A Valid Path [Import]

After 1999's "The Time Machine," Alan Parsons and his longtime musical collaborators since the late 70's, guitarist Ian Bairnson and drummer Stuart Eliott, decided the time had come to go their separate ways. No animosity---they just decided that they'd taken Parsons' trademark style of progressive pop/rock as far as it could go, and they all wanted to work with other people. For Parsons, this meant that his next album was going to be something totally different from anything he'd done in the past. Five years later, we have that album at last: "A Valid Path." This album is bound to generate different reactions from different Parsons fans, because "A Valid Path" is Alan Parsons' very first sojourn into the world of *electronica* music. Some fans will love it right away, some will warm up to it after a few listens, and yes, some fans are bound to be put off by it. Me? I'm in the first group all the way. I think "A Valid Path" is a truly inventive, colorful, hypnotic, intelligent platter of music, and one of Parsons' very best. Not only am I excited by Parsons doing something totally different here, I am also thrilled that he REALLY got involved with this album. "The Time Machine" is a great album, but I was disappointed that Parsons didn't do much more than simply produce it. With "A Valid Path," Parsons co-wrote all of the material, plays instruments on most of the tracks, and, for the proverbial cherry on top, he sings his very first *natural-sounding* lead vocal on a song! (He sang the first section of "The Raven" on 1976's "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination," but his voice was distorted by a vocoder). Collaborating with Parsons on "A Valid Path" are some of the biggest names in electronica music---The Crystal Method, Shpongle, P.J. Olsson, Nortec Collective, Deep E, and Uberzone. Even Parsons' son, Jeremy Parsons, helps out his dad with the programming on several tracks. And, for the coup de grace, Parsons even managed to reel in legendary guitarist David Gilmour of Pink Floyd to play on the opening cut. The album's first track, "Return To Tunguska," is a hypnotic wonder, with David Gilmour playing some amazing guitar solos on top of it (and a message to Floyd fans: if you've been starving for a new Pink Floyd fix for the last ten years, then "Return To Tunguska" is probably as close as you're gonna get to one). "More Lost Without You" is easily the most radio-friendly song on the album, but it's a catchy, bouncy tune, with a fine lead vocal by P.J. Olsson. Then, Parsons treats us to an electronica remake of the classic "Eye In The Sky" instrumental, "Mammagamma." Some may argue that this track is simply filler, but I think it works really well, and it IS a lot of fun to hear "Mammagama" with a fresh coat of paint. Then comes the song where Parsons REALLY stands up and has himself counted, "We Play The Game"---Alan wrote the lyrics, co-wrote the music, plays keyboards, guitars & bass, AND sings the lead vocal. It's a breathtaking number, and it also proves that Parsons is, in fact, a darn good singer! I hope his success in creating this song will convince Parsons to sing lead on more songs in the future. "Tijuaniac" is the most laid-back piece on the album, but it's very lush and sensual, with some excellent percussion throughout. Heck, it can even work as background music for lovemaking. "L'Arc En Ciel" kicks off with some marvelous rainstorm sound effects before transforming into a driving, atmospheric piece. It's a great feast for the ears. Parsons goes back in time once more with "A Recurring Dream Within A Dream," a reworking of two classic tracks from "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination." Again, some might say it's filler, but I love the freshness that Parsons brings to this classic Project oldie. "You Can Run" is a strong, rough & tough electronic rocker, featuring lead vocals by David Pack of Ambrosia. Finally, the album heads for home with "Chomolungma," a powerful instrumental with a great orchestral ambience to it, featuring some haunting tribal chants toward the end.

I have to say that I've read the previous reviews for this album before doing this review and am NOT surprised that there is a bit of division amongst AP fans with respect to this latest release. I, like a lot of reviewers of this album here, am a huge Alan Parsons fan. I have all of the APP studio albums as well as of the post-Project era albums (live or studio).

This album is definitely different from past releases from AP. Gone is not only Ian Bairnson (guitar) and Stuart Elliot (drummer) but also long time contributor Andrew Powell (both his playing and his orchestra).

Alan Parsons has definitely chosen a different path for this album by actually contributing his own musicianship (ie. lyrics and music) to the album instead of relying solely on others (like Bairnson, Elliot and long time APP member Eric Woolfson).

The instrumentals are incredible on this album. Return to Tunguska is a phenomenal beginning to the album with Alan's "electronica" talents put to full use as well as hearing the great riffs of legendary guitarist David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). Mammagamma is redone and passes as a modern day sound of the old classic (my only knock is that Alan may have overdone the "electronica" on this one!)

Tijuaniac and L'Arc En Ciel are great pieces of work. The programming done for these pieces are phenomenal and of course Alan Parsons' contributions on keyboards are great.

Perhaps the best instrumental on this album, in my honest opinion, is Chomolungma (which, as many people know, is Mt. Everest). Here, Alan, his son Jeremy and PJ Olsson wrote a stunning instrumental with great programming techniques thrown in, amazing keyboard playing by Alan Parsons, and the "haunting" chants of "Miyo Langsangma" (who by the way is the goddess of Mt. Everest according to Nepalese tradition) by both Alan Parsons and PJ Olsson. Chomolungma delivers a strong finish to this album.

