GAUDI

Gaudi was the Alan Parsons Project's tenth studio album and technically the last to be released by the Project. The formula used isn't anything different from previous affairs: a core collection of session musicians, guest vocalists, Parsons amazing production abilities, and an overall theme to the album. Gaudi was inspired by the life and work of a Catalan architect named Antonio Gaudí.

The music and structure of this album is somewhat similar in respects to their previous album, Stereotomy. However, once you get past the opening track, La Sagrada Familia, it's just a series of pop rock songs fitting for the 1980s era. In addition to Woolfson, vocalists included John Miles, Lenny Zakatek, Chris Rainbow, and Geoff Barradale (Vitamin Z). Though not quite as poor an outing as Vulture Culture, Ammonia Avenue, or Eve, it's a rather mediocre ending for the Project, although at the time they didn't know this would be their last album.

APP had planned to record an album called Freudiana (inspired by Sigmund Freud). Freudiana was produced by Parsons (and had the Project regulars on board), but because Woolfson wanted to turn it into a musical, it caused a rift between Parsons and Woolfson. So Freudiana became Woolfson's first solo album (although some consider it a Project work) and Alan Parsons started his solo career.

Definitely a must-have for die-hard APP fans, but there are much better albums to acquire before even thinking about this one. As always, I recommend starting with their debut. Two stars.