TO ONE IN PARADISE

When rating singles, I've often had certain criteria for the full rating: in addition to containing great music, an ideal single has at least one interesting non-album song to increase the release value. Well, both songs on this 7" are taken from The Alan Parsons Project's excellent debut album Tales of Mystery and Imagination, based on the classic horror stories -- and, to a lesser extent, poetry -- of Edgar Allan Poe. But they happen to be my favourite tracks, so I can only give this single five stars!

'To One in Paradise' is a lovely, peaceful and probably generally too forgotten album closer, not directly based on a short story but, if I'm not mistaken, instead featuring some verses of Poe that Leonard Whiting reads at the end of the song. In that sense it lacks the power of the story-telling level that graces most of the album, but it's fully compensated by its beautiful mellowness that so nicely balances the album whole. The main vocalist Terry Sylvester is backed by female backing vocals.

'The Cask of Amontillado'. Wow, goosebumps of pleasure. Of course it helps that I was impressed by the wonderful story already in my youth. Definitely among the finest Poe wrote. "By the last breath of the four winds that blow / I'll have revenge upon Fortunato. / Smile in his face, I'll say 'Come let us go / I've a cask of Amontillado'..." The suspense of this horrifying story of revenge is wonderfully captured by the dual vocals, deceitfully calm on the surface, and the more intensive instrumental sections featuring Hitchcockian strings. John Miles as the protagonist who chains his fellow in the wine cellar is actually my all time favourite AP Project vocalist (his other highlight performances include 'Shadow of a Lonely Man' on Pyramid, 1978).

If you haven't yet listened to Tales of Mystery and Imagination, take this review as a suggestion to do so. And if you enjoy short stories, I also advice you to find a selection of Poe's stories.