Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson’s partnership began as a business relationship with Woolfson managing Parsons’ career as an engineer/producer off the back of his impressive work with the Beatles and Pink Floyd in the late sixties and early seventies. Their partnership flourished and eventually the tables began to turn, with Woolfson, the songwriter and composer, becoming the creative lead when in 1975 the pair committed to working on the development of one of his earlier musical ideas based on the stories of Edgar Alan Poe.
The success of Tales of Mystery and Imagination was the start of a sequence of albums released by The Alan Parsons Project, with Parsons and Woolfson supplemented by session musicians and special guests. Eye in the Sky was the band’s sixth album in as many years and was a huge commercial success worldwide, hatching a no. 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (the title track) and an iconic instrumental anthem (Sirius) that remains ubiquitous in sporting arenas, particularly across the USA.
2026 sees the band re-issuing three of the eleven albums in the catalogue, The Turn Of A Friendly Card from 1980, Eye In The Sky (1982) and Ammonia Avenue (1984), each with a 2×45 rpm (Audiophile Edition at Half-Speed) edition, a standard black vinyl edition and an extended CD, remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. This review is based on the CD release and despite the high profile of the band across the progosphere, this is actually the first time I have listened to Eye in the Sky from start to finish.
I confess I have never followed the band closely, but soon into this review process I realised that I had heard a few of these tracks over the years on the radio and was maybe more familiar with the band than I originally thought. It’s clear from reading up on the background of the album that although the reception from fans and critics at the time was generally very positive, there were also misgivings expressed about the band leaning-in towards a more ‘accessible’ pop sound. So, a wide range of opinions back then, but that being said, how does the album hold up 40-odd years later, right here, right now?
At around the time this album was released, progressive rock was about to be re-vitalised by the revivalist neo-prog years with new bands having success with their own brand of raw, acerbic, and rock-orientated progressive music. Later, prog-metal developed as a sub-genre of metal and heavier and darker tones became a more regular feature across the wider progressive music world. In more recent years, albeit without ever having gone away, melodic progressive rock has had its own revival. Creating accessible progressive rock music is no longer regarded as ‘selling out’ and is taken more at face value. Nowadays production values and the quality of the sound of the product is so consistently high and if the artist can nail the song-writing and the arrangements, then really, what’s not to like?
This is the lens through which I am appreciating this album, and so it almost goes without saying that opening up the album with the aforementioned Sirius and Eye in the Sky is about as refined, tasteful, and classy as melodic pop/rock music gets. Sirius is a classic overture, reeling the listener into the set with its morse code-ish synth patterns, and Eye in the Sky introduces the main lyrical themes that run through the album, that of unseen but all-seeing celestial forces watching over us, sometimes benign and sometimes judgmental. It is essentially a pop song with a catchy chorus, sing-a-long verses, and a rather twee, lazy, 80’s style guitar solo to close. Very middle of the road, very radio-friendly, but executed rather nicely.
It should be said before I go any further that Eye in the Sky is no concept album, certainly compared to some of the band’s earlier releases, but it is thematic. Sirius sets the stage for the celestially-linked songs that follow, in the main, and I’ll return to this topic later as a couple of the less congruent songs in the set do seem to upset the overall rhythm created by the sequencing of the record.
Track three is Children of the Moon, where the choral and orchestral elements layered into the arrangement are what gives the song some depth and brings it to life. Here is a good example of the craft-mastery that Parsons and Woolfson provide, both musically and lyrically, with the closing couplet ringing prophetically down the ages.
We were no more than mortal fools”
Gemini is an almost a cappella style poetic interlude, an interesting diversion in form and tone, and side one closes with Silence and I, a genuine, reassuringly progressive track. The orchestral bridge in the middle of the track is exceptional, just one of the interlinked sections that mark this track out as one for the proggiest prog fans to savour. All told, side one is an immaculate series of songs. Considering each track in turn it is easy to quibble about the details, but listened to as a suite it is comfortably near to the top in its class.
I can only imagine now the excitement and anticipation there would have been back in the early eighties when pausing to turn over the LP, looking forward to what the second side will bring. But of course, this is the modern world, and track six of the CD, You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned squeals to life with one of the more regrettable “Woo-hoo-ooh-hoo-ooh”s I have ever come across. Let’s be honest, the worst kind of 80’s yacht rock was the final thing on my mind. Lyrically, this is where we take a turn towards the dark side, but the music doesn’t reflect this at all, which is a huge disappointment. Psychobabble also misses the mark for me. In this track, there is an interesting variation on the ‘Jaws’ theme hidden in plain sight that could have been the musical foundation on which these ‘darker’ tracks were built, but maybe this is where some of the critics at the time had a reasonable point – the band upped the ante of the pop accessibility formula when a bit of drama, dissonance and disharmony was what was required?
