The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was |
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Recorded: 1982-2009 Released: April 6, 2009 Peak: 13 DF Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock lite |
Tracks:Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 42:51 The Players:
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Rating: 2.894 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:“Though English musician Eric Woolfson has found success as a manager, producer, songwriter, and composer of stage musicals, he is best known as co-founder and lead vocalist of the Alan Parsons Project.” CDU He “sang lead on the softest, smoothest hits Alan Parsons Project had – the run in the early ‘80s that included ‘Eye in the Sky’ and ‘Don’t Answer Me.’ Woolfson parted with Parsons after the musical Freudiana in 1990, and…the Project never recorded another album.” STE“As the title implies, Woolfson Sings the Alan Parsons Project That Never Was consists of songs intended for the APP that were never recorded with the band,” CDU although the majority of the tunes came out of Woolfson’s post-Project career writing musicals. “When Sony/Legacy was preparing deluxe reissues of APP albums, they contacted Woolfson to see if there were any unreleased tracks or songs in the vaults. The singer/songwriter dug up some cuts for the expanded CDs but also found a batch of unfinished songs that he decided to complete for this album, rounding out the record with some songs that he would have submitted to Parsons if they had indeed recorded more albums. It’s not too shocking to find Woolfson following the silken road he paved with those soft rock hits: this is APP as if Woolfson were in charge, emphasizing melody over concept, far over concept, which is by no means a bad thing, as this is sweet, silken, soft rock, the kind of which that has been unheard since Woolfson sung on those APP hits in the early ‘80s.” STE The album kicks off with Golden Key, which was written for Woolfson’s musical Gambler. Woolfson calls it “an obvious follow-up to ‘Don’t Answer Me.’” EW Woolfson says “the seeds of [Nothing Can Change My Mind] were sown many years ago, though at the time, I don’t think it was even a candidate for inclusion in an APP album. I recently finished the lyric and recorded the work. I have now decided to include the song in my musical Gaudi where it will be sung by the female lead in the show….If there had been an APP Gaudi Volume II album, I would certainly have wanted to include this number.” EW The “the tough, Blue Oyster Cult-esque rock” CDU of Rumour Goin’ Round “is included as a bonus track on the expanded re-mastered APP album Stereotomy as a rough mix without a vocal. The backing track was recorded during the Stereotomy sessions at Mayfair Studios in the early ‘80s…All the Project musicians are playing on it (Ian Bairnson; guitars, Stuart Elliot; drums, David Paton; bass, Richard Cottle; keyboards and myself on keyboards).” EW The album has “ultra-catchy, 10cc-like melodies of Any Other Day.” CDU “A version of this song without a vocal was included on the APP expanded edition album Eye in the Sky. It was abandoned at an early stage and did not exist as a completed backing track.” EW Woolfson’s musical Dancing Shadows “premiered in Seoul, Korea in 2007, winning 5 Korean Tony awards including Best Musical. I Can See Round Corners “was not originally included in that musical, but having recently completed the composition and recorded it, [Woolfson] realized it would make an excellent addition to the other songs in the piece as well as bearing all the hallmarks of a potential classic Project recording.” EW“The genesis of [Steal Your Heart Away] goes back many years, though again it was only recently completed…It is unashamedly commercial and no doubt, had it been a candidate for inclusion in an APP recording, some fairly obvious lyric changes would have had to have been made.” EW Along the Road Together is another song from Dancing Shadows. “It is also the theme song for a German charity dedicated to opening a Paul Newman camp for children with challenging medical conditions (International Children’s Camp Villa Sans Souci.” EW Woolfson says that when the Project’s “Tales of Mystery and Imagination was made in 1975, I envisaged a Volume II though when we moved to a different record company, they were not interested in Volume II as they didn’t have Volume I. I had to wait many years before revisiting Edgar Allan Poe; the man whose life and works inspired me probably more than any other.” EW The song Somewhere in the Audience represented just such an effort, coming from Woolfson’s Poe musical, “which consists entirely of new material.” EW Train to Wuxi also originated with the Poe musical as “Train to Freedom.” Of the song’s origins, Woolfson says, “Inspiration comes from a variety of different sources, and the genesis of this song was on a trip my wife Hazel and I took to China around 1999. One of the excursions was ‘The Train to Wuxi’ which was as it sounds, a train journey to a city where silk is produced and the composition began on that journey in that most memorable country. The city was formerly a major tin-mining town and when the mines were exhausted the name was changed to Wuxi (pronounced Wooshie). As I recall this translates as ‘no-tin city.’” EW Immortal, which is “the climax of the Poe musical” EW, features “shimmering keyboard textures and dramatic melodies.” CDU This is a studio version recorded by Woolfson; Steve Balsamo sings the track on the Poe, More Tales of Mystery album.” EW Like the Project albums, “the music contains elements of progressive rock, AOR, power-pop, art-rock, singer-songwriter music, and show tunes. Woolfson’s voice is strong and fans of Alan Parsons Projects’ classic albums will find a lot to like.” CDU |
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First posted 12/2/2009; last updated 11/13/2024. |
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