Tales Of Mystery And Imagination - Alan Parsons Project (The) > Reviews > A Class of Fancies of Exquisite Delicacy

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	A varied and well - produced concept album .
Disadvantages:	Fails to capture the spirit of Poe's works .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

"Since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefinite conception, music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry. Music without the idea is simply music. Without music or an intriguing idea, colour becomes pallor, man becomes carcass, home becomes catacomb, and the dead are but for a moment motionless."

Thus quoth Edgar Allen Poe in a passage narrated from beyond the grave by the late Orson Welles for the CD remaster of the Alan Parsons Project's first ambitious concept album, a progressive rock rendition of Poe's writings. The Project was a joint operation between acclaimed music producer Alan Parsons (responsible in no small part for the success of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon,' one of the greatest albums ever recorded) and musician Eric Woolfson, drafting in a variety of singers and musicians to produce this exquisite audio fancy.

Taking note of Hollywood's increased focus and freedom granted to film directors such as Hitchcock, Parsons believed that his skills and experience as a music producer could be implemented into a recording of his own. His flair can indeed be seen throughout this recording, which places neatly trimmed, catchy, radio-friendly songs against more ambitious instrumentals for the discerning music fan, while the whole thing is saturated with layers of sound that tow an interesting line between subtlety and a desire to draw attention to themselves to show just how clever Parsons can be. It's a risky endeavour that could easily have failed disastrously, but careful and talented execution succeeded in granting the Alan Parsons Project its first considerable success, both financially and critically. Of course, it's still rife with problems.

The major criticism seems to be the album's failure to live up to its source material, especially in terms of mood. Woolfson had conceived of a Poe concept album several years previously and it was presumably natural to use this as the inspiration for the Project's first project, but the predominantly upbeat, mellow , soft rock direction it ended up following really doesn't lend itself that well to evoking a terrifying atmosphere. The only times the music approaches the mood of a classic gothic horror are in contrived 'creepy' organ passages and redundant sound effects, though the instrumentals fare better on the whole, especially with Welles' deep narrative piercing into the listener's soul. Welles' contributions were evidently absent from the original album due to some problem, dispute or other, but were thankfully restored for the CD release eleven years later (some years after Welles' death), which saw Parsons return to the original masters and re-master the whole thing completely. Whether this was for purely aesthetic reasons or George Lucas style revision of history, this is the version of the album we have today.

1. A Dream Within a Dream
2. The Raven
3. The Tell-Tale Heart
4. The Cask of Amontillado
5. (The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether
6. The Fall of the House of Usher: Prelude
7. The Fall of the House of Usher: Arrival
8. The Fall of the House of Usher: Intermezzo
9. The Fall of the House of Usher: Pavane
10. The Fall of the House of Usher: Fall
11. To One in Paradise

It's always great to see songwriters tackling the literary classics, whether they succeed or fail embarrassingly, and this isn't exactly one of the most enlightening. Poe's stories provide a mere foundation for the Project's often contradictory musical embellishment, particularly in the shorter songs of the first half of the album before the listener is engulfed by the traditional over-ambitious prog 'epic' that dominates the second. The first track is probably my favourite of the lot, beginning with Welles' immortal narration soon joined by a softly sweeping orchestra and tinkling piano, before launching into a great instrumental opening. A variety of instruments are used, moving from soft, Oriental-sounding wind instruments to a more typical seventies synthesiser once the song falls into a rhythm. Despite the complexity of its arrangement and layering, the actual melodies themselves are all kept very simple and easy to follow, and it's clear that Parsons learned a thing or two from working with Pink Floyd: the guitars (provided by numerous musicians across the recording) often lapse into the reclining, dreamy wails of 'Dark Side of the Moon,' particularly and most relevantly here. In less competent and experienced hands, this opening could have been an overlong and jarring composition, but Parsons edits it to perfection.

