THE TURN OF A FRIENDLY CARD

Well, I really can't see how this album became The ALAN PARSONS PROJECT's best seller at that point. It pretty much brings you no real surprises. The synthesizers seem more absent than anything done since "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", perhaps the reason for that was Duncan MacKay left in order to join CAMEL (who was in the process of recording Nude around the same times as "The Turn of a Friendly Card"). I also missed the cimbalom and kantele John Leach was using, as those two instruments aren't used here (maybe a little on the instrumental "The Gold Bug"). The album starts off with "Maybe a Price to Pay", definately one of the better songs on this album. It's the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT at their better moments. "Games People Play" received tons of radio airplay, with Lenny Zakatek handling the vocals.

Another one of the high points, and the most synthesizer-dominated piece. Then there's Eric Woolfson's ballad "Time". Previously he only sung the occasional backup on "Pyramid" and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" (he always handles keyboards), but this is the first song he sings lead. "Time" also received lots of radio airplay, but it sounds a bit too much like easy listening to me. There's also a suite, which is the title track. It's basically a collection of separate songs disguised as a 15 minute or so suite., as no one in 1980 would dare release an album with a 15 minute song on it. So you get stuff like the title track and "Snake Eyes", an Eric Woolson ballad, and so on.

To me, I thought this album was a bit hyped. It's good, but if you hear an album like "I Robot", it just doesn't compare.