THE INSTRUMENTAL WORKS

This album released in the late eighties after ‘Gaudi’ signaled to the few remaining Alan Parsons Project fans that the Project was over. Sure, ‘Freudiana’ was still to come, but really that’s not even a Project album, and Alan Parsons himself was barely involved in the final two albums from the band. More importantly, bands like Guns n’ Roses, INXS, Miami Sound Machine and UB40 were the new young turks of the airwaves, and an old-timer like Parsons was pretty much passé by then. This album and the ‘Greatest Hits I & II’ that was released about the same time both went straight to the cutout bins, and in fact my copy has the obligatory hole drilled in the upper corner like most of the other ones still in existence.

Many of these instrumentals were integral parts of the various albums they originated from, particularly “Where’s the Walrus?” which was one of the few bright spots on ‘Stereotomy’; the title track and “Genesis 1:32” from ‘I Robot’; and “Mammagamma” from ‘Eye in the Sky’. None of them sounds quite the same buried here among the other largely boilerplate instrumental tracks from Parsons’ other studio albums. “Where’s the Walrus?” especially suffers by being removed from its strategic placement just before “Light of the World” on its studio release. The others simply sound hollower than they did in their original context (or maybe just reveal themselves to be the weak tracks that they always were).

A few others just shouldn’t have been included because they were never that great to begin with, most notably “Paseo De Gracia” from ‘Gaudi’, and “Voyager” which was never meant to be anything but a transitional bridge and not really an independent work of its own.

The best and most distinct track besides the ‘I Robot’ ones is “The Gold Bug” from ‘Turn of a Friendly Card’, but even here if you understand the concept of that album then you are left with a sense of an incomplete thought hearing it here next to the completely unrelated “Urbania”.

I agree with others who have noted that “Lucifer” was an unforgivable omission, as was anything from ‘Tales…’. I suppose the rationale was that “Lucifer” may have still been drawing some minor radio play on FM, and ‘Tales…’ was surely still selling the occasional copy as Parsons’ most famous work, so the label probably felt there was no point in diluting the royalties pool by including them here.

This was a rather pitiful offering when it released, and it hasn’t aged well at all. If Parsons wanted to showcase his instrumental talents he would have been well advised to at least dress up the cover art, include some sort of comprehensive liner notes outlining the technical details of each track, or a synopsis of the Project’s history, or a bonus disc or Happy Meal toy or something. As it stands this collection is just a poor attempt to milk a few bucks out of sentimental twenty-somethings who were entering their permanent adulthood with discretionary income and a misguided sense of nostalgia. While its doubtful anyone is around today with those same feelings, I’ll caution you anyway to not bother with this one. Two stars and not recommended except for collectors and completionists.

peace