EVE

'Eve' is the followup to 'Pyramid' and after the first 3 albums that were dynamic and full of inventive ideas, 'Eve' did not deliver the same innovation and has no prog. There are some great tracks and the odd instrumental such as Lucifer, though it is not a shadow of the greatness of other APP instrumentals such as I, Robot, or Hyper Gamma Spaces. Coming from 1979, the album suffers the same fate as many early 80s albums that date quickly and have hyper treble production and tinny sounds, and the dreaded disco sound. The poppy You Lie Down With Dogs has a familiar funky keyboard sound like other APP singles but it wears its welcome out by the time it gets to the end. The album is very pop oriented and doesn't take the same type of experimental risks as previous albums, so it is rather disappointing, right down to the dull coverart. I'd Rather Be A Man has a nice rocking sound sounding too similar to material on 'Pyramid', though I always liked those reverberating guitar sounds. The melody is infectious and I like the synth screams in the chorus section. The keyboard instrumental is excellent too and this is one of the better tracks on the album.

You Won't Be There is another ballad sounding uncomfortably like The Bee Gees in vocal style. I am not a fan of this soft ballad material from APP. Winding Me Up opens with a clock winding, a musical box melody, violins and then the trademark keyboard funk. It unfortunately settles into soft melodic pop and the mediocrity of the album begins to reveal itself in horrible contrast to previous albums. Hopefully it will get better, I was thinking at this point.

Damned If I Do is one of the album singles so one would expect it would be a decent song. It opens with synthesizer loops and an intriguing synth horn sound. The tempo goes into 4/4 and the commercial radio opens wide its arms to embrace this type of pop so little wonder it became a single. Finally a nice synth instrumental enters and some gorgeous violin strings, before a well executed lead break.

Next up is Don't Hold Back and it is just more of the pop radio sounds that I have already tired of. The vocals are okay coming from the wonderful Clare Torry, but this song is very dull after a minute or so. It is still nice to hear Clare Torry again, having made such a huge splash on Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky.

Next is more instrumental work on Secret Garden. The keys sound like Hyper Gamma Spaces but it is not enough to save this track from being just another filler. It locks into a slow beat after a while which I kind of liked but it is ruined by all the 'oo be do be do be do be wah's that are simply frustrating rather than adding anything to this.

Last is another single with If I Could Change Your Mind, with Leslie Duncan's vocals that are very welcome at this point, but this is simply another slow ballad. The vocals make this one of the best tracks on the album but it is not up to the standard of excellence from previous APP albums.

Overall 'Eve' is disappointing, and very frustrating, as the band are capable of great progressive innovation but it is all thrown out the window to make way for the 80s synth pop sound that permeated the radiowaves but simply is outdated. There is not enough material on this worthy of salvage for a 3 star rating and it barely scrapes 2 stars only because of Lucifer and I'd Rather Be A Man, as well as Clare Torry. The rest is filler or will only appeal to the pop AOR fanbase, rather than a progressive listening audience.