FREUDIANA

This is a forgotten album and as I feel that it deserves more attention, I have decided to review it. The album was released with the title of "Freudiana", without the name of Alan Parsons printed on the sleeve. My copy had a sticker indicating that it was an Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson album. Actually it's more like a solo album by Eric Wooolfson, produced by Alan Parsons, who gives him some help writing the instrumental tracks as well. Freudiana is a concept album based on the world of Sigmund Freud. It's probably the most varied album in the discography of Alan Parsons and it really contains very interesting compositions. At certain momnets the album looks like a rock opera, with hilarious theatrical numbers like Funny You Should Say That or Sects Therapy, and songs with several characters appearing making dialogues (like in No One Can Love You Better Than Me). But most of the tracks are individual songs with many different styles and moods. There are several interesting instrumentals, typical form Parsons,with a good balance between synths, orchestration and conventional instruments like sax and guitar. These instrumentals are the most progressive part of the album, along with the title track, sung by Woolfson, which is very atmospheric. There are also more straight-ahead rockin' tracks like I Am A Mirror (my personal favorite) and You're On Your Own. Little Hans is a lovely Beatle-esque pop song with great melody. Don't Let The Moment Pass is a beautifull song with female voice and orchestarl arrangements. The rest of the tracks are mainly more conventional APP ballads, but not bad. This is not a prog rock album, although it does have some prog ingredients, as well as many others. Good music, after all.