The Alan Parsons Project Album: “Gaudi”

1987's "Gaudi" was the last collaboration between Alan Parsons and his musical partner Eric Woolfson under the "Alan Parsons Project" name. An album inspired by the life and works of architect Antonio Gaudi, "Gaudi" is a very rich, elegant, powerful album for the Project to go out with. "La Sagrada Familia" is a beautiful orchestral rock epic, with a great lead vocal by John Miles. Longtime Project vocalist Lenny Zakatek takes the mike on "Too Late," an awesome pop-rocker that could've been (and should've been) a huge hit for the group, though it wasn't released as a single. Eric Woolfson sings on "Closer To Heaven," a very beautiful, heavenly Project number. The lone single release from the album, "Standing On Higher Ground," is a very cool, catchy tune, sung by Geoff Barradale of the mid-80's group Vitamin Z (remember them?). John Miles returns for another lead vocal on "Money Talks," which is a great, down & dirty rocker. Woolfson then returns once more for the lovely "Inside Looking Out," and the album concludes on a very high note with a short instrumental reprise of "La Sagrada Familia," featuring excellent spanish guitar by Project veteran Ian Bairnson. As always on a Project album, the performances, production and sound quality are sharp & superior, and the outstanding orchestral touches by Andrew Powell is the icing on an already delicious musical cake.Alan Parsons did, in fact, work with Eric Woolfson one last time on Woolfson's 1990 concept album, "Freudiana," before the duo finally went their separate ways ("Freudiana" is only available on import, but it's an absolutely brilliant, MUST-buy CD for diehard Project fans). Parsons has since gone solo (though he's retained the services of several Project members for his latest albums), while Woolfson has since gone into the world of musical theater, writing & producing several musicals that have been performed throughout Europe. But these two men have created together some of the most fantastic music I've ever heard (and are STILL making fantastic music on their own these days), and "Gaudi" is a gorgeous, dazzling, memorable album to close out the Alan Parsons Project with. Thank you Alan, Eric, and the rest of the Project gang---long live the Project!

While some of the earlier remasters, particularly

, suffered from a compression of dynamic range in an effort to feel out the mp3 versus redbook compact disc music buying market, the last batch of SONY/BMG remasters by The Alan Parsons Project cater exclusively to those of us concerned with audiophile quality. And that is as it should be because there were only a select few producers who could create a polished gemstone quite like Alan Parsons. While better than many others, the original 1987 Arista compact disc is sterile in comparison to this remaster. The brass section, in particular, has a transistor-like quality to it on the original whereas the remaster sounds convincingly real and full of life. Once again, a tip o' the hat to Sony's Direct Stream Digital sampling from the best source material available. This is one of the best sounding redbook compact discs I have ever heard, even rivaling many Super Audio CDs!

The album itself developed from the inspiration songwriter Eric Woolfson experienced upon seeing the singularly unique structural designs of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi while on holiday in Barcelona. So inspired was Woolfson that he even composed an entire musical, also called GAUDI, that was successfully staged in Germany. While the crown jewel would unquestionably be the lavish

, both

and

/

are almost equally astounding! Throw into the mix a terrific radio hit like

and you have a worthy, albeit premature, swansong from The Project. Even

which I have been rather cool to receive over the years takes on a whole new life in remastered form.

And the bonus material is exceptional! The vocal flourishes of an alternative take on

are just fantastic. If only there could have been someway to work those into the original! From the live saxophone of Richard Cottle to the vocal overdubs of Chris Rainbow to even a glimpse of Eric Woolfson's humorous vocal stylings on

, the bonus material, to the delight of ardent fans, leaves no stone unturned. However, the most important bonus track would have to be

which incontrovertibly proves The Project wasn't just a studio creation; they were keenly adroit musicians who should have touted those talents with more timely touring for all the world to see!

I let this Alan Parons Project album sit on a shelf for the longest time. I don't know why. After I focused my attention on it and the man Gaudi himself I was most impressed with the music.

The architech Antoni Gaudi was a genius of the highest order and his still-ongoing work in Barcelona is evidence of that. This album led me to to know and appreciate this man's work.

I like the songs, each of which reflect an aspect of Gaudi's work on the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. I wondered why Money Talks was on this collection until I read that Gaudi, in his later days, spent much time trying to raise funds for his masterpiece.

