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Stereotomy

Alan Parsons Project - Stereotomy Audio CD

A fair review of the Alan Parsons Project "Stereotomy" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Alan Parsons Project reviews here, or go back to the Alan Parsons Project tabs.

Band: Alan Parsons Project
Title: Stereotomy
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Stereotomy 2: Beaujolais 3: Urbania [Instrumental] 4: Limelight 5: In the Real World 6: Where's the Walrus? [Instrumental] 7: Light of the World 8: Chinese Whispers [Instrumental] 9: Stereotomy Two

A nice try...rocks, but lacks a strong central theme...life in the city?!
It was released near the end of 1985, not all that long after a calmer, more characteristic concept album - Vulture Culture. Stereotomy is The Alan Parsons Project's (APP) 9th album.

Anyway, if you are an APP listener, you know that their music swings from etherial instrumentals and mellow ballads to driving techno-rock. This album presents more of the latter.

The tracks "Stereotomy", "Stereotomy Two", "Beaujolais", and "In the Real World" all have a clipped, strong techno-rock sound, though sometimes cacophonous, and therefore, not among my personal favorites.

"Urbania", on the other hand, is an outstanding progressive rock instrumental, and well worth a listen. The other instrumentals, "Where's the Walrus" and "Chinese Whisper" seem uninspired. In fact, in my opinion, "Chinese Whisper" (at only 1 min long) is little more than a preamble to "Stereotomy Two. "

I don't quite know what to make of "Light of the World". The song is a passable, though certainly not a memorable mellow offering.

On the other hand, I find "Limelight" to be HIGHLIGHT OF THE ENTIRE ALBUM! It is one of the few songs on this disc that reminds me of what I like best about APP.

I know that different people have different opinions and tastes when it comes to anything, but I don't see how this album rates more than about 3 stars. The two best tracks in my opinion - "Limelight" and "Urbania" don't salvage the rest of the album.

If you have not listened to APP before, I recommend giving this album a miss, for the time being, and start out with "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", "I Robot", "Turn of a Friendly Card" or even "Vulture Culture" for a taste of APP's best.

This album, except for a couple of songs, seldom finds its way to my playlists.

From a 30+ year APP listener.

Alan Parsons Project - One Of Their Hardest Rocking Discs
This one is probably one of the band's hardest rocking. "Stereotomy" is another good APP disc. APP is never really heavy, but there are some really good rockers on this one including the title track, "In The Real World", "Beaujolais", and "Stereotomy Two". The ballads are all strong as well. "Limelight" is outstanding and "Light Of The World" is also a nice one. The only weak point on this disc is the instrumentals. They are ok, but are not on a par with some of APPs better ones. It is also notable that Eric Wolfson only sings a portion of one song on the whole disc which seems unusual. Overall this is not the best APP album, but I have always enjoyed it.

it'll blow your stereo...
Released after the pop-like, mellow Vulture Culture, Stereotomy kept a strong synth rock based structure, although it was the album which breaked their "trillogy of best sold albums" mainly because of the more difficult sound and because of Woolfson small vocal contribution, as Woolfson voice was very commercial. Luis Mejia (son) - Stereotomy, released in 1985, marked a further and better inclinnation into echoing rock with a brand new synthesized style, combined with the best natured modern arrengements.

Stereotomy is mainly a futuristic, synth rock album, being mainly structured with modern synthesized mellodies and a rock basis, its styles differ from synth rock, prog and power ballads. Its thoughtful, personal and critisizing lyrics assume one of their most strong and questioned compositions, just as another reviewer mentioned, if you listen carefuly to the album and compare it with the band's later destine, it really sounds like deja-vu writings, almost with a subliminal message of the band's fate. Stereotomy possesses catchy, electronic, powerful, aggressive, urban, modern and futuristic moods. Even though it stays as a much more aggressive album, its awkward use of modern keyboards, the much lesser impact of the album, the poor sales, its lack of evocative material and its uninspired cohersion makes Stereotomy the worst of TAPP albums, but still is a nice work.

Some of the songs make it a memorable album, still the cohersion in the whole album stays awkward, but still there is a group of songs that keep Stereotomy a fine work: the title track Stereotomy gives to the album a great potential and hope, its echoing performance, plus its imaginative and serious lyrics are fantastic; although the song is sang by John Miles, it possesses Eric Woolfson only vocal feature. Then comes the famous, beautiful, sentimental and recognizable power ballad Limelight, sang by Procol Harum's Gary Brooker, it has a sincere touch of the dream and comfort of every artist in rising fame, its the second best song in the album, while the electric, futuristic and catchy instrumental Where's The Walrus? is a valueable and memorable song. Then comes Light Of The World, while not having a powerful style or too much of fantastic mellodies, its the only song where Parsons bring back his classic style, being an emotionally powerful and light, uncompromising, unexagerated arrengements and mellodies, it remains as a mixture between I Robot's Breakdown and The Turn Of A Friendly Card's Nothing Left To Loose, certainly being the most recommendable song in the album. The other tracks are also good but not as impressive as the others, like the light, funny and catchy Beaujolais, the interpretations of both the smooth and stressful side of the city in Urbania, the rocker In The Real World, the slight ambient effort of Chinese Whispers, which connects with the fierce but unnecessary Stereotomy Two. Track Pick: Stereotomy, Limelight, Where's The Walrus?, Light Of The World.

The artists performance is also great but Alan Parsons' keyboard usage at one point gets stressful, while Eric Woolfson only sang one fragment of a song, and this kind of dissapoints me because he is one of my favourite vocalists. Andrew Powell's orchestral arrengement is the most poor of all of his arrengements, I only noticed a slight string performance at some point of Where's The Walrus?. The vocalists in the album include Chris Rainbow, Gary Brooker, John Miles and Graham Dye.

In conclussion I regard Stereotomy as their worst album, although its still well crafted and with a serious/somber composition, it finds its way to appreciation though, just like they say, as music isn't written in words, sometimes the message can't be correctly comprehended.

Another great and unique album
More trivia first: When this

album first came out it was issued with a 3-d plastic case so the bull's

head on the cover looked 3-d. Much has already been said about this album. Anyways, this is probably the most

different sounding CD the band ever did. It's more guitar driven than

any of their previous albums and more so than the ones following. And

yet, the keyboards and synths here were also more riff driven and less

background than at any other time. Usually the keyboards and really every

other instrument have been solely in the background never overshadowing

the vocals, except for at the bridges, openings, and instrumentals. Not

here. The instrumental parts share at least equally with the vocals at

all times. Not an abundance of string pad sounds and piano. No orchestra.

This was definitely a product of its era. I don't understand why they

don't get these cd's remastered, i've been waiting for years and am

starting to lose interest in this old music. Hurry up arista!.

From a juggler
The two Stereotomys, Beaujolais, and In the Real World are all good juggling songs. This CD explores the concept of struggling through life, and provides several good juggling songs as well. Light of the World and Limelight are very good ballads. The only weak points of the album are the instrumentals. Where's the Walrus and Urbania are both good, but could be much better. Chinese Whispers I am not sure about, as the moment it sounds like it is about to start, it turns into Stereotomy Two.

This album is made even better by the fact that it marks the end of an Era for Parsons. After this album, all of Parsons' work (excluding Gaudi, which I don't have) is full of interesting concepts that are just missed by the lyrics, or even, in some cases (Call Up on Time Machine), downright butchered by the lyrics.

Stereotomy is a great album, has lyrics that hit the concepts on the head, and is very much worth owning.

Oh yeah, a great juggling album as well.

You can see a complete list of all Alan Parsons Project discography, or go back to the Alan Parsons Project tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.