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lmollea 
Forum Senior Member
Joined: June 12 2005
Location: Italy
Status: Offline
Points: 130
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 Posted: September 14 2005 at 08:33 |
Quoting BiGi (mutating mutandis  )
I definitely like most Alan Parsons works!
My favourites albums are
- Try anything once
- On air
- Gaudi
- Eye in the Sky
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination
The songs I love most:
- Blue Blue Sky [I and II], Brother Up In Heaven (On Air)
- The entire Try anything once
- La Sagrada Familia, Inside Looking Out (Gaudi)
- Eye in the sky, Silence and I, Old and wise (Eye in the sky)
- The turn of a friendly card (The turn of a friendly card)
- Shadow Of A Lonely Man (Pyramid)
- The fall of the House of Usher, The Raven, To one in Paradise (Tales of Mystery and Imagination)
- Stereotomy, Where's The Walrus?, Lights Of The World (Stereotomy)
I don't disdain (thought they're more commercial), Vulture Culture and Ammonia Avenue. Easy listening good for a nice atmosphere.
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Semm che, semm che settà giò in del bar / a cercà l'universo nel bucèer del Cynar
cosmonauti al tavolino cun la sigareta in bùca / che vemm a cambià el mund apena finissum la sambuca
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samuel.jeronimo
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 26 2005
Location: Portugal
Status: Offline
Points: 132
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 09:20 |
- I Robot
- The Turn of a Friendly Card
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- Pyramid
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 18987
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 10:03 |
Yep, I've always had a soft spot for APP, and used to own all the albums on Vinyl.
My personal highlights were 'A Turn Of A Friendly Card' & 'Try Anything Once', although Ammonia Ave, Vulture Culture & Eye are also great radio friendly light rock albums, when you are in the mood.
As to whether they are 'prog' or not; only 'Tales' really is, and 'I Robot' in parts, but that shouldn't detract from the rest of their catalogue being well executed and enjoyable music for the right occasion.
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Haragei
Forum Newbie
Joined: August 23 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 32
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 10:22 |
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If Eye in the Sky is prog, then the entire XTC Catalog should be included too. It's pop.
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salmacis
Forum Senior Member
Content Addition
Joined: April 10 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 3928
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 12:04 |
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I like their music a lot- it's always very well written with lots of hooks, and subtle yet highly effective musicianship. I put them in the same category of bands like Queen, 10CC, Supertramp, Be Bop Deluxe, XTC and Sparks- progressive pop, or 'intelligent pop', as Tony Banks rightly labelled the bands I mention in an interview once. I have a few albums on vinyl- 'Pyramid' and 'Turn Of A Friendly Card'- plus the best of on CD. I like them enough to buy more albums.
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TheProgtologist
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Baltimore,Md US
Status: Offline
Points: 27802
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 13:38 |
 Guests wrote:
OMG, surely they aren't prog..................i've got most of their albums and prog ain't anywhere in sight. However as i've stated before a lot of crap in here is being blessed as prog...god forgive them..or whatever. |
I don't really think of The Alan Parsons Project as prog.
But I like his work so what's the difference?
Edited by TheProgtologist
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DACE
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 30 2005
Location: Spain
Status: Offline
Points: 140
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 13:58 |
BiGi wrote:
DACE wrote:
"Pyramid" is Ok, but the rest is too commercial, in my opinion... |
Tales of Mystery and Imagination commercial???
I can hardly figure it... |
You're right "Tales..." is not commercial (though I find it quite boring). I meant the 80s and 90s records.
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shakalito
Forum Newbie
Joined: June 02 2005
Location: Chile
Status: Offline
Points: 15
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Posted: September 14 2005 at 16:21 |
I really love APP & AP music,
AP Project
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination (The raven, The Tell-tale Heart, Dr.
Tarr... & The Fall of the house of Usher, take me to other world)
- I-Robot (I-Robot & Genesis Ch. 1 V.32, great instrumentals... Some other time, beautiful ...)
- Pyramid (In the Lap of Gods.... oh my god!!!!)
- The Turn of a Friendly Card (The Turn of a friendly card, parts I and II... Nothing left to Lose, great guitar solo!!!)
- Eye in the Sky (Sirius/Eye in the Sky, great rock classic... Old &Wise  I love that sax... Silence & I, beautiful orchestral arrangements)
- Ammonia Avenue (Prime Time, great!!! ... Ammonia Avenue, wonderful!!!)
- Stereotomy (Stereotomy I and II, good rock pieces... Urbania and Wheres the Walrus?, I love these instrumentals)
- Gaudi (La Sagrada Familia , Paseo de Gracia )
Alan Parsons
- Try Anything Once (The Tree of Me, Turn it Up, Mr. Time, Jigue,
Re-Jigue, Back Against the Wall and the beautiful Oh Life (there must
be more), are perfect tracks to a perfect album)
- On Air (Cloudbreak, a good Bairnson's work... Brother up in Heaven,
simply beautiful... Apollo, an introduction to next electronics albums,
good job)
Without forgetting Freudiana, the Eric Woolfson's masterpiece, really outstanding!!!!