Fortunately, the remainder of side two is much more in keeping with the artful style so carefully nurtured on side one. Mammagamma is a sister track to Sirius, so should logically have opened up side two. It has the same jaunty, morse code feel to it, and whilst it stands up on its own merits it is arguably just a bit too close in form to Sirius. The extra running time afforded to it is fine, but it doesn’t develop sufficiently to mark it out as anything special. Similarly, Step by Step mirrors the art-pop of Eye in the Sky. However, it lacks the natural, memorable, melodic hook that sustains that song and is much less sophisticated in terms of the arrangement.
Orchestral arrangements return to the fore on final track Old and Wise, sung memorably by Colin Blunstone, a track that I instantly recognised from ‘the midst of time’. Whilst not directly following the celestial theme it very much fits the overall tone, and this is another incredible highlight in the set. I last came across Mel Collins recreating his outlandish saxophone licks, live with King Crimson in 2016, here he contributes a typically 80s style pop solo, perfectly in keeping with the surroundings, I should add.
Overall, the high all-round quality of side one is not matched by side two and it is understandable why there were mixed reviews at the time. My feeling is that this was a missed opportunity. There is space in most of the leading tracks to accommodate more music, more, dare I say, progressive elements, to enhance the drama and emotion that underpins the best work on the album, and this would have allowed some of the weaker parts to be discarded. The hit songs would have remained intact but the progressive qualities of the band so assiduously cultivated over the years could also have been delivered more consistently. As it is, the album has some jarring mis-steps that upset its balance, leaving it in a no-man’s land between being regarded as a pop/rock classic or a progressive epic. Unfortunately, neither one nor t’other.
For me, the four bonus tracks on the CD are superfluous as they don’t provide anything sufficiently different or interesting, except maybe to highlight what a high-class vocalist Colin Blunstone is. My music collection is better for it now that I have a reference point for The Alan Parsons Project but my guess is that the vinyl and fully expanded package is best suited to just the keenest of fans.
TRACK LISTING
01. Sirius (1:48)
02. Eye in the Sky (4:33)
03. Children of the Moon (4:49)
04. Gemini (2:09)
05. Silence and I (7:17)
06. You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned (4:50)
07. Psychobabble (4:50)
08. Mammagamma (3:34)
09. Step by Step (3:52)
10. Old and Wise (4:52)
~ Bonus tracks:
11. Sirius (Demo) (1:53)
12. Eye In The Sky (Single Edit) (3:57)
13. Children Of The Moon (Early Rough Mix With Eric Demo Vocal) (4:33)
14. Old and Wise (Eric Woolfson vocal) (4:35)
Total Time – 58:33
MUSICIANS
Alan Parsons – Fairlight CMI Programming (1,2 & 8), Keyboards, Backing Vocals (6), Linn Drum Machine (8), Producer
Eric Woolfson – Wurlitzer (2), Piano, Organ (10), Keyboards (1,3-5,7 & 9), Lead Vocals (2 & 5)
~ With:
Ian Bairnson – Acoustic, Electric & Pedal Steel Guitars (4)
Haydn Bendall – Keyboards (1)
John Wallace – Piccolo Trumpet (3)
Mel Collins – Saxophone Solo (10)
David Paton – Bass, Lead Vocals (3)
Stuart Elliott – Drums, Percussion
Chris Rainbow – Lead Vocals (4), Backing Vocals
Lenny Zakatek – Lead Vocals (6 & 9), Backing Vocals, Vocal Fx (9)
Dave Terry (credited as Elmer Gantry) – Lead Vocals (7)
Colin Blunstone – Lead Vocals (10)
Jack Harris – Backing Vocals (7)
Andrew Powell – Choral, Orchestral Arranger & Conductor (1,3,5,7 & 8), Piano (5), Brass Band Conductor (10)
The English Chorale – Chorus Vocals (3 & 7)
Bob Howes – Chorus Master
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Cooking Vinyl
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 27thMar 2026
LINKS
Alan Parsons – Website | Facebook | YouTube (APP) | YouTube | X | Instagram
CD information | Half Speed Vinyl information
