The Secret is Avocados

May 1, 2019 4:09 AM

Twenty years after a disastrous dalliance with lasers and fifteen years after his last LP, Alan Parsons has released a new album called The Secret.

The album was recorded mostly on Parsons' new ParSonics Studio, located on his avocado ranch home in the Santa Barbara area. In this interview about his hit "Eye In the Sky", you can see ParSonics and the ranch for yourself.

All tracks have been dropped on YouTube; the music video for "As Lights Fall" marks only the second appearance of the artist himself in such works (his first was in this one, then-partner Woolfson is the 'robot' wearing the hose over his face)

Also released as a music video is "I Can't Get There From Here", from the movie 5-25-77.

Jason Mraz is featured vocalist on "Miracle".

posted by zaixfeep (32 comments total)

This is going to be one of those FPPs that get clicked on and favorited but generate no comments... I should have made the title Don't Answer Me :-)
posted by zaixfeep at 4:23 AM on May 1, 2019 [6 favorites]

Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland
posted by pipeski at 4:34 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Jonatha Brooke's poignant and moving cover of "Eye In the Sky"
posted by zaixfeep at 4:44 AM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

When I was in High School, my brothers, my friends, and I listened to Tales of Mystery and Imagination so often, it’s a small miracle that my parents didn’t wall us up in the basement....
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:03 AM on May 1, 2019 [9 favorites]

Alan Parsons' ouvre tends to veer too far towards Yacht-style AOR for my liking, but damned if 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' isn't a stone-cold classic.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:06 AM on May 1, 2019 [5 favorites]

Jessica, pistols at dawn!

I like me some Alan Parson's maybe a bit more than as a casual fan so when I saw this the other day I eagerly clicked on some videos. I liked what I heard...but not as much as I expected to. I found that there were too many similarities to previous songs and that it was lacking the je ne sais quoi that makes every Parson song unique and special.

Or maybe I need to listen again.
posted by ashbury at 6:12 AM on May 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

it’s a small miracle that my parents didn’t wall us up in the basement....Yacht-style AOR

For the love of God, Michael McDonald!
posted by thelonius at 6:19 AM on May 1, 2019 [7 favorites]

I, Robot was one of those albums my dad had in the 70s that stuck with me forever. Probably mostly because I was into robots and stuff... But I still listen to it every once in a while.

One of the others was Muskrat Love. THAT one didn't stick.
posted by Foosnark at 6:20 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

The band that filled the gap between Pink Floyd albums. Cheaper to see live as well.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:22 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Homer: “Now Grand Funk Railroad paved the way for Jefferson Airplane, which cleared the way for Jefferson Starship. The stage was now set for The Alan Parsons Project, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft.”
posted by porn in the woods at 6:34 AM on May 1, 2019 [15 favorites]

"Yacht rock" is one of those annoying hipsterisms that's way more offensive than anything recorded or performed by anyone labeled as such. I mean, not that I'd ever find out first-hand, but what do you think they actually play on yachts? Whoever headlined Coachella last year? Fyre Festival was co-founded by Ja Rule. The worst thing that Alan Parsons Project did was have "I'm Not in Love" covered by Will to Power (whose general look suggested that maybe they should have called their band Looking for a Third), and that's not AP's fault.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:42 AM on May 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

it was lacking the je ne sais quoi that makes every Parson song unique and special.
posted by ashbury

Yep, the loss of Eric Woolfon after 1990 is notable. Together, they were near Lennon/McCartney-level magic; apart, not so much. Woolfson was the lyricist for "Light of the World" and "Limelight", by comparison Parsons signature solo philosophy seems to go no deeper than "Turn It Up".

In fairness to Parsons, I stopped listening to Woolfon's neurotic obsession with Poe after his release of 'Even Still Wait Don't Leave, There's More You Won't Believe About Poe I'm Not Kidding Where's My Limelight I Want My Damned Limelight'.

