Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

FREUDIANA

Eric Woolfson

Prog Related


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Eric Woolfson Freudiana album cover
3.48 | 133 ratings | 11 reviews | 24% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

Write a review

Buy ERIC WOOLFSON Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 1990

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. The Nirvana Principle (instrumental) (3:45)
2. Freudiana (6:21)
3. I Am A Mirror (4:07)
4. Little Hans (3:15)
5. Dora (3:51)
6. Funny You Should Say That (4:36)
7. You're On Your Own (3:54)
8. Far Away From Home (3:12)
9. Let Yourself Go (5:26)
10. Beyond The Pleasure Principle (instrumental) (3:14)
11. The Ring (4:23)
12. Sects Therapy (3:40)
13. No One Can Love You Better Than Me (5:41)
14. Don't Let The Moment Pass (3:41)
15. Upper Me (5:16)
16. Freudiana (instrumental) (3:43)
17. Destiny (0:51)
18. There But For The Grace Of God (5:56)

Total Time: 74:53

Line-up / Musicians

- Eric Woolfson / keyboards, vocals (2,5,9,13), composer

With:
- Ian Bairnson / guitar
- Richard Cottle / synthetizer, saxophone
- Alan Parsons / keyboards, composer (10), producer
- Laurie Cottle / bass (not confirmed)
- Stuart Elliott / drums, percussion
- Leo Sayer / vocals (3)
- Graham Dye / vocals (4)
- The Flying Pickets / vocals (6,8)
- Kiki Dee / vocals (7,13)
- Eric Stewart / vocals (11,15)
- Frankie Howerd / vocals (12)
- Marti Webb / vocals (13,14)
- Gary Howard / vocals (13)
- Chris Rainbow / vocals (17)
- John Miles / vocals (18)
- Andrew Powell / orchestral arranger and conductor
- Brian Brolly / artistic director

Releases information

Studio album by Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons and considered by APP fans to really be their 11th album, but officially released under no band name
There is a related release with same title from 1991, commonly referred to as the "Black album", actually the Austrian Original Cast Musical Soundtrack including material from the Rock Opera

Artwork: Roger Huggett

CD EMI CDP 79 5415 2, CDEN 5012 (1990, UK & Europe)
2LP EMI 198-795416 1 (1990, UK)
2LP EMI 198-79 5417 1 (1990, Europe)
2LP EMI 2-62 7954171 (1990, Italy)
2LP EMI 176 79 5415 1 (1990, Spain)
CD Parlophone Odeon CDP 79 5415 2 (1990, Italy)
MC Parlophone Odeon, EMI TCEN 5012, 79 5415 4 (1990, UK)
2MC EMI 276 7954150 (1990, Spain)
MC EMI 7954154, 79 5415 4 (1990, Germany)
MC EMI 62 7954154 (1990, Italy)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy ERIC WOOLFSON Freudiana Music



ERIC WOOLFSON Freudiana ratings distribution


3.48
(133 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(24%)
24%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(35%)
35%
Good, but non-essential (26%)
26%
Collectors/fans only (10%)
10%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

ERIC WOOLFSON Freudiana reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Alucard
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Speaking about the boundaries of Prog Rock : Musically speaking I would file APP as Pop, similar to ELO.What brings APP more into the Progfield for me is his interest in Concepts, mainly on a litteratue Basis :E.A.Poe, I.Asimov and in this case the life and work of S.Freud.The overall quality of the lyrics gets APP over the average Pop Music.The music is typical APP, very nice melodies, good arrangements.I like this record a lot,it is definetily underrated.
Review by Fishy
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars This album was released in 1990. For years the Alan Parsons project was working on another project based on the life and work of Sigmund Freud. What a surprise the album wasn't released as the next album of TAPP. It seems Parsons and his musical architect Woolfson didn't get on very well at the time. During the recording of this album Woolfson got into musicals and wanted to tour some theatres in Europe, which he did afterwards, with a play, based on the material for this album. After Woolfson and Parsons recorded this album, the two of them went on separate ways. But listening to this album, only one conclusion can be drawn. This is in fact the 11th album of The Alan Parsons Project. A pity so many fans of APP didn't get to know this due to the lack of the TAPP moniker. Half the songs on Freudiana could have ended up on any other Project release. We all know most of the APP don't sound as what we would call progressive rock. APP delivered perfect pop music with some symphonic flavours. Taking in consideration the length of this album is double the length of a normal Parsons album, you still have an amount of typical Parsons tunes. "Little Hans" is a Beatlesque track with chart possibilities. Tracks like "Dora" and "let yourself go" are the kind of typical ballads you'll find on other APP efforts. Not bad but cheesy, slick and unmemorable. "You're on your own" is more powerful and features Kiki Dee on vocals. Progressive highlights are the instrumental tracks like "the Nivana principle" and the title track. Especially the title track is something to write about. The lush atmosphere at the background is full of exotic sounds & percussion and a powerful solo of Bairnson ends up the track quite nicely and of course the lyrics are most interesting. "I am the mirror" is in essence a rock track but the full blown symphonic arrangement of Andrew Powell makes it suitable for incorporation on an album like Tales from mystery and imagination". Splendid !

But there's more. On some tracks you can guess the direction Woolfson is heading to in the near future. Tracks like "Funny you should say that" or Sects therapy" seems to be conceived as they were intended as part of a musical" with its many voices in conversation with each other. Especially "Funny you which includes a magnificent chorus. You may like the musical thing or not. It's up to you.

Overall not a perfect album in any case but there's definitely some interesting moments worthwhile of checking out if you like the work of TAPP.

