Published on Dec 21, 2001
Repeat after me: if you’ve seen a Chicago Bulls basketball game,
you’ve heard part of this CD. The opening track, “Sirius”, is known
more colloquially as the ‘Bulls Intro Theme’ back in the days when
the Bulls actually won more than twelve games a season and Michael
Jordan didn’t wear blue. This is the last time I’m mentioning that,
dammit. Because I have a very soft spot in my heart for the 1982
release from Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson, and their usual cast of
crazies; it was, I think, the third rock album I ever bought, and
I’ve gone through multiple copies since then. (My current one is
autographed. I’m such a geek.)
Eye In The Sky is, quite simply, the Project’s finest hour,
and the best thing Alan Parsons would record until
Try Anything Once.
In many ways,
Eye is the transition between the seventies’ Project art
rock sound and the more clinical, Fairlight-laden eighties sound.
Perhaps the transition zone was the best place to be; it resulted
in a CD almost breathtaking at times in its complexity and beauty.
As always, the musicianship and production is exemplary. Alan
Parsons is the best progressive rock producer in history, and the
sound here is crisp, shatteringly so, and textured. The core band
of musicians — guitarist Ian Bairnson, drummer Stuart Elliot,
orchestra conductor and arranger Andrew Powell, and vocalists Chris
Rainbow, Colin Blunstone, and Lenny Zakatek — are supplemented by
on again/off again Project bassist David Paton and saxophone player
Mel Collins, who all do excellent jobs.
The strength here is the music, though. From the eerie harmonics
of “Eye In The Sky” (a bonus gummi shoggoth to whoever can name the
single(s) that kept this song from being an American Number One
hit) to the soft, sad paean of “Old And Wise” (which will be played
at my wake), there’s no weakness at all. “Gemini” is an astonishing
piece of vocal harmony, “Silence And I” is a rich, multi-layered
vocal and orchestral piece, and “You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers
Burned” is a surprisingly straight-ahead rock number that could,
with a bit of imagination, be envisioned on a REO Speedwagon CD.
(Live version’s better, but that’s a review for another day.) For
me, though, the centerpiece is the triple threat of “Psychobabble”
(the best weird rock song in history), “Mammagamma” (the best
instrumental Parsons has ever done), and “Step By Step” (overlooked
even by Parsons fans, this is one of the best pop songs in Project
history).
Add in “Children Of The Moon” and what you have here is a
seriously tasty piece of symphonic pop/rock, music for grownups,
and one of the classic albums of the eighties. No serious music
aficionado’s collection should be without it. If yours is, rectify
the oversight today.