Search - Alan Project Parsons :: This Is (the Best of the Alan Parsons Pr

Technically brilliant but uneven in some ways

John Mulvihill | San Francisco Bay Area | 05/03/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As did Becker and Fagen in Steely Dan, Alan Parsons has employed the cream of rock musicians to make his albums shine. But Steely Dan's albums carry two unifying factors: Fagen's voice, and an underlying theme of existentialist futility.

Parsons produces each of his albums around a given concept, as do Pink Floyd. The albums themselves are unrelated. At risk of being too simplistic, Parsons, like Jeff Beck, sometimes places technical virtuosity over musical expression. Not doing so, but stepping ever so close to the line, is the genius of Steely Dan. They are Mozart to Parsons's Beethoven.

While the result of Parsons's Greatest Hits album may not be psychobabble, there is more than a little schizophrenia going on. Not only are the pieces disossociated thematically, they often employ different vocalists and musicians. The result is a collection that ranges from symphonic, heart-wrenching vocals (Old and Wise) to icy-cold fusion (Lucifer).

I'm not into fusion or cleverness (another Parsons indulgence), so I've booted about half the songs from this disk and consider the rest to be classics. No doubt other buyers are doing the same, but with different halves. Others still, and a lot of them, will treasure each song. Certainly, Alan Parsons has given us all something we can treasure."