When I listen to "You Don't Believe", I hear Woolfson ranting to Parsons about the Project and where's his damned limelight.
posted by zaixfeep at 6:47 AM on May 1, 2019

Metafilter: One of those annoying hipsterisms that's way more offensive than anything recorded or performed by anyone labeled as such.
posted by zaixfeep at 6:53 AM on May 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Way back in the day, an acquaintance of mine confessed to me, "I like to get drunk and listen to Alan Parsons Project." I didn't know what to make of it then, still don't but I won't be forgetting that statement any time soon.
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 6:57 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Way back in the day, an acquaintance of mine confessed to me, "I like to get drunk and listen to Alan Parsons Project." .
posted by MorgansAmoebas

Drunk on beaujolais, by any chance?
posted by zaixfeep at 7:04 AM on May 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

It’s a reference to a 15 year old web video series, which featured plenty of early 80s yachts...
posted by thedaniel at 7:12 AM on May 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

Well the series adopted an existing pejorative term for the genre, right?
posted by thelonius at 7:33 AM on May 1, 2019

No!

ts name, coined in the 2000s by the makers of the online video series Yacht Rock, was derived from its association with the popular Southern Californian leisure activity of sailing.
posted by thelonius at 7:40 AM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

The name was most likely coined because one of the hallmark songs in what would become known as the "Yacht Rock" soft rock subgenre is Sailing by Christopher Cross.
posted by tclark at 8:22 AM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Oof, that's kinda dumb. It would be like calling 60s rock "walrus rock" because the Beatles did "I Am the Walrus", only somehow that's still not as bad.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2019

The worst thing that Alan Parsons Project did was have "I'm Not in Love" covered by Will to Power

"I'm Not in Love" was recorded originally by 10CC, not the Alan Parsons Project. /nitpickery
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 8:50 AM on May 1, 2019 [9 favorites]

Except the fact that, for a fair length of time, it was practically impossible (at least as a kid in LA) to get away from Sailing and other Yacht Rock tunes on top 40 radio, easy listening channels, saturday afternoon local-LA TV shows. I have a very strong sense-memory of the late 70s and early 80s of "sunset/beach/sail boats" absolutely saturating everything for a short while.

This could be because I was about 5 years old and some of my first legit cultural experiences were during its brief heyday, but Yacht Rock, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and all things similarly situated resonate strongly with me, not even in a necessarily good or bad way, just a strong way.
posted by tclark at 8:51 AM on May 1, 2019 [8 favorites]

What can I say? More Arthur Brown and less Elmer Gantry.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:53 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was going to make a reference to "The Alan Parsons Unfinished Project", but the way all the MeFites are associating it with other artists and icons, I think I'll go with "The Alan Parsons Projection".
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:05 AM on May 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

I have a very strong sense-memory of the late 70s and early 80s of "sunset/beach/sail boats" absolutely saturating everything for a short while.

I guess that was kind of a thing
posted by thelonius at 9:23 AM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

I would like more Alan Parsons in my collection.

I've been buying a lot of CDs at second-hand stores, and I have only once come across an Alan Parsons disc (and the jewel case was empty). So either no one is getting rid of their Alan Parsons, or there aren't that many of his CDs out there, or someone's beating me to them.

They all have Enya though. Watermark mostly.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 9:32 AM on May 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

So either no one is getting rid of their Alan Parsons, or there aren't that many of his CDs out there, or someone's beating me to them

I just recently started getting into used record collecting and have been looking for various proggy bands at local stores and I've only ever seen the less well regarded albums. I also can never find any King Crimson or Pink Floyd. But, I've found a ton of Moody Blues albums, so apparently everyone in the 70s bought a ton of Moody Blues and then realized they were just okay, which matches my opinion
posted by JZig at 10:04 AM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've found the Project's records from I, Robot to Eye in the Sky to be very common as well.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:22 AM on May 1, 2019

I recall beer commercials starting to feature sailing themes after Ted Turner's America's Cup yacht race in NY 1977 and the further Cup hysteria in 1980 -- Sailing was released in 1980 -- so maybe that's what 'launched' that genre.
posted by zaixfeep at 12:19 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

But also have you tried sailing? because it's pretty fun.

/tangent
posted by allthinky at 12:38 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yacht rock - is Stephen Stills the godfather? Or would that be Paul Kantner of Wooden Ships fame? Or maybe it's Brian Wilson?
posted by rustipi at 2:56 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I started out kinda skeptical about Parsnips cause his music seemed a bit precious at first, but he gradually won me over. I have a fondness for his lush power ballad 'If I Could Change Your Mind' from the album 'Eve', and of course the famous 'Year of The Cat' is kinda like an unofficial APP album.

(Yacht Rock seems a bit of a derail here, but I got a kick out of that old YT parody series;)
posted by ovvl at 4:04 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]