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Pyramid

The Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid Audio CD

A fair review of the The Alan Parsons Project "Pyramid" 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 The Alan Parsons Project reviews here, or go back to the The Alan Parsons Project tabs.

Band: The Alan Parsons Project
Title: Pyramid
Rating:

Release Date: 2009-01-27
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Voyager [Instrumental] 2: What Goes Up 3: Eagle Will Rise Again 4: One More River 5: Can't Take It with You 6: In the Lap of the Gods [Instrumental] 7: Pyramania 8: Hyper-Gamma-Spaces 9: Shadow of a Lonely Man 10: Voyager/What Goes Up/The Eagle Will Rise Again [Instrumental] 11: What Goes Up/Little Voice [Early Version Demo] 12: Can't Take It with You [Early Version Demo] 13: Hyper-Gamma-Spaces [Demo Version] 14: Eagle Will Rise Again [Alternate Version-Backing Track] 15: In the Lap of the Gods, Pt. 1 [Demo Version] 16: In the Lap of the Gods, Pt. 2 [Backing Track Rough Mix]

I'll update this once my remaster arrives
I won't bother repeating what others have said as I'm only going off the original release which I had no idea a remaster existed until I felt it necessary to write about this album because it reminds me of the overplayed Pink Floyd songs to a minor extent, here goes. .

Pyramid sounds like a knock-off Pink Floyd album, (to a minor extent, I realize how blasphemous this sounds to true APP fans, but bear with me) but since it hasn't been played to death like most Pink Floyd stuff such as "The Wall" or the prism cover album it still sounds pretty good to me even though I've managed to avoid playing it to death while I've owned it, it still piques my interest to this day.

I have nothing against the guys in Pink Floyd as I have the utmost respect for them as individuals as they've been able to avoid the trappings of success that have driven most rock stars into untimely early grave(s).

It's not really their fault that American program directors over the many decades since have refused to give Pyramid the same sort of overplay they've given to Pink Floyd.

Hyper-Gamma-Spaces reminds me of an ELP song that I saw around the same time at the Gates Planetarium at a Laserium light show, (Late 70's using a Krypton Laser on the ceiling) with some cool
tunes from Camel, ELP, and the obligatory Pink Floyd tracks of course.

31 years later, I'd rather listen to the first 8 tracks, track 9 is sort of like accidentally stepping off a cliff
edge while trying to avoid boredom, it's a strange juxtaposition for sure, but that's my take, it reminds me of the rocky mountains which I can only see in pictures now, it might be for the best, but I'll probably never know since I've already made my decision on where my life's song will be heard.

Alan Parsons Has More Lessons To Teach
Far from it. On PYRAMID, Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson prove that they haven't run out of important lessons to teach. The song "Can't Take It With You" has a message that our souls are our most important asset, and that even a rich person living in a wealthy neighborhood (e. g. Seattle's Denny Blaine or Magnolia; Portland Oregon's Sylvan-Highlands, SWHRL, Hillside, or Healy Heights neighborhoods, as well as the suburban Dunthorpe, Riverwood, and Riverfront areas; or Cape Elizabeth, Maine) can be poor if he/she has no inner peace. Overall, this album seems to be about superstition, which I'm no stranger to, as I try to make sure that I pick out good CDs by wearing the same clothes each time I go music shopping. This is the Alan Parsons Project's most underrated album ever, and deserves to be rediscovered.

One Of My Favorite APP Albums Finally Remastered!
Patrick Flanagan's book "Pyramid Power:The Millennium Science",remains one of my top picks in APP's catalog. Though it wasn't their most commercially successful album (it peaked at #26 and it produced no major hit singles),"Pyramid",which is inspired by G. With sleek production,lush orchestration,and such outstanding songs such as "The Eagle Will Rise Again","Can't Take It With You","Shadow Of A Lonely Man" and the dramatic instrumental "In The Lap Of The Gods",it's difficult for any fan of prog-rock or classic-rock to pass up this underrated gem. And thanks to the beautiful remastering of Dave Donnelly and Alan Parsons that puts the inital CD and LP issues to shame,it's now a necessity. (Also included is an essay by Jerry Ewing and period memorabilia and artwork. ) .

The Mayan panoramas on my Pyramid pajamas
" It is one of the few APP albums to not notch a top 40 single. The third Alan Parsons Project album was kind of lost in the middle of his Sci-Fi progressive epic "I Robot" and the hits that started coming once he released "Eve. It's also the last of his truly old-school free-from FM Radio rock albums, playing heavily with the instrumentations and the concept. I'm so glad it has finally been remastered!

For this album, it was the Pyramid Craze and the fascination with King Tut that informed the songs. The unconventional instrumentation of "In The Lap Of The Gods" was the last time Parsons would enter into that kind of symphonic lustre, and APP's trademark instrumental style makes two appearances with "Hyper Gamma Spaces" and "Voyager. " The terrific ballads drop in with "Shadow of a Lonely Man" and Colin Blunstone's well sung "The Eagle Will Rise Again. "

The thematic leaning towards making monuments to yourself ("What Goes Up" and "You Can't Take it With You") make for intriguing, thoughtful songs, while the goofy "Pyramania" is the song that actually does fiddle around with the Pyramid theme (and may be the most humorous thing APP ever recorded) the most. But the main theme of the album, man's quest for immortality, is the over-riding purpose of the songs. Be it our desires and doubts toward be the biggest and most noticed ("If all things will fall, why build a miracle at all?") to our own refusal to acknowledge our folly ("The last thing of all that was on my mind was the close at the end of the show" from "Shadow of a Lonely Man"), this was the last Alan Parsons Project to really touch me emotionally. While future and more popular albums ("Eye in the Sky," "Turn of a Friendly Card") are still good albums overall, they were more focused on a glossy and streamlined sound. "Pyramid" was a grandiose goodbye to the 70's, and still holds a special place in my CD collection.

The bonus tracks are demos and guide collages, are are superfluous.
.

Pretty much perfect
It's gratifying to see the lengths that Parsons and Woolfson have gone to in raiding their archives (and fairly brave in a few instances, though the demos are fascinating documents in their own right). As one of the first albums I ever bought myself on LP, and having been disappointed with the previous CD issue, I'm very pleased to finally have this captivating journey properly remastered at last.

"Pyramid" itself was described by them at the time as "a look at the past" in the way that "I Robot" had been "a look at the future. " It succeeds in this perfectly - conjuring up distant times and spaces and displaying the trademark Parsons epic sound, using full orchestra and rock band in ways I think have never been bettered. All of this would mean little if the vocal songs themselves weren't evocative and moving, written by one of the best writers working in rock (Woolfson) and delivered by the pick of Parsons' crack team of vocalists (Blunstone, Paton, Zakatek, Miles, Ford).

The tracks range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The music builds superb choral and orchestral complexities over seemingly simple rock structures, combinations of electronic and acoustic, and even a keyboard track (from Parsons) that predicts the future of polyphonic synthesisers in its treated keyboard structure.

Subtlety, beauty, poignancy, literate lyrics and sweeping music - an album that needs to be heard (and reheard) in its entirety. For new listeners, I'd recommend saving the bonus tracks for another day - give the whole album a few listens first and let it gradually work its magic.

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