PYRAMID

Featuring a terrific start with the criminally-short but highly emotive and atmospheric instrumental piece 'Voyager', this third effort from the pop-prog collective sadly loses it's way soon after getting bogged down by a selection of unremarkable and frankly rather gooey ballads designed to broaden the group's commercial appeal. After the terrific 'Tales Of Mystery & Imagination' and the equally imaginative follow-up 'I Robot', founding members Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson have opted here to eschew the sci-fi/horror concepts that gave their initial albums such a mysterious flavour in favour of a less appealing and rather confused subject(or, surely, amalgamation of subjects) that blends the myths of ancient Egypt with the conventional human problems of love and loss, simultaneously losing focus of what made their partnership so intriguing yet opening themselves up to the mass markets of mainland Europe and North America with their adherence to formulaic pop constructions to great effect. That said, 'Pyramid' does feature some excellent moments, and once again the production values are top-notch, with former Pink Floyd engineer Parsons bringing his considerable bag of technical tricks back to the table, giving the album a slick commercial sheen many others would be envious of. Musically speaking, however, 'Pyramid' must go down as an opportunity wasted. The pace is generally slow, with only the delicate balladry of 'What Goes up' featuring any genuine emotional warmth, the rest of the album a hard slog through pop mediocrity. Gone too are any real notions that this is a progressive outfit, though, happily, this would be remedied to some degree on later efforts. A real disappointment then, 'Pyramid' is a confused and schematic album of undistinguished pop-rock from people who should know better. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012