ALAN PARSONS
The Time Machine (Miramar)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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I suppose Alan Parsons mattered at one time. Story goes it was he who brought in a bunch of clocks to the studio when Pink Floyd were sculpting their magnum opus and the rest is space prog rock history. He also hit paydirt with the ever so catchy I Robot album, warming up the cool cold futuristic synth innovations of Kraftwerk with some radio friendly pop melodies and futuristic gibberish the Lord of the Rings set eagerly swallowed. Why yes I own that album, why do you ask? Anyway, as the song says that was then and this is now, and Alan is still at it, cashing in on his one fortuitous stumble to the top of the charts, fruitlessly spitting out meaningless, dated fluff that only a mother could love. And maybe not even then. You see, Alan really had very little to do with this project. He didn't sing or write one note, and only appears behind an instrument for one song. It's quite a good scam really: using his name and letting others do the schlocky work. So when it bombs, and it deservingly will, he can blame the underlings. At least when he did this type of thing in the past he called it The Alan Parsons Project - see the Project did the work, they were just the employees. Pretty clever huh? Excuse me for I have to throw out my copy of I Robot .

(C) 1998 - John Sekerka