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Sirius
Eye In The Sky
Children Of The Moon
Gemini
Silence And I
You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned
Psychobabble
Mammagamma
Step By Step
Old And Wise
Play the dramatic opening bars of the Alan Parsons Project’s 1982 album Eye In The Sky to anyone, anywhere in the world, and you’re likely to see a flicker of recognition. They might not be able to name the track they’re listening to, but they’ll feel they know it.
If you repeat that experiment in the US, the likelihood of familiarity is even greater. Many will mention something to do with basketball, due to the use of Sirius as the walk-on music for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA ever since their all-conquering 1990s prime. Some might mention one of the umpteen hip hop tracks it was sampled on, or the work conference where they heard it introducing the keynote speaker.
“It has never ceased to amaze me how much use that one tune gets,” Parsons told Prog. “We get requests for commercials, movies, and it’s become a sports anthem. It’s just incredible.”
Eye In The Sky (1982) is certainly the most commercially successful of the Parsons albums. In addition to Sirius, it bore fruit with the hits Eye In The Sky and the shimmeringly beautiful Old And Wise, sung by ex-Zombie Colin Blunstone.
Thirty-six years after its release, Eye In The Sky saw Parsons pick up his first Grammy Award as his 5.1 surround sound mix won the Best Immersive Audio Album prize. It was the 13th time he'd been nominated.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in May 1982
- Jinx - Rory Gallagher
- After the Snow - Modern English
- Pornography - The Cure
- Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch - Frank Zappa
- The Single Factor - Camel
- Wiped Out - Raven
- Junkyard - The Birthday Party
- Combat Rock - The Clash
- The Eagle Has Landed - Saxon
- Church of Hawkwind - Hawkwind
- Hot Space - Queen
- Sheffield Steel - Joe Cocker
- The Hunter - Blondie
- 3rd From The Sun - Chrome
- I Paralyze - Cher
- No Fun Aloud - Glenn Frey
- Avalon - Roxy Music
- Get It On Credit - Toronto
- Let Me Rock You - Peter Criss
- Now and Forever - Air Supply
- One on One - Cheap Trick
- The Record - Fear
- Special Forces - 38 Special
- Sweets From A Stranger - Squeeze
- Tuckerized - Marshall Tucker Band
- Coney Hatch - Coney Hatch
- Vinyl Confessions - Kansas
What they said...
"What dominates is the lushness of sound, the sweetness of melody: this is a soft rock album through and through, one that's about melodic hooks and texture. In the case of the spacy opening salvo Sirius, later heard on sports talk shows across America, or Mammagamma, it was all texture, as these instrumentals set the trippy yet warm mood that the pop songs sustained." (AllMusic)
"This hopelessly banal album, with its soupy Paul McCartney-as-manic-depressive melodies and whining vocals, would be merely pathetic were it not for Parsons' lyric pretensions and his apparent desire to turn the album's main graphic - a drawing of, what else, an eye in the sky - into a commercial trademark. That's when the hopelessly banal becomes the obnoxiously bad." (Philadelphia Enquirer)
"Eye in the Sky concludes with the rhapsodic ballad Old and Wise, a return to APP’s slow-paced, melodic style. Sung with breathtaking melancholy by ex-Zombies vocalist Colin Blunstone, he makes the sentimental lyrics go straight through the heart. His appearance is in fact so defining that the song is a classic because of him, and Eye in the Sky’s most touching moment, skilfully concluded with a saxophone solo by Mel Collins." (Sputnik Music)
What you said...
Mike Canoe: Eye in the Sky by the Alan Parsons Project reminds me of listening to late-night radio in FM's heyday. It's well-crafted soft rock with enough weird bits to bear repeated listening. The title track is still a mighty powerful earworm. I wish Sirius and Gemini were longer, and Silence and I were shorter, but those are minor quibbles. The Alan Parsons Project always struck me as a band that had a lot more going on on their albums than their hit singles would suggest. I'm glad they were this week's pick.
Evan Sanders: Eye in the Sky was a ubiquitous FM radio staple when this came out, and of course, the opener, Sirius, has become a sports anthem. I was therefore curious why I had never listened to the entire album, as well as why none of my peers at the time even owned the album. I was disappointed to discover the reasons upon listening to the album. Beyond the first two songs, I found all of it to be FM radio b-sides. Fortunately for Alan Parsons himself, he is likely financially set for life just from the Chicago Bulls' licensing of Sirius, as well as the royalties from the other well-known albums he produced. 4/10
Brian Carr: In the early days of our Club, we reviewed They Only Come Out at Night by The Edgar Winter Group. The consensus, as I recall, was that the multiple lead singers made it a rather incoherent record. That’s what I thought as I listened to Eye in the Sky by the Alan Parsons Project. In fact, when the album went from Silence and I to …Fingers Burned, I checked my phone to see if another album had come on!
I never listened to the album prior to this week because, to my ears, the vocals on the title song, which I now know were handled by cofounder Eric Woolfson, are like sonic quaaludes. Turns out he only sings that one and the lengthy Silence and I.
There are some musically interesting moments throughout the album, especially when guitarist Ian Bairnson gets moments to move to the forefront with some tasty playing. Those bits, along with the classic instrumental Sirius, were enough to get a 6/10 from me, but overall, I’m not greatly moved.
Gary Claydon: I liked Alan Parsons Project when they were at their proggiest. By that, I mean their excellent debut album Tales of Mystery and Imagination, with its Floydian influence and shades of early Mike Oldfield. Unfortunately, subsequent Alan Parsons Project releases, though not uninteresting, showed a gradually diluted prog element to the point where, by Eye In The Sky, the prog was virtually non-existent. Nothing here is remotely 'progressive'. Indeed, this is fairly generic soft rock. Even Parsons' usual high production values can't elevate this above bland. The two instrumentals are mildly diverting (and might have been worth expanding upon), but for the most par,t Eye In The Sky is instantly forgettable.
