EYE IN THE SKY

To give Eye In the Sky its due, it starts out really well - the capably performed synthesiser-led instrumental Sirius giving way to the dark, bass-driven, paranoid title track, which applies the cold, stark production values of the Project to intriguingly murky material.

It doesn't last, however; the rest of the album shifts into a decidedly different mode, which it took me a long time to warm to because I was expecting and hoping something more in keeping with the style of their early albums. However, if you see The Turn of a Friendly Card as the end of their "pop-tinged prog rock" phase, and Eye In the Sky as the start of their "rock-inflected prog pop" phase, material like Gemini or Psychobabble suddenly lands much better.

Some parts I do question, though. Parsons has the gall to include a track entitled Mammagamma on the album - the title being a slang phrase from similar sources to Ummagumma. To see the Project milking its Pink Floyd connection when this many albums into its career the band really should have been carving out its own identity is, to me, really quite irritating.

Still, the album is a great case study in how sensitive, careful production can take even simple material and add something extra to it. As the blueprint for the rest of the band's career, it's understandable that it's become an important landmark in their discography, but don't expect something rooted in their 1970s approach.