The Alan Parsons Project

Complete Albums Collection COOKING VINYL

Never mind the bonus…

The vinyl version of the 2014 CD box set comes in a giant flip-top cigarette pack, and contains the previously unreleased The Sicilian Defence which was a bonus album in the 2014 set, although ‘bonus’ is debateable.

The Sicilian Defence was recorded over three days in 1981 – a fraction of the time Parsons and his Project partner Eric Woolfson normally spent on their albums – delivered to Arista Records, and then promptly locked away in the vaults for 33 years. It comprises a series of piano-dominated pieces with no vocals and was, as the title implies, some sort of chess game with the record company. Parsons never wanted it to be released, and allegedly still doesn’t.

So, best put your stylus to work on the 10 ‘real’ albums, which began with 1976’s magnificent prog re-imagining of Poe’s Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, and then the following year proved that lightning can strike twice with Asimov’s I Robot. Having established a near-faultless reputation their standards never faltered, and after the chart success of Time and

Games People Play from The

Turn Of A Friendly Card they peaked with the immaculate soft rock of 1982’s Eye In The

Sky. The last four albums are a gentle let-down.