TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION

After producing one of the best selling and enduring rock albums of all time, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon with monumental and technichal and artistic skill Al decided to launch his own project. The result was a phenonemal yet flawed album based on some of the brilliant works of lterary genious Edgar Allan Poe, who died penniless, drunk and friendless in a gutter. This prog reviwer has a lifelong intimacy with the works of this unique man and encourages the potential listener to aquaint themselves with his work,and not only the titles which appear on the album. Go to the library, bookstore, wherever. The interpretations of the tales and poems which are included on the recording are interpreted magnificently and echo the their true essence. However there was much more to Poe than just the macabre. He also wrote about astronomy, oceanography, aeronautics, and was the inventor of the detective story as well as the phsychological thriller. This reveiwer is very intamite with this great man's work and feels that one not familiar with his complex diversity will meet with a wrong impression as a result of this album. Parson's should have delved deeper into Poe's pshyce. It is musically flawless, however, and it is one of this reviwers faves of all time MUSICALLY. The highlight is an instrumental interpretation of The Fall Of The House Of Usher, a story about a family haunted by an ancient curse in 3 movements.An interesting feature is the utilization of an acoustic upright bass and the inclusion of sound effects from a sudden electrical storm which occurred during recording. Crazy Arthur Brown, appropiately, has been selected as vocalist on The Tell Tale Heart and captures and conveys the insanity and paranoia of Poe's original tale. Effective narations fom Orson Welles and Leanard Whiting put the listener in the proper mindset. A progressive rock masterpiece flawed only in the fact that certain aspects of Poe's writings are neglected therefore it has to lose one star out of five.