This is a most-excellent Parsons album. Do yourself a favor. Get this CD and then spend some time learning about Gaudi himself.

With this smoother, deeper and even religious-flavoured album the Alan Parsons Project culmined a superb string of 10 records that made history in Symphonic Rock. The concept about it is the life of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi that was a very misunderstood artist and is curiously been studied by the Vatican for beatification. Alan Parsons said on a review that they studied Gaudi's life and they wanted to make a record with the type of music they guessed he would like.

'La Sagrada Familia', with its long introduction that adds a speech from Alan Parsons, many sounds like horses, helicopters and city sounds and a beautiful opening electric piano, lasts almost 9 minutes and is one of the biggest highlights from all the Project. The superb leading vocals of John Miles, the epic feel of either lyrics and orcherstrations and the great guitar work of Bairnson and Cottle on electric guitar and saxophone turn this song into a spectacular epic not so commercial or famous because of its length, but with as much quality as the best works from Pink Floyd or Dire Straits...

'Too Late' is for me the best Project song together with 'One More River' sang by the eccentric vocalist Lenny Zakatek. The song speaks about the anger of disappointment of a person speaking to other about their unbalanced relation. The prominent electric guitars and the superb distorted solo from Ian Bairnson make this song a perfect rocker full of power and quality.

'Closer to Heaven' is a beautiful ballad with a very original, pulsy rythm and a very sensitive singing by Eric Woolfson. Again the saxophone and guitar work together creating a wonderful and sublime instrumental part. Also, the beautiful accordions in the chorus add sentiment to the song.

The very synthesised and 80s sounding 'Standing on Higher Ground' adds a lot of freshness and rythm to the album. It is a song that goes in crescendo and includes a short but outstanding overdubbed guitars solo. The end is really intense and guitars and voices scream in a very enthusiastic and delirious mood.

The rocker 'Money Talks' is more disposable and predictable and speaks about the traps of money all we now in a too shallow way.

'Inside Looking Out' is a very sublime, almost heavenly ballad, showing I suppose some of the dreams and wanderings of Antonio Gaudi, with some beautiful words in the chorus:

'Now is the hour and the moment

The last piece, 'Paseo de Gracia' is more than only the instrumental version of 'La Sagrada Familia'. The city sounds, synthesisers and church bells at the beginning create an atmosphere of either dream and reality, and the great flamenco guitar performance from Ian Bairnson add a last Spanish flavour to the album, the anecdote being they didn't know the historic and political difference of Catalonia and the rest of Spain at that moment, and the adding of castanets and flamenco guitar annoyed the Catalans a lot 'cos they felt it as a misunderstanding of their own musical and cultural traditions...

Apart from the anecdote, this is a great close for this record, that appears to any listener as a masterpiece and one of the best conceived and more serious Alan Parsons Project albums.

Having (foolishly) lost interest in APP around the time this album was originally released, I had never really considered purchasing it. That changed when La Segrada cycled through a couple of times for me on pandora.com. That one song was enough reason for me to order this CD.

Overall, I would consider this an average APP album. Not their best ( I am personally very fond of Ammonia Ave., Turn of a Friendly Card, and Tales of Mystery), but most certainly able to hold my interest and cause me to hit the "repeat" button. If for no other reason, La Segrada Familia is worth the purchase price all on its own. This song brings with it alot of energy and emotion, much more than I have been accustomed to from APP. Very few APP songs have grabbed my attention and stuck in my mind as well as this one does. It brings very well into focus for me what that structure must have meant and does mean for the people of Spain. It takes a very well written and performed piece of music to accomplish that type of transfer of empathy. This song does that very well!

As far as the rest of the album is concerned, again, the songs are average or above in general. I think the single that was released with this album originally, Standing on Higher Ground, has grown on me now far more than it did back then. Of course, the ending instrumental is more of a reprise of La Segrada and carries much of the same, catchy melodic passage. There are no bad songs on this album. Unlike many groups plodding along during the late 80s, APP never really "lost their way" (with the notable exception of Vulture Culture) or blended in with the music scene at the time. So, I think, APP's work has more musical validity now than it did even back then and does seem to be aging very well.

All-in-all, you won't go wrong with this album, especially considering that it was the last for the duo of Parsons and Wolfson.