AMMONIA AVENUE

Even during their pop-sized early-eighties guise the Alan Parsons Project(essentially the duo of producer Alan Parsons and songwriter Eric Woolfson) were still more than capable of reeling off expertly crafted albums that carefully skimmed the gap between their commercial aspirations and artistic ambitions. Following on from the excellent 'Eye In The Sky' was always going to be a tough proposition, yet 'Ammonia Avenue', an album named after a real-life road leading up to a petro-chemical plant in Northern England, perfectly compliments it's predecessor. The opening three tracks are some of the best latter-period material the duo has produced, with the funky 'One Good Reason' showcasing the best of the outfit's eighties rock sound and prog-pop splicing within what is essentially a simple pop-rock number. Maybe the latter half of the album panders to a broader audience - the 1960s Christmas song-tinged 'Don't Answer Me' treads dangerously close to novelty confection territory - yet for the most 'Ammonia Avenue' stays true to the classic Alan Parsons Project sound. Certainly up there with 'Tales Of Mystery & Imagination', 'I Robot' and 'Eye In The Sky', this is another emotive dose of slickly-crafted progressive pop from the undisputed masters of the admittedly rather small sub-genre. In a word: excellent. STEFAN TURNER, ISLINGTON, 2012