Pyramid --- The Alan Parsons Project --- 1978 (Arista)
One of my favourite Alan Parsons Project albums, “Pyramid” is only their third album and is a concept based on --- anyone? --- yeah, pyramids. There's a lot of spacey instrumental work on it, some really good songs and two excellent ballads. It's also got a really cool sleeve, designed by those supremos of cover art, Hipgnosis. Like most APP albums, the man himself does not take part, other than produce the album and write or co-write all the songs.
It opens with a suitably enigmatic and weird instrumental, called “Voyager”, which basically consists of a guitar intro, then some spacey keyboards and a guitar section joined by bass and light percussion, which ends up forming the intro to “What goes up”, the first song proper on the album. With vocals by David Paton, it's a mid-paced, slightly jazzy number with great bass (also from Paton, as he's the bass player), which asks the question
“If all things must fall/ Why build a miracle at all? / If all things must pass/ Even a miracle won't last.” The song seems to pay tribute to the millennia that the Pyramids have lasted, but notes that what goes up, must (eventually) come down.
This then fades into the first of two great ballads on the album. “The eagle will rise again” is one of the Alan Parsons Project's great ballads. With lovely string arrangements and evocative guitar from Ian Bairnson, the vocal this time taken by Colin Blunstone, who you may recognise as the voice on APP's big hit “Old and wise”. The Alan Parsons Project are rather unique in that they use a lot of different vocalists on every album, and this is no exception.
Great backing vocals on this song, with some great lyrics:
”Many words are spoken/ When there's nothing to say/ They fall upon the ears of those/ Who don't know the way/ To read between the lines...” Bairnson's guitar melody is the main lynchpin of the track though, underpinning the whole song with its simple phrasing.
Things get a little rocky then for “One more river”, this time sung by Lenny Zakatek. It's jarring, unless you know the APP well, to keep hearing different voices on every song, but you soon get used to it. “One more river” is a fast, bouncy rock song with great guitars and some nice synth adding flavour, and something that sounds like horns. Nice lazy guitar solo in there, and a great sax solo. “Can't take it with you” is one of my favourite tracks on the album, with its tale of the man who is dead but wants to remain on Earth, and is trying to convince Charon, the Boatman of the Dead, to let him stay.
”I sympathise completely” Charon tells the dead man
”But there's nothing I can do/ I am just obeying orders/ I'm a simple soul like you.” The song is carried on a bouncy, rocky beat with great “whistling” keyboard and cracking guitar. With Dean Ford this time on vocal duty, Charon smiles
”Well you really are persuasive/ But I've heard it all before.” The song alternates between boppy rocker and somewhat slower, almost bluesy sections. About a minute to the end there's a great guitar solo very reminiscent of Dave Gilmour --- he's not guesting on this, is he? Just like I could have sworn it was Gerry Rafferty on backing vocals at the end, but neither are credited, so I guess not.
Another weird track follows this, an instrumental called “In the lap of the gods”, starting off with tolling bells in the distance, and an Egyptian kind of melody, then the synths get heavy and the drums come in, creating what has since become pretty much the signature Alan Parsons Project theme. Something like a sitar or dulcimer is used then, with choral vocals. Due credit must be given here to the two keyboard wizards, Duncan Mackay and the other founder member of the APP, Eric Woolfson, who do a great job here of creating and building up the atmosphere and tone of the piece.
A very dramatic and epic piece, almost film theme quality, “In the lap of the gods” is followed by the zaniest and most fun track on the album, “Pyramania”, where Jack Harris on vocals tries to explain his fascination, some might say obsession with pyramids.
”I've been told/ Someone in the know can be sure/ That his luck will be as good as gold/ Money in the bank/ And you don't even pay for it/ If you fold a dollar in the shape/ Of the pyramid that's printed on the back!” The music is boppy and suitably upbeat and breezy, then we're into the best instrumental on the album, “Hyper-gamma spaces”, with a driving beat reminiscent of Pink Floyd's “On the run” (well, Alan Parsons
did work on “Dark side of the moon”!), great breathless keyboards and a sweet little guitar solo, with choral vocals or synth, I don't know which, probably the latter, to take us to the closer.
“Shadow of a lonely man” is the tragic tale of a man who has found fame, but lost his identity. It's played in a very epic, sweeping way with excellent emotional vocals from John Miles as he cries
”Look at me now/ A shadow of the man I used to be/ Look through my eyes/ And through the years of loneliness you'll see/ To the times in my life when I could not bear/ To lose a simple game.” It's opened on simple piano but gets very orchestral, turning into a real production piece with strings and full orchestral arrangement.
As the song nears its end, the singer remarks wryly
”But the sound of the crowd/ When they come to see me now/ Is not the same/ And the jest of it all/ Is I can't recall my name.” It's a powerful indictment of fame taking over your life, and losing sight of your goals, and in the end losing your happiness for the sake of being famous. It's a lovely ballad, if bitter, and it closes the album extremely well.
If you've never heard an Alan Parsons Project album before (shame on you!) the multiple vocalists may take a little getting used to, but it's a tribute to this album, and to the APP, that it sounds as good now, over thirty years after it was recorded, as it did back then. Quality is timeless, they say, and this album certainly proves that axiom.
TRACKLISTING
1. Voyager
2. What goes up
3. The eagle will rise again
4. One more river
5. Can't take it with you
6. In the lap of the gods
7. Pyramania
8. Hyper-gamma spaces
9. Shadow of a lonely man
Suggested further listening: “Eve”, “Eye in the sky”, “Ammonia Avenue”, “Vulture culture”, “Gaudi”, “Stereotomy”, “The turn of a friendly card”, “Try anything once”, “On air”.