EYE IN THE SKY

This is where my interest in the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT ends. After that they started going more mainstream pop, and the progressive rock had pretty much vanished, and the instrumentals became less remarkable. "Eye in the Sky" was their first digital recording (the album says so), but to me, the music still sounds stuck in the '70s, and this was 1982. Doesn't sound much like the Yamaha DX-7 and drum-machine happy digital recordings that were common as dirt in the mid 1980s. The synthesizers perhaps played the least role on an APP album since Tales of Mystery and Imagination, although they got themselves a digital Fairlight (early digital sampler).

The album opens with "Sirius". If you watched your share of NBA basketball games, it's been used during those games (I think it was the Portland Trailblazers, but then I'm not a sports fan). The song then segues in the the well-known title track, being a big hit. It's a soft-rock ballad dominated by Eric Woolfson's vocals. Bascially a song if you never heard, then you probably weren't around in the 1980s, listen to the BACKSTREET BOYS, or never listened to the AM and FM dial. "Children of the Moon" is a wonderful cut. It's the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT sound at their best. Then you get the vocal experiment with "Gemini", nice and laid-back. Then you have the orchestrated "Silence and I" which might have been an attempt at progressive rock, but doesn't seem to quite work, in my book. "Psychobabble" is another attempt at progressive rock, and it works so much better (it was even a minor hit). I think it was Elmer Gantry handling the vocals here. I just love the middle part with the sirens and orchstration. Lenny Zakatek (who obviously didn't write the song) gives us "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned" is definately the album's low- point. Zakatek had definately sung better songs. "Mammagamma" is another instrumental piece, pretty much sticks to the same thing throughout. It's not bad, but there are better instrumentals. "Step by Step" is the other vocal cut with Zakatek, at least works a bit better. Then you have "Old and Wise", vocals by ex-Zombies member Colin Bluntstone. This is another orchestrated ballad that seems appropriate for closing the album. Not a bad album, even if there are a couple songs I can do without.

My rating: 3 1/2 stars