Original Album Classics

The title of this item is misleading. While the set is billed as Original Album Classics, this in fact contains 5 Alan Parsons Project albums (Pyramid, Turn of a Friendly Card, Eve, Stereotomy and Gaudi) as remastered in 2008, including the bonus tracks issued at that time. The CDs are packaged in replica original cardboard LP sleeves (no inners). The reduction in size means that some of the writing is hard to discern. There are no separate lyric sheets included, but the lyrics for Stereotomy and Turn are printed on the sleeves and virtually illegible.All the albums benefit from the overhaul, revealing fresh details and making Alan Parsons' fine production and instrumentation even more enjoyable. The highlight for me is Turn of a Friendly Card, but I'm sure you have your own favourites. It's a shame the other Arista albums aren't available in a similar format.Despite the printing, this is a great value, compact way to replace the original CDs with the remasters. Just hang on to your old lyric sheets.

Far too much pleasure; magnificent recordings. I rather like the new tracks (re-worked etc., old tracks).

If you know these albums already, then you don't need anyone to tell you that five albums at a super-budget price is an astonishing bargain, especially when each disc is generously padded out with (generally superfluous) bonus tracks. In terms of value-for-money, add a star to my cautious four-star rating and order away. If you don't know them, read on.If I were listing my favourite Alan Parsons Project albums, I think I'd start with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot, Eye in the Sky and Ammonia Avenue. None of them are here, but we do get Pyramid and Turn of a Friendly Card, which are both very good, consistent albums. In addition to hints of progressive ambition in some tracks, such as "In The Lap of the Gods", there are some huge pop ballads on these albums such as "Shadow of a Lonely Man" and "Time". In fact, this brace of albums will probably cover the cost of the set.I used to rate Eve as a weaker album but, hearing it now, it is striking how many good songs there are, including "If I Could Change Your Mind", which is virtually a dry run for Eye In The Sky's "Old and Wise". After Eve, in order of release date, you would get the peak of the project's transatlantic success, but those albums are missing here, so we skip forward to the last two studio albums.Stereotomy is an odd album: slick, but (other than the title track) rather short of decent songs. It sounds as though Parsons wanted to turn his production brilliance to competing with Trevor Horn, and is very much a producer's album. Gaudi has the wonderful "La Sagrada Familia", but seems short of ideas. Perhaps the late Eric Woolfson, the project's main songwriter, was already saving his best ideas for the ill-starred (but actually very good) Freudiana musical.Woolfson's death means that there can never be another album by the extraordinary combination of singer-songwriter, arranger and producer that was Woolfson, Powell and Parsons. This boxed set gives us half their recorded legacy: closer to pop than they originally intended, but never far from enjoyable.

This boxed set is extremely good value at just over a tenner for five albums,That said,you dont just get possibly the best five albums The Alan Parsons Projectever recorded,you get all the out-takes and extra tracks,as well as the superb re-mastering job done to the original albums.In total there are 32 bonus tracks(not on the original albums),alternate mixes,both vocal and instrumental,for any AP fans out there this package is a must,whether you're replacing old vinyl,(or tapes)The only very small down-side is that that the box that the C.D.s are housed in appears to be slightly too big resulting in C.D.s all over the floor every time you pick the box up.I've found that inserting three bits of cardboard into the box cures the problem(cardboard cut from the very envelope the C.D.s were delivered in does very nicely thank you Amazon)

This album basically covers all the songs I've been accumulating via download during the last couple of months but now have as part of my CD collection, an artist I was introduced to by accident in the late 80's but never gave much thought to/about until recently when I actually listened to some of their stuff and found it to be decent stuff.

Not all five stars albums on APP catalog, but on its best, this is perfect music on its own genre. All albums come with bonustracks, great value for few coins per cd.

Great starter set for anyone who fancies throwing themselves into Alan Parsons Project. As other reviewers may have noted, these releases include bonus tracks so well worth the money. You do sacrifice the CD booklets when buying the original albums collections, but the music is what matters.

Good music