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 Man V Woman V Music Nov 13, 2009
The fourth album from the Alan Parsons Project went for the biggest question of them all. Forget Science Fiction, Classic Horror Lit or Egyptian Mythology. This time, it's the battle of the sexes. It was one mighty topic, and The Project had more apple in their teeth than they could chew. It is the most average of The Alan Parsons Project's earlier albums.
The problem lies in the songwriting. By trying to divide it into a male and female half, the men are portrayed as misogynistic ("You Lie Down With Dogs") or harpies ("I'd Rather Be a Man"). The women as either weak and needy ("If I Could Change Your Mind") or devious and even deformed (the infamous hipgnosis artwork). There was also the issue that Parsons and Eric Woolfsons note in the liner that they were under deadline pressure and had to veer away from the original concept. One wonders what might have been should the artists been allowed more time to develop their original ideas.
As such, "Eve" seems to be half a great album. "Lucifer" became the first of the wildly popular instrumentals that APP became known for. "Damned If I Do" became a Top 40 hit. And one of the rare APP songs with a female lead, "If I Could Change Your Mind" sung by Lesley Duncan, is beautiful. The orchestrations by Andrew Powell are some of APP's best on record. I love the sounds on "Wind Me Up" in particular. The remastering brings these details out far better than the old CD version.
The new "Eve" offers one extra treat among the bonus tracks, a piano instrumental from the legendary "Sicilian Defense" album. Now titled "Elsie's Theme," it's a pleasant work that was never fleshed out. Again, wondering what might have been had Parsons and Woolfsons not been jammed up by their record company. Two albums later, the APP turned out their greatest success (Eye in the Sky), and "Eve" was part of the journey.
Great Concept Album Sep 23, 2009
The Alan Parsons Project was a group known for making concept albums and this one was one of the clearest and best accomplished of them. It's not a fan favorite but I like it well. From the Hipgnosis cover of women wearing nets over their faces to hide sore and blemishes on their faces to the end of the cd, we see and hear a commentary from APP on women and relationships between men and women in general. The opening number, Lucifer, is an instrumental alluding to the moment between Adam and Eve in The Garden of Eden before they were cast out. The album then spirals through vitriol and negative songs about women until it starts turning around at midpoint and becomes more about relationships starting with the amazing Damned If I Do. That is one of APPs best songs ever btw and also a hit as well as a fan favorite. The album ends with If You Could Change Your Mind which was another hit. The vocals and arrangements are stellar as is usual with this band. The only problem with this album is the amount of poison and negativity that pours out in the lyrics. The other problem is that although the diversity of styles used serves the album's concept and the individual songs well, the album doesn't hold together well musically and sounds a little like songs by several bands rather than one cohesive work.
I still love this album though, and I find myself in a minority among fans. The reason that I love this album is that I'm a sucker for good concept albums, and the diverse musical styles are used to great effect to illustrate each of the individual song's lyrical points. Eric Woolfson is the band's chief songwriter and he does a great job in creating the album's concept with a quality batch of songs that are catchy and very well written. The production, manned by Alan Parsons, is also of highest quality. I'm sure that the bluntness of many of the songs lyrics are part of the problem with the cds popularity, but if you can get past that or if you can be open-minded enough to see the perspective used, then the brilliance of the album comes through. I wouldn't rank it in the same league with The Dark Side Of The Moon as far as concept albums go, but it stands on its own very well.
Alan Parson's albums in order of preference:
Eye In The Sky
The Turn Of A Friendly Card
Ammonia Avenue
Eve
I Robot
On Air
Time Machine
Pyramid
The remastering job on all APP albums is amongst the best I've ever heard. If you buy any of their albums get the Alan Parsons remasters.
The Project is Unheard Jun 01, 2009
Many things in this world confuse me. The one I'd like to focus on here is that most stores don't carry this album. I can go to Best Buy and pick up every Nelly or Eiminem CD ever made, buy obscure underground albums like My Bloody Valentine (the 80's scottish group) and the complete Sonic Youth back catalouge, or even find the occasional Anthrax disk. But I couldn't find most of the APP albums anywhere!
Remastered Judas Priest? no problem. Remastered ELO? Tricky, but still available. Remastered Alan Parsons Project?
"Who?"
Now on to the review.
The Project's EVE was one of the strangest albums in their already strange series. EVE features female lead vocals on 2 songs and a series of impressive project signature songs and instrumentals that are completely different in structure from ones on their previous albums. Upon first listening it appears to feature a continuing theme of powerful women tearing down men and their retalliation. But that's only one way of hearing it, as it presents the theme and leaves the listener to interpret it their own way.
This album has all the Woolfson musical trademarks that make his music so catchy, and the orchestration seemlessly blends in and takes the lead just at the right times. Lyrics are deep (as always) but not insanely so (ala Pink Floyd).
