Guybrush

Introduction :

Alan Parsons as a famous audio engineer, musician and record producer should need no introduction, so I'll try to keep this one short. In the 60s, he worked with engineering successful albums like The Beatles "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be". In the early 70s, he engineered Pink Floyd's well known and loved "Dark Side of the Moon" album, something he's quite famous for as well as producing other acts for EMI. Parsons had his own manager, scotsman and musician Eric Woolfson, whom he had met in the Abbey Road studio in 1974. Together, they made the Alan Parsons project (supposedly named after Alan because of his fame) where Alan would produce and engineer songs written by the two. Their debut album was based on the works of the famous and slightly macabre Edgar Allen Poe, favourite writer of many a young goth. Tales of Mystery and Imagination was released in 1976 and features guest artists such as Arthur Brown ("The Crazy World of Arthur Brown") and Leonard Whiting (british actor). Neither Alan nor Eric considered themselves real singers and preferred to look elsewhere for vocal talents. The album also contains major contributions by the band Pilot who Alan Parsons had done production for.

After it's release, the debut became a success, yet Alan himself was not completely satisfied. 11 years later in 1987, before rereleasing the album on CD, he worked through the album song by song and added to it such as narration by Orson Wells, synths and additional guitar solos. The following is a review of this 1987 reissue.


Song for Song Review :

The album opens with narration by Orson Welles as music trickles in and creates some initially lush sounds that turn into an accessible bit with a simple bass, drums and fingerplay on guitar. The track is A Dream Within a Dream and serves mostly as an introduction into the album, although an enjoyable one as such. When the song is done building up to a small climax, it degrades until we're left with the beating bassline that continues into the next track, The Raven. The Raven is considered an Alan Parsons classic and is notable for being the first song recorded with a vocoder which gives Alan a robotic voice as he sings through the first parts of Edgar's poem by the same name. In the poem, a distraught lover is visited by the raven Quoth that won't leave. Quoth observes the lover's descent into madness and keeps reminding him of his lost love by repeating the word "Nevermore". That's a rough summary. The poem is loved by many and so should the song be because it is excellent! It's quite dynamic with rocky parts, pompous orchestral parts and moments of beauty with some wonderful choir backing vocals. Leonard Whiting does the lead vocals and, despite lacking confidence in his own voice at the time, does an excellent job! Here's a fanmade video for the song.




The next track is a rock song, The Tell-Tale Heart in which the memorable and slightly maniacal Arthur Brown makes a charming appearance. It's pompous, catchy and features much screaming and lisping to the listeners delight. It also features slower orchestral bits and a guitar solo, but Arthur Brown's crazy vocal performance definetly takes center stage. Thank you Mr. Brown!

The Cask of Amontillado is sung by John Miles and contains the album's most beautiful moments. It's a lush ballad with orchestral elements and lovely harmonious backing vocals. More dramatic orchestral parts add some variation and keeps it from becoming too soppy. This song is my girlfriend's favourite from this album and she even said she'd like it to be played at our wedding. Suffice to say it's easily likeable.

Doctor Tarr and Professor Feth is another highly likeable rock song with a groove and some catchy lyrics. Before it ends, it revisits musical themes from A Dream Within A Dream, The Raven and the Tell-Tale Heart, reminding us that this is a concept album.

The Fall of the House of Usher at a little more than 15 minutes is the most ambitious track on the record (although it might be split into several tracks depending on the release). It opens with another monologue by Orson Welles on music. If you're expecting a prog-rock epic, you might get surprised when the prelude part plays like a piece by a symphony orchestra and several parts of this song sounds like it could be in a soundtrack for a classic creepy movie. The Pavane part has a more traditional rocky bit although with some strange sounds like harpsichord and what sounds to be a mandolin. The end, Fall, sounds a bit like a symphonic orchestra playing the musical equivalent of that part of the nightmare just before you wake up. On the whole, it's good - but it's sadly not the reason why I put this album on and as such, I wish it was a little shorter. However, if you're looking for feelings of Poe-ish suspense and sounds of the eerily supernatural, this is where you have the biggest chance of finding it.

The One in Paradise featuring Terry Sylvester is a serene rock ballad that opens with a bit on the guitar that reminds me of Buckethead's "Watching the boats with my dad". It's enjoyable, but not more so than the other pre-Usher tracks.


Review Summary :

The album has been critizised for not being quite as spooky and macabre as Edgar Allen Poe's works which it is based on and aside from a few moments on The House of Usher, I wholeheartedly agree. That doesn't mean that this is not a good album. Although the last parts can drag on a bit, it's got all good songs and a couple of them, The Raven and Cask of Amontillado, could even have hit potential. For an album that is considered prog-rock, it is quite accessible and I think anyone would find a song or two that they like from this one even if they haven't heard much prog before. The different singers and different songs add variety enough to keep it from becoming boring. As you'd expect from an audio engineer/producer with a resume like Mr. Parsons, the sound of the album is impeccable. Nothing is half-assed or sloppy and the only slightly bad thing about the perfect production is that is makes the album sound a little artificial at times.

In other words, despite a slight disappointment with the lack of complexity, replayability and Poe-ish mood, the strength of some of these songs alone make this album my favourite from the Alan Parsons project. It can safely be recommended to anyone who could at all consider picking up an album from the 70s.

Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 5/6

Favourite tracks : The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado

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