Ammonia Avenue - Alan Parsons Project (The)

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1. Prime Time
2. Let Me Go Home
3. One Good Reason
4. Since The Last Goodbye
5. Don’t Answer Me
6. Dancing On A Highwire
7. You Don’t Believe
8. Pipeline
9. Ammonia Avenue
  ... more

After Parsons had released a bunch of successful albums in high quality, „Ammonia Avenue“ marks the beginning of the end. It came in 1984 as the 7th studio album – not counting the weak „Best Of“ – and was about to be followed by three further, very weak releases in the upcoming years before the final split in 1987.

FROM CONCEPT TO COMMERCE
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For years Parsons had done concept albums very succesfully, where he focussed on a certain subject or idea through the entire work. With „Eye In The Sky“ (1982) he had already given up that scheme, and it was probably the big commercial success of that album which encouraged him to leave his old musical approach further behind.

Basically there is nothing wrong with this, as a concept album is no value in itself. And the typical qualities of Parsons – composition, arrangement and production – were still there on the „Eye“. But on „Ammonia Avenue“, things are slightly different. For the first time in Parsons career he produced an album with a number of weaker tracks and uninspired arrangements. Not the lack of a concept but the obvious lack of fun and motivation is the problem.

The growing commercialisation should also not generally be held against him. Inspired by his chart hits of 1982, he naturally tried to continue that way. And he succeeded with the single „Don’t Answer Me“, but the rest of this CD sounds like being quickly recorded as additional material to the single hit, just to be able to release a longplayer – a procedure often noticed with the so-called One-Hit-Wonders. The reason for this is not a lack of ability, and so the only conclusion is that in the band’s 8th year, stagnation and routine had grabbed the Project.

THE SONGS
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The first track is still quite OK, although „Prime Time“ sounds like a new version of the already mentioned „Eye In The Sky“: same pace, same structure, similar instruments and melody, just a shift from major to minor key. It’s a nice mainstream track though, with a steady beat and a charming melody.

„Let Me Go Home“ tries to be a rock song with groovy guitars and aggressive vocals – and fails. Too flat and clean, played by perfect but boring studio musicians, especially the chorus is not sweeping enough and the guitar solo is weak. Not missed by a mile but slightly off target.

The following two songs are some of the weakest material Parsons has ever recordeed: „One Good Reason“ is a trivial popsong without any surprises and „Since The Last Goodbye“ may well be called a tear-jerker. A boring melody, an over-sentimental arrangement and partly a falsetto voice – really exhausting.

The single „Don’t Answer Me“ is convincing. Basically a simple love song but wonderfully set to music, especially with the rolling drums creating the image of waves on a shore (the sound is hard to describe). The lyrics are simple and romantic, the melody very catchy. But even here, Parsons is far from being as perfect as he used to be: singer Eric Woolfson has to make a great effort to be heard since the music is too loud in the mix of sounds.

„Dancing On A Highwire“ is a bit faster and more dominated by guitars, but in general it falls into the same category. Nice mainstream, quite allright but nothing more. The following track „You Don’t Believe“ had been released before as the only new song on the Best-Of. A neat up-tempo song driven by an aggressive beat, set to music mainly with synthesizers.

As on his former works, there is also an instrumental included. „Pipeline“ is good enough as background music, but much weaker than Parsons other instrumentals. After 20 seconds one has absorbed the synthesizer sequences and the 4-5 different harmonies waiting for something to happen. But „Pipeline“ continues monotonously, just a few further instruments are being introduced. A great sax solo at least, but all in all the track remains pallid.

With the title track Parsons aims for another epic composition, but it won’t quite work. After a good introduction with piano and acoustic guitars, the whole thing actually becomes stuck, even though it is a nice composition. The arrangement stays too thin and simple despite the orchestra sequences, and the instruments do not work together. The extremely high voice of Woolfson also appears to be out of place, not to mention the changes in pace in the middle of the track. And it goes on and on for more than six minutes.

Nothing much about the lyrics here: love and hate, good and bad luck, life in itself – most of it is shallow, some of it trivial.

SUMMARY
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So we have a fine introductory track and a gorgeous yet very commercial chart hit on the credit side, two very kinky songs on the debit side and lots of mediocre stuff in between. Therefore it cannot be called a complete failure but it is far away from the outstanding earlier works of the Project. Anyone who hasn’t Parsons‘ complete works or intends to listen to him for the first time should rather turn to one of the older albums.

TRACKS
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1. Prime Time
2. Let Me Go Home
3. One Good Reason
4. Since The Last Goodbye
5. Don’t Answer Me
6. Dancing On A Highwire
7. You Don’t Believe
8. Pipeline
9. Ammonia Avenue
 

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