Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Alan Parsons Project, The
Label: Arista Records
Released: 1987
Length: 38:47
Rating: 4/5
“Gaudi” was the last album from The Alan Parsons Project, the legendary art rock institution that never put out a bad record in a career spanning more than a decade, with “Tales Of Mystery and Imagiantion” (1976) and “Eye in the Sky (1982) remaining their most celebrated works. The title and concept of the final effort from these masters of serving up big radio hits while never dropping the art rock polish is dedicated to the brilliant and, even today, somewhat mysterious Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, which is also obvious from the opening track, a nod to his most famous work, La Sagrada Familia, the still-unfinished church (a basilica, to be precise) on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
“Gaudi” is a quality record in every respect, sticks to the band’s recognizable formula, and as such makes for a thoroughly dignified farewell, which is a bit of a surprise. From the mid-eighties on, TAPP’s popularity had been slowly but unstoppably fading, while the creative chemistry between the band’s two leaders, producer and occasional keyboardist Alan Parsons and singer, keyboardist and lyricist Eric Woolfson, was no longer at its shiniest either. Differences had started cropping up over where their sound should go next, along with the artistic fatigue that so often sets in when you’ve worked with the same person for over a decade, even very successfully. The winning recipe that had earlier spat out a heap of hits and a horde of records that sold like hotcakes had gone a bit stale by 1987, and the same went for the synthesizer technology that was a dominant constant in the TAPP sound all through the eighties.
Parsons (who this time held back from any instrumental contribution) and Woolfson evidently decided that for one last charge they’d use every bit of sound and production firepower that had turned the band into a one-of-a-kind art rock attraction in the seventies and eighties. That means the album has two potential radio hits, two power ballads, one hard rock-leaning track and two prog rock-leaning experiments. The production is still thrilling today, which is hardly a shock from a production master of Parsons’ caliber.
The symphonic title track is a pompous, hugely dramatic album opener, with a short narration about the life and work of the legendary architect at the start, followed by mighty orchestral arrangements and a stormy vocal turn from John Miles, who once again proves himself one of the best singers in the band’s story. “La Sagrada Familia” is structurally the most progressive rock creation on the album, no question, and as such it’s still a real treat for everyone who missed a bigger dose of symphonic prog elements in TAPP, especially on their eighties albums.
Even though they created plenty of complex art rock compositions over their career, thanks to all those hits the collective memory still mostly files them under pop rock, which is of course wrong and at best just one side of a two-sided coin. The minor hit “Too Late” proves that even as their run was winding down they hadn’t forgotten how to feed the radio waves, and it’s a lovely specimen of full-blooded eighties AOR. Longtime TAPP vocal collaborator Lenny Zakatek does a great job on lead vocals, marrying a pleasant melody to a mighty chorus over ambient washes of synth textures.
“Closer To Heaven” is a Woolfson power ballad of the kind that never went missing from a TAPP release once the legendary Scottish musician took over as the band’s main singer. The festive mood comes courtesy of light symphonic arrangements plus an iconoclastic solo from guitar guru Ian Bairnson, far too often forgotten these days. After a solid but not exactly inspired ballad comes an excellent compromise between art rock and AOR, “Standing On Higher Ground”, with special guest Geoff Barradale on lead vocals. The hypnotic chorus is shamelessly catchy, while sentimental synth textures build a melancholic atmosphere.
“Money Talks”, unusually basic by TAPP standards and without doubt the album’s weakest link, is built on a hard rock guitar phrase, backed up by Miles’ fiery vocal approach, while “Inside Looking Out” is another decent Woolfson power ballad with a bunch of varied ambient touches on keys and guitar. The closing instrumental “Paseo de Gracia”, another tribute to Gaudí’s architectural genius, is suitably steeped in the Latin melos of acoustic guitar and even features the sound of castanets. The main theme of the opening track returns here in triumphant fashion, neatly closing the album’s conceptual circle. Only right that the career of one of the best art rock bands of all time shuts the door in as magnificent a style as possible.
“Gaudi” is an unspectacular but thoroughly decent farewell from one of the most exciting art rock bands of the 20th century. Unlike the famed Catalan architect, who never finished his most famous work, the two TAPP chiefs managed to land a neat ending to their success story with it. Parsons and Woolfson did have one more TAPP album planned, titled “Freudiana”. It carried a concept about Sigmund Freud and came out in 1990 under the name of Woolfson’s solo project. Because of the similar style, and because Parsons played on it too, some even count it as the last TAPP album, but that’s more or less just an illusion. By then the two legendary musicians and producers had long since gone their separate ways, and their paths parted for good right after its release.
Lineup
Alan Parsons – producer
Eric Woolfson – piano and keyboards
Ian Bairnson – guitar
Laurie Cottle – bass guitar
Stuart Elliott – drums and percussion
Richard “Trix” Cottle – synthesizers and saxophone
Bob Howes – timpani
David Cripp – lead horn
John Heley – cello
John Miles, Lenny Zakatek, Eric Woolfson, Geoff Barradale, Chris Rainbow – vocals
Orchestra conducted by Andrew Powell
Production
Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson
Tracklist
1. La Sagrada Familia (8:44)
2. Too Late (4:34)
3. Closer To Heaven (5:54)
4. Standing On Higher Ground (5:02)
5. Money Talks (4:23)
6. Inside Looking Out (6:19)
7. Paseo De Gracia (3:43)
