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The Alan Parsons Project - The Definitive Collection CD (album) cover

THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION

The Alan Parsons Project

 

Crossover Prog

3.57 | 30 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars A good summary

An excellent two CD collection of many of the best tracks by the Alan Parson's Project, and indeed Alan Parsons (post Eric Wolfson) . The albums covered range from the first ("Tales of Mystery and imagination") right through to "Try anything once". The tracks appear in chronological order with all the albums being well represented.

As with any compilation which seeks to summarise a band's work, the choice of tracks included and excluded can be questioned. The following are my own thoughts here:

- Only two tracks included from what is widely regarded as one of APP's finest albums, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". Of these "Dr Tarr.." appears to have been chosen as the opener due to it's upbeat style, but for me it was a comparatively weak track.

- A good selection from "I Robot" is present, but it is a shame room was not found for "Day after day".

- The lovely ballads "Shadow of a lonely man" from the "Pyramid" album, "Silence and I" from "Eye in the sky" and "Limelight" from "Stereotomy" are all missing.

- The prog flavoured "La Sagrada Familia" from "Gaudi" is also missed off.

To make way for some of these, I would have omitted some of the mid-paced pop related material such as "Let's talk about me", and "I wouldn't want to be like you".

What the compilers appear to have done is to attempt to create a balanced collection, with ballads, light pop and instrumentals. Whether this is the best approach to take when compiling a definitive collection album is a matter for debate. Nevertheless, this is an excellent extended collection of some of APP's best tracks.

Easy Livin | 4/5 |

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