I ROBOT

Six degrees of separation seem to be the case with this 1977 production by Alan Parsons, this being his 2nd album with Eric Woolfson and released under the name of The Alan Parsons Project. When one looks at the personnel on the album there are surprises with Ian Bairnson who was a member of Pilot ( January ) was the big single and also provided guitar on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Next we have David Paton ( Bass,acoustic guitar) and Stuart Tosh ( Drums) and both were early Bay City Rollers and members of Pilot with Ian Bairnson. Paton also was on Wuthering Heights and Tosh went on to 10cc but all of them became to be members of The Alan Parsons Project. Lenny Zakatek is from the the UK funk band Gonzsalez, Alan Clarke from the Hollies and Steve Harley who had his own band Cockney Rebel and the big hit Make me Smile are three of the vocalists with five others listed as contributing to the album. B. J. Cole does pedal steel and previously had been contributing to Elton John's early albums and also with Marc Bolan. Of course Alan and Eric are on Keyboards with Duncan Mackay as well.

The album commences with the instrumental and the title track I Robot which is the theme of the album. With a slow quiet introduction over keyboards which slowly build in volume and once the rythmn is introduced the track builds in intensity throughout. I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You which was one of the singles from the album follows up and Lenny Zakatek is the lead vocalist which is quiet a catchy tune with a great rock feel.The 3rd track is Some Other Time as is a lot more introspective than the previous but still comes in with the big finishes that Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson used frequently in their songwriting. Alan Clarke gets his turn on lead vocals on the following song Breakdown and once again is one rocker of a song but the standout and that is perhaps because it is unusual for his style is the last song on side one of the record and that is Don't Let it Show with that organ intro and more sentimental than his usual style of writing but I wish he had done a few more like this as it primarily is a ballad that is thumped right up and is one grab of a song. With the usual huge finish of course.Side two of the record did not seem to gather the amount of plays that side one did but there are some great instrumentals ( 3 in Total) and with the song The Voice, Steve Harley gets his go and the other track with vocals from the five on that side of the record is Day After Day ( The Show Must Go On ) which is quite a nice song. Nothing wrong with the flip of the album at all but side one was always the real meat of the album with those songs contained within.

This is the most liked Alan Parsons album that I own and is frequently played in the house by not only myself but other members of my family and really has stood the test of time over the years since its release in 1977. Great Stuff