The Alan Parsons Project: I, Robot - 1978

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Somewhat pretentiously-named Scottish band The Alan Parsons Project were one that I overlooked at the time, being far more inspired by punk, new wave and even disco. 

It is not hard to understand why - their music was driven by pretentious "concepts", science fiction -inspired philosophies and a general feeling of accessible prog. Its influences, though, were manifold - Kraftwerk, Neu!, Can, The Average White Band, Chicago, Genesis to name just a few. Instrumentally more than competent, many people loved this sort of thing at the time, and indeed still do. It never quite did it for me, however, certainly not back then, when I would have run a hundred miles rather than listen to it. Time, as always, though, has proved a great healer of such prejudices.

The title track, I Robot, is very, very Kraftwerk-esque with its funky-ish keyboard riffs, spacey feel and insistent, metronomic beat. It is very representative of the whole late seventies/early eighties electronic instrumental vibe led by Jean Michel Jarre, Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds and fine-tuned by Kraftwerk. 

I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You gets all Average White Band in its white funkiness, and it adds a similar style of vocal too - you know, that typical white soul one. A track like Breakdown mixes that funky sound with Genesis-like prog and some suitably prog choral grandiosity. Don't Let It Show is a big power ballad worthy of Chicago while prog balladry is to be found in Some Other Time. 

Some Rose Royce-style funk, complete with Temptations (Law Of The Land) strings and handclaps is introduced on The Voice. For sure, Alan and his band could vary things a bit as shown in the ambient, chill-out instrumental, Nucleus. Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) is soft-centred, limp, lack-lustre balladry of the sort that I would have loathed in 1977. 

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This sort of album was definitely not my thing in the late seventies but time has made me look at it differently and concede that it is ok, despite some flaws. The group continued the concept thing on Pyramid in 1978, about ancient Egypt, which is far more orchestrated and proggy.

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