Bill Griffin: This was the first Alan Parsons Project album I bought. I now have all of the preceding ones and none of the following ones. An anomaly in my music collection, nothing in their catalogue really impresses me. I guess I think of them as easy listening rock. Nothing I dislike, but nothing really monumental either.
I did see them once with Yes, using a quadraphonic sound system that both bands only turned on occasionally. That was stupid. The improvement in the sound was huge, and I was behind the back of the hall speakers. It must have really been something for those inside the circle.
Greg Schwepe: The Alan Parsons Project’s Eye In The Sky is an album I was already very familiar with. As I’ve said before, one of the perks of being on the staff at our college radio station was having access to thousands of albums… and the tape decks in our production studio. While I’m sure the record companies frowned upon it, I got a ton of “free” albums by just bringing in my own blank cassettes and recording stuff. And this album was one of several…er, many….OK, a ton of “free” albums I obtained over four years.
On listening again, I tried to come up with a word or phrase that would describe this album. And after several listens, I stumbled upon “ear candy.” Not any term I created, but when you think of the songs and soundscapes on Eye In The Sky, Alan Parsons (and most likely his cohort Eric Woolfson), they are littered with ear candy. Drum beats, repeating guitar riffs, rumbling bass, keyboards and synths, orchestral bits, plaintive vocals; a lot to chew on musically.
As we all know, Mr Parsons has quite the resume when it comes to albums he produced or engineered before he started his little “Project.” The man knows how to create sound that sticks in your ears, brain, and everywhere else.
Let’s start with the first track, Sirius. If you went to a Chicago Bulls NBA game in the 80s or 90s, you heard this distinctive keyboard intro as the team was being introduced, only to have the PA announcer scream “…aaaaand… Michael Jordan!” That song itself is synonymous with the Chicago Bulls.
The chugging title track made its way to what I’ll call “lite rock” stations, which seemed to broaden the appeal to a wider audience. Whereas before that, most Alan Parsons Project songs appeared mainly on FM rock radio. This and the albums that followed seem to have more of a soft rock vibe to them. And in my book, that’s OK, because the aforementioned ear candy appeared everywhere in the tracks that these musicians laid down.
Probably one of the best examples of this ear candy is Psychobabble, the intertwining keyboard and bass lines groove along until the song rocks a little harder. Mammagamma is the lone instrumental on the album that would not sound out of place on Pyramid.
For some, this release and those that followed may be too “pop.” Not a problem for me. I’m a sucker for songs that stick with me, and the Alan Parsons Project has created plenty of soundscapes that are enjoyable and worth repeated listens. 8 out of 10 on this one for me.
John Davidson: I really quite like The Alan Parsons Project, particularly their 70s albums. They're melodic and slickly produced, but for the most part, they never descended into cheese. Like ELO without the cellos, Supertramp with more guitars or Styx without James Young's occasional crunch. The closest comparison is probably Mike Oldfield.
After Eye in the Sky, the Alan Parsons Project kind of dropped off the map, but it's perhaps more remarkable that they lasted so long. Eye In The Sky was released in 1982, but the feel is mid-late 70s. It's like punk, NWOBHM and new wave pop rock never happened.
There's nothing here to set the pulse racing, but there are no soppy ballads either, and it remains highly listenable background music.
Utterly harmless... But hard to score. No more than a 7.
Bryan Aguilar: Great album front to back. Often overshadowed by the title track as well as Sirius (well-known for being the intro song to the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era), Side One has other great cuts like the atmospheric Children Of The Moon and epic The Silence and I. Side Two has a couple of solid commercial cuts like You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned and Step By Step, a personal favorite in Psychobabble and the sombre closing track, Old and Wise.
John Edgar: The Alan Parsons Project has never really released anything that disappointed me. This one was no different. When released, I'm sure I kept it in heavy rotation until Ammonia Avenue came out. I still pull it out every year or so and listen to it for a few weeks. Great band. Great album.
Philip Qvist: I remember Sirius and the title track being a constant on the radio throughout 1982 and 1983 - and even now the two songs are regulars on South African classic radio stations.
A couple of other standouts for me are Silence And I and You Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned. Apart from chief honchos Alan Parsons and the late Eric Woolfson, you also have regulars such as David Paton, Stuart Elliott, Ian Bairnston and Kenny Zakatek all making appearances on Eye In The Sky.
It's not a bad album, while the musicianship and production is very good, but there isn't much on it that truly excites me. Not bland but not something to make me go "Wow!" either. A 6 from me.
Adam Ranger: Sirius opens and piques your interest with it's Floyd like tones that segue nicely into the title track, and my interest starts to wane.
It's not that it's a bad album. Certainly not obnoxiously bad as per one review. It's well played and well produced, just – for the most part – not instantly memorable. It's AOR that sounds at times like Supertramp, but never quite rises to a level that catches your attention.
There are a couple of standout tracks in Your Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned, and my personal favourite When I'm Old And Wise. Always loved that track, and it was really great to hear it again after so long.
Mark Herrington: I quite like the Alan Parsons Project when they are at their best. Eye In The Sky is not their best, despite its high sales. It has its good moments, but there are also fairly average songs here. It rarely gets going, relying on ambience and not containing enough bite. In comparison, their I Robot album has much more light and dark, more crunch and hook. So, an average score for Eye In The Sky, and I’ll stick with their earlier output before this and their Definitive Collection ( which includes the best bits from Eye In The Sky).
Final score: 7.12 (67 votes cast, total score 406)
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