Albeit said, there were some parts of the album that I did not like. The lyrics on this album I felt were the weakest of all the releases that Alan Parsons has done. Gone are the days of the clever lyrics from APP and the Bairnson-Elliot eras. The lyrics on 'A Valid Path' seemed very amateurish, "dummy-down"ed, and very "Mickey Mouse". More Lost Without You instrumentally was great, but sad in terms of lyrics. We Play The Game is awful, boring and tedious both lyric wise and music wise (sorry Alan, I think the world of you, and I know you wrote the lyrics and most of the music, but this track stinks!). You Can Run is the worst and perhaps the most pathetic attempt of a track from both Alan Parsons and David Pack (who has contributed on Alan Parsons' Try Anything Once album with The Three of Me and Oh Life - two unbelievably great tracks). Truly a disappointment for those familiar with the "Try Anything Once" album. The remake of the Raven (called A Recurring Dream Within a Dream) is way overdone in terms of "electronica" and should have been left alone. I never thought a classic song like "The Raven" could be destroyed by AP, but he found a way to do it!

So, like reviews with 5 stars and 1 star, this review has a bit of both. If you like the instrumentals from Alan Parsons in the past, you'll like this. However, the new songs with lyrics are not "Parsons" good and are a huge disappointment.

Summary: Instrumentals "two thumbs way up"....the rest of the album "two thumbs down" or "two middle fingers up" depending on the track in question.

The album is worth getting for just the instrumentals and nothing else!

Like Project co-founder Eric Woolfson's recent musical effort, Poe, comparing Alan's album to previous material is comparing apples and oranges. If you're looking for something that reminds you of the glory days of the Project, this album is not for you.

However, if you've often wondered about the electronica musical genre, this album is a great introduction. Why? Because it showcases a broad display of electronica styles, not just one. And that's good because chances are, you probably won't like *all* styles and if the entire album happened to be one you didn't like.....you wouldn't like the album.

Instead, Alan has worked with a number of electronica artists as well as his son Jeremy, to produce a great overview of the form. There's also a little blast from the past in that David Gilmour makes a great guitar contribution in three sections on the first track, Return To Tunguska. At first, I felt the song suffered from "NMG" (Needs More Gilmour) but then I wondered just where else his material would fit in well.....and it wouldn't. It's not unlike the Project days where many always felt each album suffered from "NMB" (Needs More Bairnson--the Project's long time and world great guitar player Ian Bairnson). And yet, when you're done listening to it, you'll think "yeah, that's exactly what was needed, not much more".

"More Lost Without You" probably stands out for being the least electronica of the material and features the vocal skills of PJ Olsson. This song is much more of a straight forward alternative rock, almost pop song but there's an very interesting beat and background sounds that will take repeated listens to pick up.

Mammagamma 04 is a remake of an old Project song and should see lots of use on the dance floor. Superb adaptation of an old instrumental for the dance/trance genre.

We Play The Game features Alan on vocals, although you need to listen carefully to figure out it's him. This song might come close, in parts, to some of Alan's work in the Project or his "solo" work with 90s collaborators Bairnson and Stuart Elliot. But it's another song with an intricate beat and driving rythm that takes a while to get started but then really takes off. Alan uses another guitar player with style elements that old Project fans will recognize but that doesn't get in the way of the underlying electronica.

Tijuaniac, you'll either love it or hate it. That's because it veers into a modern jazz feel that other reviewers compare to some of Rick Wright's (Pink Floyd) solo work or early 90s Jean Michel-Jarre's material. It's a lilting, slow-paced song but then about halfway thru, goes in this completely unexpected jazz direction. Again, you'll love it or hate it.

L'arc En Ciel has another driving beat with numerous elements added overtop bit by bit. It's a good example of how Alan's oh so good at taking seeming disparate beats, integrating them and coming up with something that sounds incredible. He also uses a sound that simulates the old "vox" (from 50s sci fi movies) and uses it as a synth in some ways.

Reoccuring Dream has more keyboards up front and less of an overall electronica sound than even "More Lost Without You". Alan uses a sort of polyrythmic beat, then a synth, then a processed vocal that simulates the old vocoder to recreate this Project song. It's not fast but is much more of a paced song and you'll recognize the bass line.

You Can Run features David Pack on vocals although you'd never know it. This isn't Ambrosia or ballad rock, it's quite rockin' with a drum beat that's fairly straightforward but heavily "trashy" (using things like crash and splash cymbals that sound like banging sticks on garbage can lids). It's a neat effect and creates a song that's very accesible by rock fans with the usual (by now) electronica elements providing the backdrop.

Chomolungma starts off slow with a slow beat and all kinds of vocal bits, background noises, etc., playing around with each other. But is slowly builds in terms of pace and layers and volume (there's some howling dogs in the background that are haunting). There are even some chants in spots, very bass or baritone in nature. There's a lot going on in this song in the periphery. Then the horns kick in toward the end and along with the beat, the chanting and the orchestration, you literally are surrounded with music. Then wham, it stops on a dime and John Cleese makes his guest appearance.

This is a very good effort from Alan and shows that he can adapt his natural talents in terms of instrumental composition, beat and rythm constructs and studio expertise into making something very contemporary, polished and accessible, hopefully to those familiar with his old work and new folks looking for a great introduction to electronica.

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