite Band ever - has quite some great stuff on it including "Love on the Line" with its spacey groove and feel. But APP ?

I have tried. More than once, believe me. Nothing has changed. Not even "Damned if I do" does anything for me. It's all about the songs and the songs here are immature from the second to the last track. "Lucifer" is still best but... compared to other APP-Instrumentals even this one can't live up to "Hyper Gamma Spaces" or the later "Gold Bug" or "Where's the Walrus ?". And it cannot save the album. Any other from APP, even "Stereotomy" is beating it out... or "Try anything once" without the "Project" in the name. It's been a mistake. If its successor hadn't been a strong album like "Turn of a friendly Card" was, I'd have solely written them off. As others have said here already: "Eve" is a "skipper".

Now there's been enough of information saying that Alan Parsons himself wasn't happy with that album either, putting it down to record-company pressures so they had to release it long before it was finished to their full satisfaction. This may be an excuse but I even can't imagine more work going into that poor collection of songs to better it. Nothing comparable here to what had made "I robot" or "Pyramid" so special. I sure don't mind "commercial" albums. But the songs have to be there. Here all of them sound the same - and very uninspired. Prog ? By no means. But I don't lower the rating because of that... and I can't give any more than one star for the concept, either. What's so special about writing songs about men and women ? Or filling a whole album with them ? Lots of people did that and lots of people will do that in future time. There's nothing wrong with it - as long as the songs are good. Relying on the bible for the concept, okay, that would have been something if APP had stayed true to the theme and explored new and interesting views about characters from the holy book - and investigating further there. Perhaps they should have taken "Lucifer" for a totally different album and called it "Lilith" ?