Review by SouthSideoftheSky
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Symphonic Team
2 stars There is some dispute over whether this should be seen as an Alan Parsons Project album or not. Personally, I do sort this album under Alan Parsons Project in my collection. The theme (there is always a theme) of the album is the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud. This sounds like a pretty pretentious project, but the result is not really pretentious at all. They tackle the topic with some irony and a sense humour. However, it is a very intellectual type of humour and you might not understand it if you haven't studied Fraud. eh, sorry Freud. Personally, I find it really funny as well as serious, since I believe that Freud's theories have done more harm than good. So the source is very rich on material both to make fun of and to criticise.

I must admit that I was quite blown away by the first two or three tracks of this album that are very good (by Alan Parsons Project standards). The opening instrumental is very typical of the Alan Parsons Project, with its programmed rhythms and sax. The six minute title track that follows is, together with the more straightforward rocker I Am A Mirror are, in my opinion, better than anything (else) done by the Project. The guitar work is very good here, and I Am A Mirror has great, and very symphonic instrumental breaks. Great!

Little Hans, is pure Paul McCartney. This song could easily have been on Rubber Soul or Revolver! I like The Beatles a lot, but here it sounded a little bit out of place, but ok. Dora is an ok song as well, a slow and sweet ballad. But, by the time we reach It's Funny You Should Say That, it became painfully clear to me that the hopes set by the three first tracks were too high, very much so. It is really funny, but it hardly is what I would call great music. This music has value to me, but it is a very different type of value from what I seek from progressive music. This is enjoyable in about the same way as Monty Python's Flying Circus or something. (And really only if you know something about Freud).

After this point, the album visits many more musical places and it slowly disintegrates, becoming more and more disjointed and on some tracks you might legitimately wonder whether it is the same album playing or if you accidentally turned the radio on instead. Not saying that it is all radio friendly pop with absolutely no prog credentials. It just doesn't sound like a coherent concept album to me, rather it sounds like a "tribute" album to Sigmund Freud, done by several different bands and artists with no real musical connection to each other.

It is not until towards the end of the album when the title track is reprised that there is any sign of the album getting back on track again, but it does not happen, unfortunately. And even if it would have happened, it would still have been too late to save the album from mediocrity. What started out so good turned out to be quite unsatisfying in the end.

For fans and collectors only.

.and for Freud scholars.

Review by Mirakaze
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Eclectic Prog & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
3 stars A breath of fresh air after the Alan Parsons Project's dreadful stagnation throughout most of the 80s. It's still not up to the standards of something like I Robot of course; the album still devolves into generic arena rock a few times too often and the lyrics are a bit iffy in spots (you were at least several years too late to still be singing about "the danger zone", guys) but there's clearly some good new ideas here, a variety of styles and moods that are covered, a lot of care that's gone into the production and the arrangements (as opposed to the shopworn 80s production on the preceding albums) and a healthy, sorely needed dose of humour.

Latest members reviews

3 stars After the 1980's Turn of the friendly card, this is the most progressive output of Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons. Catchy poppy tracks are not as aggressive as few years ago. I have the impression that both APP's masterminds decided to create more solid work of challenging and memorable music ... (read more)

Report this review (#2119090) | Posted by sgtpepper | Thursday, January 17, 2019 | Review Permanlink

4 stars After a terrible sequence of pop/mainstream and radio-friend albums in the 1980s, I consider this concept album as a come back to the glorious days of the first 3 Alan Parsons Project's albuns. This is surely an underrated album. I don't care about the controversy about if this is in fact an APP or ... (read more)

Report this review (#1504860) | Posted by Asiostygius | Tuesday, December 29, 2015 | Review Permanlink

4 stars Wow, what an incredible end of this great band's discography! "Freudiana" is Alan Parsons project's eleventh studio album and it was released 1990. I am convinced this is the band's second best album and I believe it is underrated. Why has so few rated and reviewed it here. Perhaps it's beacuse ... (read more)

Report this review (#1288716) | Posted by DrömmarenAdrian | Tuesday, October 7, 2014 | Review Permanlink

4 stars In what started out as the eleventh album of the Alan Parsons Project, over time morphed into solo project with the band name and album title called Freudiana. Like APP this is headed up by Eric Woolfson, who wrote all of the lyrics and most of music. What is different is Brian Brolly, who con ... (read more)

Report this review (#1075618) | Posted by tdfloyd | Monday, November 11, 2013 | Review Permanlink

4 stars This is a forgotten album and as I feel that it deserves more attention, I have decided to review it. The album was released with the title of "Freudiana", without the name of Alan Parsons printed on the sleeve. My copy had a sticker indicating that it was an Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson album ... (read more)

Report this review (#76506) | Posted by eddietrooper | Thursday, April 27, 2006 | Review Permanlink

3 stars This album is a rarity(I ordered my copy from Arkansas)way back in the 90's...Exellent production quality...More variety here than on your average APP effort...Did'nt expect to hear kiki dee again(she's on one of the tracks)You might say this is for collectors only...Don't let this stop you fr ... (read more)

Report this review (#5669) | Posted by | Sunday, January 23, 2005 | Review Permanlink

4 stars I came across this album late into my discovering of the Projects, and wondered why it wasn't available as easily as the others (I'm in Canada and got it shipped from Holland). It's obvious that Eric Woolfson was directing his writing towards a more stage musical theme, and even though I don't favo ... (read more)

Report this review (#5666) | Posted by | Thursday, April 29, 2004 | Review Permanlink

Post a review of ERIC WOOLFSON "Freudiana"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.