The Alan Parsons Project Album: “Stereotomy [Bonus Tracks]”

Even for the ardent fan of The Project, the virtues of Stereotomy may not be as readily accessible as their earlier releases. While the preceeding two albums had a somewhat softer feel as well as the gentleness of Eric Woolfson's lead vocals throughout, Alan took the ninth project in a distinctly differenent direction. Lee Abrams, a prominent spoken word contributor to their previous album Vulture Culture, complained of the direction their recent work had taken by exclaiming, "Where's The Walrus?" Thus was born the title to one of the finest group efforts The Project has ever performed, one that earned them yet another Grammy nomination.

For those fans who took a liking to the softer approach with Eric Woolfson's lead vocals, Stereotomy may have been a bit of a shock. While

,

, and

all had a harder edge, each also deserves a close listening, especially the former and the latter which are laden with ornate and ambient depth. Not to mention it was here that John Miles made his triumphant return to The Project after last appearing six years prior on PYRAMID. However, it should also be noted that the softer side of The Project was alive and well in songs like

,

, and the astounding

featuring the earthy vocals of Procol Harem's Gary Brooker.

This new remaster has a warmth that, while present on the original vinyl, was quite lacking on the original compact disc released by Arista. Of the bonus material, the two standout tracks are the pre-vocal versions of

and the newly discovered

which was dropped from the original song cycle of the album.

My personal view parallels those of both Alan and Lee Abrams: this departure from the softer approach of

and

, while good albums in their own right, was well overdue. As much as I hate to admit it, The Project had become a little too conventional by the mid-eighties. Stereotomy, on the other hand, is anything but conventional.

Although a fine album, the Alan Parsons Project's 1984 release, "Vulture Culture," with it's pop-oriented sound, had many Project fans worried that the veteran studio group had gotten too soft in their musical approach. So, Project leaders Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson decided that the follow-up disc, 1985's "Stereotomy," would be a tougher-sounding Project album, for which many fans breathed a sigh of relief. This is a powerful, punchy, mostly hard-rocking Project album, and one of their best. The title track is an awesome, classic Project rocker, which segues quite well into the fun, upbeat "Beaujolais." Next up is the terrific, ambient-rock instrumental, "Urbania," and then, the Project turn the volume down a bit for one of their all-time greatest ballads, "Limelight," beautifully sung by the one-and-only Gary Brooker of Procol Harum. "In The Real World" is a cool pop-rocker, and the pumped-up instrumental "Where's The Walrus?" is absolutely electric. "Light Of The World" is a gorgeous song, a true Project buried treasure. Finally, there's the brief, atmospheric "Chinese Whispers," and the grand finale, "Stereotomy Two," with the group charging for home with guns blazing. The album is outstanding from beginning to end, with first-rate songs & instrumentals, incredible, energetic musicianship & production, and great lead vocals by John Miles, Chris Rainbow, Gary Brooker and Graham Dye. Quite simply, "Stereotomy" rocks. The Alan Parsons Project's album sales may have been in decline by this point, but "Stereotomy" certainly remains one of the group's very best releases. Pick it up and crank it up!

Easily one of my favorite Alan Parsons Project albums, Stereotomy has a zero clunker content --something that isn't true of most of the APP albums following I, Robot. The album is the first by APP to make use of several new technologies including Yamaha's FM synthesizers (synthesizer buffs will agree that this album has some of the most tasteful FM work in existence) and the new generation of digital reverbs. As a result it has a cleaner, sharper sound than its predecessors. It also has a more electronic and synthesizer-oriented character than any other APP album. I gather that the record label pretty much abandoned Parson and Woolfson on the marketing for this slightly out of the mainstream effort. It lapsed into instant obscurity as a result, but hopefully the passage of time has revealed it to more listeners. "Beaujolais" is my favorite but, as I said, all of the tunes are decent or better.

Strangely enough, my online dictionary defines Stereotomy as: "The science or art of cutting solids into certain figures or sections, as arches, and the like; especially, the art of stonecutting." Is this how the album describes the splitting of Parsons/Woolfson? It certainly is the most personal album of the entire Project, and one of my favorites.

As for the cover - if you turn the picture upside down, you can see it's not part of any ink-blot test - it's the negative of a gorilla's head and shoulders. The inner beast of the artist, perhaps?

Much has already been said about this 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. 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!

Well it's now been over a year since all the remasters came out, I write this

part in 2011. The remaster of this is outstanding in 24 bit high definition

sound and includes a bunch of bonus tracks including demos. Get it!