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rupert
Forum Senior Member
Joined: February 18 2006
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 610
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Posted: February 27 2006 at 13:56 |
I think that APP started great, with "Tales", "I robot" and "Pyramid", while "Eve" was a shallow miss to me. Ironically, it's "Turn of a friendly card" that I love best, while later on I lost interest ( I have to confess ). I didn't like "Stereotomy" that much from the ones I came to listen to then ( Though "Where's the Walruss" is a great instrumental track ). What's really embarrassing to me is that you don't get "Tales" on CD in its original form ( apart from, if you're lucky, an over-expensive MFSL edition ). It's not that I dislike the overworked version, it's only because I'd like to have the Album I grew up with on CD the way it WAS !
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...I'm a musician/singer/songwriter, visit me on www.reverbnation.com/rupertlenz and there you can choose from 125 recordings you can listen to ( for free ) if you're not limited to prog-rock !
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Gary the Ghoul
Forum Groupie
Joined: February 24 2006
Status: Offline
Points: 78
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Posted: February 27 2006 at 14:43 |
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i first heard of them in austin powers(LOL)
i luv them,but i doin't have a lot of their discography
can anybody link to some downloads?
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fastandbulbous
Forum Newbie
Joined: September 15 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 25
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Posted: February 27 2006 at 14:52 |
It's amazing to me, how beginning with a great first album, they went
slowly downhill with each subsequent release. Until by the end,
they totally sucked. 
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IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST!!!!
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BaldJean
Prog Reviewer
Joined: May 28 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10387
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Posted: February 27 2006 at 15:09 |
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the first album was ok, though in my opinion Peter Hammill's adaptation
of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is superior by far. I more or less
have to agree with my predecessor in this thread, fastandbulbous
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 A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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salmacis
Forum Senior Member
Content Addition
Joined: April 10 2005
Status: Offline
Points: 3928
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Posted: February 27 2006 at 15:32 |
As much as I like many select songs by the Alan Parsons Project, particularly the beautiful 'Time', I'd say that their albums are somewhat samey for these ears. Not that they are bad, but as a band I don't find them particularly progressive- they are more of an AOR act that dabbled with prog for me. Thus why I'm more than happy with a 2cd 'Ultimate Collection'... 
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Kong
Forum Newbie
Joined: March 05 2006
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 17
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Posted: March 06 2006 at 23:45 |
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Alan Parsons is one of my favourite "musicians". Eric Woolfson and him
make totally sweet music. I like the songs Eye in the SKy, Professor
Tarr and some others. there is some Alan Parsons I don't like but most
I love.
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Ivan_Melgar_M
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 27 2004
Location: Peru
Status: Offline
Points: 19535
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Posted: March 07 2006 at 01:00 |
One excellent album, close to amasterpiece....Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Two very good albums, pretty much over the average......I Robot and Pyramids.
The rest absolutely forgetable IMO.
BTW; The genius behind Alan Parsons Project was Andrew Powell his skills as conductor and arranger are outstanding, even the worst APP albums arranged by him sound excellent, the problem was the path Alan Parsons took.
Iván
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20194
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Posted: March 08 2006 at 03:52 |
I like the first three albums, but things slide downwards from Eve until Eye in The Sky (the next three) but there are still good moments and it plunges badly after that album
Interestingly so , in some interview last year, singer Eric Woolfson has been claiming responsability for most of the songwriting of the early albums and he now feels shortchanged by the name of the band and his lack of fame
He had agreed that Alan Parsons Project would have a better chance at fame than say Eric Woolfson Experiments, so he had gone along with that name since Alan Parsons was almost a garantee for the public eye.
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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DallasBryan
Forum Senior Member
Joined: November 23 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3323
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Posted: March 08 2006 at 04:00 |
I actually think that "I Robot" was one of the best albums ever made. I remember laying on the bed about 1978 and listening to the whole album while thinking around corners, it was intense to be on the same plane as Alan when he made the album and it was bourne from another state of conscienceness.
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anael
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: September 09 2005
Location: Mexico
Status: Offline
Points: 825
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Posted: March 12 2006 at 19:55 |
kingofbizzare wrote:
I'm trying to get all of their albums on vinyl. |
Hehe I have The Turn of a Friendly Card autographed by PJ (the new vocalist) and Geoffrey Downes (guitar player)!!!
but NO Alan. He didn't sign anything
And I think their best albums are Tales of Mystery and imagination and The Very Best LIVE.
Mammagamma Rules!
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tdreamer
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 03 2006
Location: Scotland
Status: Offline
Points: 267
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Posted: March 15 2006 at 14:52 |
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Alot of the APP material was just easy listening pop songs but there is a lot of good instrumentation on all the albums. I used to own a compilation of all his instrumentals and it was great. I quite like 'The Valid Path' but it's totally different from the earlier albums IMO.
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aapatsos
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: November 11 2005
Location: Manchester, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 9226
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Posted: March 18 2006 at 12:47 |
I am missing pyramids and tales...
everything else I have up to 1984 is brilliant
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The Alan Parsons Project: Thoughts?
