Showing posts with label Arista Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arista Records. Show all posts

Saturday, September 6, 2025

The Alan Parsons Project - Eve (1979)

Year: September 1979 (CD 1990)
Label: Arista Records (Germany), 258 981
Style: Progressive Pop, Soft Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 39:36
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 233 Mb

Like on "Turn of A Friendly Card", there are orchestral arrangements here. I'd rather be a man is excellent, with this usual discrete fast keyboards notes like on "Pyramid"'s HYPER-GAMMA-SPEEDS. You have the chance to hear the wonderful voice of Clare Torry (PINK FLOYD's Great gig in the sky) on don't hold back. My favorite one is probably "Secret Garden", where amazing loud bass, orchestral and vocal arrangements are played through fast and discrete keyboards. "If I Could Change The World" is a James Bond-esque main song, with beautiful female lead vocals. Most of the rest is very pop, accessible, rather addictive and well made: when ALAN PARSONS makes a pop song, he rarely misses his shot.
(https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1094) Review by greenback. April 5, 2004. ****
Alan Parsons fourth album is a very weak one with only one good track, the opening instrumental Lucifer. The rest of the songs are so lacklustre, generic and middle-of-the-road that I find it difficult to find words to describe them in detail. The worst songs from the previous Pyramid album give you a very good idea of what the majority of the songs here sound like. Some are Disco-ish Pop tunes, others are Rock 'N' Roll numbers and yet others are mildly symphonic ballads. But nothing here comes even remotely close to Prog.
The concept this time - as we all know there is always a concept behind the Project's albums - is women, or rather perhaps the relation between men and women. 'Eve' obviously refers to that famous character in The Bible which according to that particular story was the very first woman ever. I'm not really sure whether this album is a bit sexist or not? Anyway, if Parsons and Woolfson wanted to make the point that women are evil, then they really succeeded to make an album that is from hell! I would say that Eve is the low-point of the entire career of the Alan Parsons Project.
(https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1094) Review by SouthSideoftheSky. April 8, 2009. *
I'm on the outside looking in here; I have never considered the Alan Parsons Project to be that special of a group, and I fail to understand what it is that makes APP a prog rock band. EVE does not sound anything like a prog record to me; it has 80's pop music written all over it. Some of the dullest sounds I've ever heard on any album come from here. Not a single song stands out other than ''Damned If I Do'', and that song is just another slick pop hit. I would avoid this record if you enjoy lots and lots of prog rock.
(https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1094) Review by Sinusoid. May 31, 2009, 2009. *


Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog. D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).

01. Lucifer (05:09)
02. You Lie Down With Dogs (03:48)
03. Id Rather Be A Man (03:54)
04. You Wont Be There (03:37)
05. Winding Me Up (04:02)
06. Damned If I Do (04:53)
07. Dont Hold Back (03:37)
08. Secret Garden (04:44)
09. If I Could Change Your Mind (05:48)

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Thursday, September 4, 2025

The Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid (1978)

Year: May 1978 (CD 1987)
Label: Arista Records (Germany), 258 983
Style: Progressive Pop, Soft Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 37:48
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 216 Mb

Alan PARSON is the king of catchiness and emotions here! No more sophisticated complex patterns. He proves here that complexity is not necessarily required to make an excellent album. All the songs are at least very good, and more: they are all very catchy and thus will retain your attention! That's a tour de force by PARSON! Sincerely, "Pyramid" is among my favorite ones from him. I have miscellaneous kinds of feelings when I listen to the tracks. "Voyager" was the theme of a jeans advertisement on TV; The poignant "What Goes Up" has a mix of romance, nostalgia and melancholy; The Elton JOHN esque "One More River" will give you a kick in the ass; The funny "Pyramania" will make you sing and beat the ground. "Hyper Gamma Spaces" announces a complete mastering of serious modern rythmic & melodic keyboards. You will notice that the lead & backing vocals are really among the main strength of this album.
(progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1093) Review by greenback. August 15, 2004

