The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot (1977/2007)

1 	I Robot 	6:06
2 	I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 	3:19
3 	Some Other Time 	4:05
4 	Breakdown 	3:50
5 	Don't Let It Show 	4:21
6 	The Voice 	5:21
7 	Nucleus 	3:35
8 	Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) 	3:43
9 	Total Eclipse 	3:05
10 	Genesis Ch.1 V/.32 	3:37
11 	Boules (I Robot Experiment) 	1:59
12 	Breakdown (Early Demo Of Backing Riff) 	2:09
13 	I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You (Backing Track Rough Mix) 	3:28
14 	Day After Day (Early Stage Rough Mix) 	3:40
15 	The Naked Robot 	10:19

Acoustic Guitar – David Paton, Ian Bairnson
Arranged By [Choir], Conductor – Andrew Powell
Bass – David Paton
Choir – The English Chorale, The New Philharmonia Chorus
Cimbalom, Kantele – John Leach
Clavinet, Organ, Piano – Eric Woolfson
Conductor [Choirmaster] – Bob Howes
Drums – Stuart Tosh
Guitar – Ian Bairnson
Mellotron [Projectron], Programmed By [Synthia] – Alan Parsons
Trumpet [Piccolo Trumpet] – John Wallace
Vocals – Jaki Whitren, Peter Straker, Allan Clarke, Dave Townsend, Steve Harley, Jack Harris, Lenny Zakatek
Soprano Vocals – Hilary Western
Synthesizer [Yamaha Cs10] – Duncan Mackay
Steel Guitar [Pedal Steel] – B.J. Cole

Alan Parsons delivered a detailed blueprint for his Project on their 1975 debut, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, but it was on its 1977 follow-up, I Robot, that the outfit reached its true potential. Borrowing not just its title but concept from Isaac Asimov's classic sci-fi Robot trilogy, this album explores many of the philosophies regarding artificial intelligence -- will it overtake man, what does it mean to be man, what responsibilities do mechanical beings have to their creators, and so on and so forth -- with enough knotty intelligence to make it a seminal text of late-'70s geeks, and while it is also true that appreciating I Robot does require a love of either sci-fi or art rock, it is also true that sci-fi art rock never came any better than this. Compare it to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, released just a year after this and demonstrating some clear influence from Parsons: that flirts voraciously with camp, but this, for all of its pomp and circumstance, for all of its overblown arrangements, this is music that's played deadly serious. Even when the vocal choirs pile up at the end of "Breakdown" or when the Project delves into some tight, glossy white funk on "The Voice," complete with punctuations from robotic voices and whining slide guitars, there isn't much sense of fun, but there is a sense of mystery and a sense of drama that can be very absorbing if you're prepared to give yourself over to it. The most fascinating thing about the album is that the music is restless, shifting from mood to mood within the course of a song, but unlike some art pop there is attention paid to hooks -- most notably, of course, on the hit "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You," a tense, paranoid neo-disco rocker that was the APP's breakthrough. It's also the closest thing to a concise pop song here -- other tunes have plenty of hooks, but they change their tempo and feel quickly, which is what makes this an art rock album instead of a pop album. And while that may not snare in listeners who love the hit (they should turn to Eye in the Sky instead, the Project's one true pop album), that sense of melody when married to the artistic restlessness and geeky sensibility makes for a unique, compelling album and the one record that truly captures mind and spirit of the Alan Parsons Project. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

Niepokojące, syntezatorowe szumy, dochodzący jakby z oddali głos i w końcu, po dwóch minutach, rytmiczny skoczny motyw, powoli rozwijający się poprzez dodawanie kolejnych instrumentalnych ścieżek, a nawet chóru. To kompozycja "I Robot", otwierająca tak samo zatytułowaną, drugą płytę projektu Alana Parsonsa.

Potem jest singlowy "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", świetnie zaśpiewany przez Lenny'ego Zakatka i wreszcie podniosły, niepowtarzalnie zorkiestrowany przez Andrew Powell'a "Some Other Time". Ale to nie wszystko... Na tej: przez wielu uważanej za najlepsze dzieło APP, płycie znajdziemy jeszcze choćby takie piosenki, jak "The Voice", albo "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)", oraz trzy kompozycje instrumentalne. Dwie z nich, "Nucleus" i "Total Eclipse", ocierają się wyraźnie o współczesną muzykę symfoniczną, natomiast kończąca album "Genesis Ch.1 V.32", to znów, jak w przypadku utworu tytułowego, jeden prosty, niesamowicie chwytliwy, rozwijający się nieustannie motyw, który na szczęście kończy się po trzech i pół minutach, bo intensywność płynących z niego emocji zdaje się przytłaczać nas swoim pięknem i siłą.

Taki jest właśnie drugi krążek APP, który potwierdził to, że Eric Woolfson i Alan Parsons nie zamierzają spocząć na laurach i będą prowadzić swój studyjny zespół jeszcze przez wiele, pełnych sukcesów, lat. ---Roader, metal.pl

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