It's at this point however that the album starts to slip, at least from a critical point of view. The remaining songs of the first half are all kept catchy and melodious, but rely too greatly on repetition and hooks to be comparable to more interesting prog bands of the time. 'The Raven' is the first vocal song and the only one sung by Parsons himself, albeit distorted through the ever-popular vocoder most of the time. I would have suggested that this rather gimmicky device (also featured prominently in Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album) dates this album badly, until I remembered groups such as Daft Punk that continue to rely on its wizardry to convince listeners that they are, in fact, robots. So maybe this was merely ahead of its time. The main rhythm is simplistic and memorable once again, even if the plodding percussion is entirely devoid of interest, and even irritated fans of 'real' music will likely appreciate the buried symphony. Unfortunately, this song relies on the same quiet/loud structural limitations that would affect Pink Floyd hereafter.

'The Tell-Tale Heart' retrieves some of the album's avant-garde credibility through its memorable vocal performance from the legendary Arthur "God of Hellfire" Brown, putting in the most enthusiastic and manic singing of the album, even in the bits in-between the desperate verses where he should technically keep his mouth closed. This is a more guitar-oriented song and as such a little less demanding, but once again a softer instrumental section keeps things in check. 'The Cask of Amontillado' deviates even further by throwing out a mellow pop song of sorts, saved only by a cool horn section towards the end but is otherwise a fairly derivative and bland duet between John Miles in a mid-range mellow voice and John Miles in a Beatles-style high voice. Miles remains for the final song of the first half, the fun, slightly daft and surprisingly complex '(The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether,' which was also released as a fairly successful single. The guitar is the dominant instrument once again, but vocals are presented in a variety of styles and ranges, before the finale expands to incorporate themes and melodies from all of the previous songs in turn. It's the sort of thing Parsons used to do with Pink Floyd, but made a little more obvious to encourage listeners to spot it.

The second half of the album (side B on the original vinyl) is dominated by the Project's instrumental take on 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' which ends up sounding not so much like a long and satisfying epic as a slightly boring mismatch of styles that takes a long time to stop ripping off Debussy and showing off with sound effects before getting into something really good in time for the final sections. Enjoying the liberties of the shiny new CD format, Parsons' remaster joins this tracks seamlessly with its predecessor and adds further narration from Orson Welles, before the orchestra is given five or six minutes to play pieces from Debussy's operatic take of the same Poe story. This is a shame really, as the basic replication means sitting through a lengthy, unaltered, un-ambitious prelude before the 'real' song begins.

This song comes into its own once the lead keyboard, wailing Floydian guitars, plodding drums and prominent, clunking bass are permitted to play it solo, abandoning the excesses of the studio and returning to a more straightforward style of rock instrumental that's far more satisfying, with some effective call-backs to the melody of the opening song that create a nice sense of continuity while also meaning they could get away with not having to come up with another pretty keyboard piece. It's no epic, and the ominous thrum that dominates the final section sounds like it's lifted straight from Floyd's 'Obscured By Clouds.' After it's done, The Hollies' Terry Sylvester sings a boring soft song that fills in as the necessary afterglow apparently desired by the record buying public, in the guise of an adaptation of 'To One in Paradise.' It's an unsatisfying finale, but one you can easily nod off to sleep through.

This is an album I've long had an unreasonable and probably exaggerated fondness for, and the only Alan Parsons Project release I can listen to as entertainment rather than sedative. It almost completely fails to capture the tone and atmosphere of its subject matter, only succeeding when actual extracts are read by Orson Welles, which would always be a dead cert (and one step away from Vincent Price). Half of the songs are short and accessible enough for anyone to listen to, and the other half is aimed more towards dedicated prog fans: only the opening instrumental 'Dream Within a Dream' bridges the two contradictory styles, and thus sets things up to be a little better than they actually are. It's a testament to his skills that Parsons didn't fall into the predictable trap of favouring production quality over actual content (well, not much anyway), and the Project concerned itself with producing an album of genuine quality. It's quite good, but it isn't scary.