Listening to the Project and the few other 70's and 80's groups that made great big music like this makes one wonder why there was so little of it and why everyone else made simple three beat pop hits that drone on and on through every so-called "classic Rock" station in america.
Bonus features on the remaster are few but some are very interesting. The first track is Elsie's Theme, from the Silican Defense.
For those who aren't fanatics, The Silican Defense was a concept album which was recorded at the same time as EVE. The record company rejected it and it was shelved. This is the first time that anyone outside the Project has heard any of The Silican Defense and that was a treat in itself.
The rest of the bonus tracks are alternates to the original recordings in one form or another, and although interesting, are not as special as the "Naked" bonuses on other Project remasters.
All in all, if you've never really been a fan of APP but enjoyed one or two of ther songs in the past, or if you're simply looking for something different than the junk you hear on the radio every day, then give The Alan Parsons Project back catalouge a try. You may not like all their music but APP is so diverse that it's a sure bet that you'll find at least a dozen tracks you'll love.
Also, for those who don't know, The Alan Parsons Project is a group name. It featured a rotating line up of great musicians and vocalists. The bulk of the music was written (and occasionally sung by) Eric Woolfson who was also the manager. Alan Parsons was the engineer, occasional co-writer, and played keyboards from time to time. Alan also did some back-up vocals, but rarely ever sang or played. Being that Alan put the albums together and engineered the recording it's best to say that they are an Alan Parsons Project!
 A Highly Misunderstood Alan Parsons Project CD May 08, 2009
EVE is a highly misunderstood Alan Parsons Project CD. At first, after I had a number of bad experiences with women, including a day program instructor who bunked out on my YMCA trip to observe a religious occasion and a rec group staffer who got on my case for talking about one subject nonstop, I though that this album was a much-needed attempt to put these people and others like them in their place. However, I now realize that the album is actually about the effect women have on men in general, especially women like Maxine Aston, a psychologist who claims that long-term exposure to autism-spectrum individuals can lead to symptoms ranging from stress-related acne to suicidal depression, and isn't attacking anyone I know, as I'm now going to be making over $200 per month working for a female boss. I also feel that, as uncomfortable as the album's lyrics may seem, it really needs to be evaluated on its musical merits, as Andrew Powell did some incredible orchestrations, which the warm, thick remastering only makes more obvious. Finally, the album does give a female perspective as well as a male one, which mitigates the somewhat nasty tone of some of the lyrics.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
As Misunderstood As Women Themselves Dec 07, 2008
While Eric Woolfson remembers being under the tremendous pressure of recording deadlines even as Alan Parsons remembers a recording process bedeviled by all manner of malfunctions in a foreign studio, Andrew Powell delivered the finest orchestral arrangements to ever grace a Project. In strictly musical terms, Andrew Powell made what would possibly have been a good but under-distinguished album absolutely exceptional! Songs like Winding Me Up and Damned If I Do would never be the same without Andrew Powell's orchestral touch. As such, I would strongly recommend tracking down some of Powell's other work, especially Andrew Powell and The Philharmonia Orchestra Play the Best of the Alan Parsons Project and Ladyhawke: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.
In strictly conceptual terms, the time constraints imposed by Arista forced Woolfson to abandon his original hope of composing an album dedicated to significant women throughout history such as Joan of Arc. What remained was a far more conventional look at the fairer gender and their influence over men. The photography by Hipgnosis actually sums up the conceptual short-comings of EVE quite succinctly. Holding the male viewer in the longing of their lovely gazes, two of the three women are so subtlely marred that said flaws do not detract from their tremendous beauty. Unfortunately, the third woman is presented with an undeserved ugliness that completely overwhelms her beauty. Although never intended as universal statements, the songs You Lie Down With Dogs and I'd Rather Be A Man suffer in much the same way the third photographed woman does for much the same reason.
But, for me at least, the paradigm upon which EVE rests is the stunningly beautiful instrumental Secret Garden through which the listener glimpses the lost garden that Lesley Duncan seems to almost beckon us back to in the closing epic If I Could Change Your Mind. The poignant sorrow of Duncan's soulful vocals harken the listener back to the time when man and woman lived in perfect harmony with one another. One can only wonder how EVE would have been received all these years had it been called EDEN instead. With an instrumental overture called Lucifer, are ponderings of that sort really such a stretch?
While the bonus material once again grants a welcomed look behind the scenes of the creative process, the one song from long-fabled "The Sicilian Defence" called "Elsie's Theme" will likely cause almost anyone hearing it to wonder why it was never recorded before now. Elsie's Theme from The Sicilian Defence (The Album That Never Was) is a very adept solo piano piece by Woolfson that would be right at home on an acoustic new age program or, even, at a quietly dramatic point in a film. I would not mind hearing an entire album of Woolfson's solo piano works if they are anything like this.
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