EYE IN THE SKY

With the success of The Turn of a Friendly Card (both album-wise and the singles released from it), the Alan Parsons Project aimed for a more commercial output with Eye in the Sky, their sixth studio album. Like its predecessors, it has a general theme throughout the album. This time the concept was surveillance, with the title of the album inspired by the "eye in the sky" cameras used in airports, banks, and casinos. The album also explores life and the universe and maybe lost values and makes reference to George Orwell's 1984.

Eye in the Sky was the best selling album APP ever made and it gave them one of their most popular singles, the title track (with Eric Woolfson providing the vocals). Leading into this song is the intro track, an instrumental called "Sirius." This short intro may be APP's most well known piece of music as it has been often used as theme music for various sporting entrance events, including the Chicago Bulls basketball team, the American collegiate football teams Nebraska Cornhuskers and Iowa State Cyclones, the NFL's Detroit Lions, and pro-wrestler Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. Other slightly successful songs that got airplay included Psychobabble and You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned, plus the interesting instrumental Mammagamma.

Again, the music is chiefly pop rock with some ever-so-slight "progressive tendencies." Or, if you prefer, "pop prog." In my opinion, this is just slightly a notch lower in quality compared with The Turn of a Friendly Card. Most APP fans consider it their best album and should be a must-have for them. If you're not interested in "pop prog," you should probably avoid. Instead seek out their debut first. Three stars. Good, but not essential.