PYRAMID

After I Robot, The Alan Parsons Project seemed to settle into a formula, and while they made many good albums using this formula, there's something lacking on this release. It's not that there are no good melodies or sounds; in fact the lyrics are all good and have progressed since the last album, and most of the songs have at least one element that's somewhat interesting, but they're also all dragged down by either underdevelopement, badly executed surprise dynamics (as on "What Goes Up..." and "In the Lap Of the Gods", even if they do make sense with the lyrics of the former) or just the sense of dullness that pervades the whole album. Pryamid does have some good ideas, but the only case where they add up to actually being a good song is on "The Eagle Will Rise Again", and even that song sounds better on it's own rather than in it's place on the album. Perhaps it would sounded better at the end, lifting up and adding some hope to the very dismal "Shadow of a Lonely Man." "Voyager" has a few nice elements like the hi-hat and rim shot part, and the guitar is playing an interesting chord sequence, but it's also unfortunately being played completely devoid of expression. The best lyrics are probably on the song "Pyramania", but that songs also has some of the album's worst music. Who knows, maybe ten years from now I will be spinning this disc every day, but at this point and time, whenever the excellent cover art by Hipgnosis lures me into taking a second chance with the album, I usually end up looking like Parsons does on the front cover. Never fear, though... they did some great things with this formula very soon after this one.