EYE IN THE SKY

My review is based on the version with the bonus tracks. I never really gave this a chance at the time, having felt that the Project's mega success represented by the title track and the prior hit "Time", was contingent upon an ever mellower formula. It's true that some of this sounds frighteningly like what CHICAGO, TOTO or AMERICA were doing at the time. As much as I wanted to give this a thumbs down, and as kitschy as it gets, this actually delivers competently as progressive tinged pop.

The instrumentals in particular cross FLOYD and TD, and in fact were familiar to me without knowing the author. Even the way "Sirius" segues into the title track causes me to reconsider the validity of that overplayed representative of the early 1980s. But "Silence and I" shows Parsons/Woolfson still aiming for the more elaborate even under reconfigured ambitions, and the orchestral touches seem to have influenced the work of SAGRADO CORACAO DA TERRA who came along later in the decade from Brazil. This is particularly apparent on "Old and Wise", which also includes a stirring sax solo from Mel Collins.

The rest of the original material is more uneven, with the best probably being "Psychobabble" which retools the formula of "The Voice" and "Snake Eyes", although it's never quite as entrancing the third or fourth time around. Hence without the bonus material I would feel inclined to rate this as a strong 2 stars, but the extra tracks are lovingly compiled and sequenced, and appear almost as an elaborate suite with themes, particularly "Sirius", looped about the extended, instrumental and alternate versions. These underscore the perfectionism of the artists involved, and give a gently guided glimpse into how an album is compiled by shrinking down the available material rather than by adding up all the pieces, fit or otherwise. That so much of it is excellent is all the more remarkable.

Far from a masterpiece and tarnished somewhat by mass success and period weaknesses, "Eye in the Sky" can now be looked upon with a somewhat more forgiving eye, especially in the expanded form.