The material on this album is very lightweight, even in comparison with other works by the Alan Parsons Project. The opening creates an interesting atmosphere, but by the third similarly soft rock song in a row, this album cries out for a rocker. One More River is the first rocker on the album, but it is more of a Rock 'N' Roll number, very much in the vein of Elton John. Even the vocals sound like Elton's!
In The Lap Of The Gods is fairly interesting symphonic prog number, but still rather lightweight. Pyramania is so horrible that it hurts my brain! Skip this one unless you want to go seriously insane! Hyper-Gamma Spaces is an instrumental that could have been a theme song to some cartoon. The last song is a symphonic ballad, decent but rather forgettable.
As always with the Project, this album is very well-produced and overall very well-crafted. But that is not enough to make a good album. Only for fans and collectors this one.
(progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1093) Review by SouthSideoftheSky. December 3, 2008


Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog. D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).

01. Voyager (02:25)
02. What Goes Up... (03:31)
03. The Eagle Will Rise Again (04:22)
04. One More River (04:18)
05. Can.t Take It With You (05:04)
06. In The Lap Of The Gods (05:28)
07. Pyromania (02:44)
08. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces (04:19)
09. Shadow Of A Lonely Man (05:34)

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Sunday, August 17, 2025

Yes - Union [Japanese Ed.] (1991)

Year: April 30, 1991 (CD Jul 21, 1991)
Label: Arista Records (Japan), BVCA-116
Style: Symphonic Rock
Country: London, England
Time: 69:55
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 512 Mb

Charts: CAN #15, US #15, JPN #11, GER #15, NLD #17, SWE #32, SWI #16, UK #7. US: Gold.
While Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire and Alan White was working on a follow-up to Big Generator, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe was working on a follow-up to their latest album (that was released under the name ‘Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe’, since the Squire/White/Rabin camp owned the rights to the name ‘Yes’ at the time).
The idea that came about was that of a Union between these two versions of Yes. And what a great idea it was! It features eight people! The material is a mix between the two camps and this seems to have spurred them all to write better songs. Great rock songs like Shock To The System, Lift Me Up and Miracle Of Life, great pop melodies like I Would Have Waited Forever and Saving My Heart, instrumentals like the beautiful Steve Howe solo piece Masquerade.
The most surprising for me are the Trevor Rabin songs. I did not like those Yes albums that Rabin worked on before very much, but here even Rabin’s songs are great. Especially Lift Me Up, which rocks harder than anything from 90125 or Big Generator. Rabin also does a lot of vocals which gives the album more strengh and diversity than usual.
The tracks Angkor Wat, Dangerous (Look In The Light Of What You’re Searching For), Holding On, Evensong and Take The Water To The Mountain are perhaps not too interesting in their own right. But since the running time is so long it is ok. The closing track Give & Take, on the other hand, is again a great song, tying the album together in a nice way.
It is really strange that so many tend to dislike this album so much. I agree that it has some weak moments and it probably could have been better if they recorded it more as a unit instead of sending tapes to each other around the globe. However, Union is a very good and very underrated album (much, much better than 90125 and Big Generator and almost as good as the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album) and a must for all serious Yes fans!
(classicrockreview.wordpress.com/2021/08/25/yes-union-1991-2/) Review by SouthSideoftheSky.

01. I Would Have Waited Forever (06:33)
02. Shock To The System (05:09)
03. Masquerade (02:17)
04. Lift Me Up (06:30)
05. Without Hope You Cannot Start The Day (05:18)
06. Saving My Heart (04:41)
07. Miracle Of Life (07:30)
08. Silent Talking (04:01)
09. The More We Live - Let Go (04:53)
10. Angkor Wat (05:23)
11. Dangerous (Look In The Light Of What You're Searching For) (03:38)
12. Holding On (05:24)
13. Evensong (00:51)
14. Take The Water To The Mountain (03:12)
15. Give And Take (04:28)

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