It’s one thing to go buy an album that is popular. The singles
\nare on the radio, there’s a great deal of hype, and usually a lot
\nof people can comment on the merits of said album. In the end, the
\nchoice can be pretty easy. However, it is an entirely different
\nmatter altogether to go out on a limb and acquire a CD that you’ve
\nheard nothing about. There’s a genuine “risk” involved. And being
\nthe poor college student that I am, there’s nothing worse than
\nshelling out 15 bucks for a CD that just isn’t very good.<\/p>\n
Luckily, this wasn’t the case with
\nA Valid Path<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I recalled vaguely that Duke had reviewed this album in August
\nof last year, and I had purchased the single “More Lost Without
\nYou,” but that’s all I knew of this particular project by Alan
\nParsons (no pun intended). So in terms of expectations going in,
\nthere really weren’t any, save that it would be an expertly
\nproduced work. That
\nA Valid Path<\/i> most certainly is, as well as much more.<\/p>\n
My friends are big techno\/electronica fans, and to be honest I
\ncould not figure out why. To me, these styles of music were
\nsoulless, computer enhanced beats and rhythms, with no substance to
\nthem at all. However after giving
\nA Valid Path<\/i> a few listens, my eyes have been opened just a
\nlittle bit. These songs do have some life to them, especially the
\ninstrumentals. The opener, “Return To Tunguska” varies things
\naround, shifting from the eerie, Arabian-sounding opening segment
\nto a pulsating, driving beat that climaxes with an appearance by
\nguitarist David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.<\/p>\n
After the first track, things just keep getting better and
\nbetter. “More Lost Without You,” was the single from the record,
\nand is the most commercial song I have heard from Parsons. It is
\nundeniably catchy, with a strong refrain and a few electronic
\nflourishes. “Mammagamma04,” apparently a remake of an earlier
\nParsons song, could have been taken straight out of a dance club.
\nOther highlights include “We Play The Game,” the second of the
\nthree vocal cuts on the album and Parsons’ best performance of the
\nalbum, and the powerful “Chomolungma,” which mixes sounds such as
\nGregorian-style chanting, and a stirring orchestral and
\nsynth-driven ending featuring John Cleese and some
\nPet Sounds<\/i>-esque barking.<\/p>\n
How much one appreciates this work will depend solely on how
\nmuch of this sound one can take. This album after a while does get
\nrepetitive, but Parsons manages to create enough good material that
\nit is less noticeable. The only track that fails to take off is
\n“Tijuaniac.” I agree with the good Mr. Egbert, in that the atonal
\nbinges the song contains are quite simply annoying.<\/p>\n
This was a “risky” buy, but as I said before, it turned out to
\nbe worth it. Parsons has reached out into a whole new branch of
\nmusic, and applies his usual stellar production. The result is a
\nunique listening experience that provides an opportunity for old
\nParsons fans to hear something new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5965],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38420","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alan-parsons","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38420"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}