The Alan Parsons Project

The Alan Parsons Project was a British Progressive Rock band active in the 1970s and 1980s. The core group consisted of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, with additional members recruited as required for each individual project.

Albums:

• Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976) - inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe
• I Robot (1977) - inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov
• Pyramid (1978)
• Eve (1979)
• The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980)
• Eye in the Sky (1982)
• Ammonia Avenue (1984)
• Vulture Culture (1985)
• Stereotomy (1986)
• Gaudi (1987)

Tropes:

• Big Brother Is Watching: "Eye in the Sky"
• Break Up Song: "If I Could Change Your Mind"
• Compressed Adaptation: The songs on Tales of Mystery and Imagination condense Edgar Allan Poe's rather wordy stories and poems into a couple of verses and choruses apiece.
• Concept Album: All of them.
• Creator Backlash: Eric Woolfson hated "Lucifer", despite the fact that the instrumental song reached #1 in Germany.
  • Parsons with the unreleased The Sicilian Defense, which was more or less a throwaway instrumental album that was intended to force their label's hand in an attempt to renegotiate their contract.
• Epic Instrumental Opener: Several albums open with an instrumental that segues into the first song. The most famous of these instrumentals is "Sirius", the lead-in to "Eye in the Sky".
• Faceless Eye: The cover of the album Eye in the Sky. The title track, one of the Alan Parsons Project's best known songs, is a person telling his/her significant other (in a very creepy and vindictive fashion) that he/she knows the other's been cheating and is tired of pretending to be ignorant of it.
• The Gambling Addict: "The Turn of a Friendly Card".
• The Grim Reaper: The narrator in "Can't Take It With You".
• I Am the Band: Alan Parsons (producer/sound engineer) and Eric Woolfson (songwriter), neither of whom sang or played instruments regularly (although Woolfson does sing lead on the band's biggest hit, "Eye in the Sky", and played keyboards on a lot of their later stuff).
• In the Style Of: According to Word of God, "Don't Answer Me" was an attempt to emulate Phil Spector's Wall of Sound effect.
• The Invisible Band: In their music videos.
• Money Song: "Money Talks"
• Music Box Intervals: "Eye In The Sky", "Don't Answer Me"
• Pyramid Power: Referenced and made fun of in Pyramid, particularly in the song "Pyramania".
• Revolving Door Band
• Self-Backing Vocalist: Guest vocalist Chris Rainbow elevated this to an art form, both with lead harmonies and veritable walls of backing vocals. He was credited in a couple of Alan Parsons Project albums as a "One-Man Beach Boys Choir".
• Spoken Word in Music: Found in Let's Talk About Me.