THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT
COMPLETE ALBUMS COLLECTION
Cooking Vinyl Records (11-LP Box Set)
How do you make the (arguably) best-sounding albums of all time sound even better?
You put them out on vinyl, that’s what! November saw the release of a limited-edition 11-LP box set of The Complete Albums Collection from The Alan Parsons Project. Only 1,500 sets are being released worldwide by Cooking Vinyl Records, and this is not a set that any fan of the Project should miss.
The new set is a vinyl version of the Complete Albums Collection set released on CD in 2014, and like that version, it has the 10 studio albums released by the Project from 1976 to 1987, as well as the “lost” Alan Parsons Project album, The Sicilian Defence.
The 2014 set represented the first official release of this album, and the vinyl collection is the first time it’s been out as an LP. Recorded in 1979 after Eve was delivered to the band’s record label, legend has it the record was made by Parsons and his songwriting collaborator Eric Woolfson to meet a contractual obligation, but was never actually intended for release.
The title refers to a chess move, as do its tracks — starting with “P-K4” (pawn to king 4 )— that all evoke chess moves. Listening to The Sicilian Defence’s 10 instrumental tracks, you may be underwhelmed. Many of the pieces seem like demos for future songs — “P-Q3” comes across as the start of a backing track for a song that could end up on I Robot, for example. But there is some nice music here. “KtxP” and “P-Qb4” are lovely piano instrumentals (presumably played by Woolfson) that could’ve easily been developed into classic ballads.
The Sicilian Defence may not be classic Alan Parsons Project material, but it wasn’t supposed to be. In fact, Parsons was adamant for a long time that it would never be released at all, but he softened on that position, and we should be glad he did. It’s a fascinating look at what Parsons and Woolfson could create when they weren’t trying that hard, and there’s some quality music on it. Any somewhat-serious collector of this band’s work will want it in their collection, and here’s a way to get a pristine version on vinyl for perhaps the only time ever.
Fortunately, the 10 remaining albums in this set are some of the (which was stereo demonstration record of the 1970s), Parsons always brought immaculate sound to his productions, and after toiling for other artists, he had the genius idea to make the the artist.
