You know, for someone who never got to tour with the Project itself, Alan Parsons sure does a lot of touring now. Whether he\u2019s making up for lost time or just doesn\u2019t want to lose touch with his fans, he and his band have been on the road more or less solid for ten+ years now.<\/p>\n
Live In Colombia<\/i> was recorded in concert with the Medellin Symphony Orchestra. (All right, enough with the Medellin jokes.) Since the music of the Project was supposed to be\u2014and usually was\u2014accompanied by symphonic instrumentation, it is a natural pairing. It turns out to be a lovely one as well.<\/p>\n
For starters, the crowd on this recording is enthusiastic. Parsons and his music have always been more popular in mainland Europe and South America than either in the US or in his home country of England. It\u2019s also worth noting that the set list seems tailored for his audience; I have seen Parsons live five times, and his American set list is pretty standard. Live In Colombia<\/i> shows a different side; songs like \u201cDays Are Numbers\u201d and \u201cPsychobabble\u201d are eschewed in favor of a couple of pleasant surprises.<\/p>\n
Speaking of those pleasant surprises\u2014one is a full live version of \u201cLa Sagrada Familia\u201d from Gaudi<\/i>, and it\u2019s extremely good. The other one is rather a Holy Grail for Parsons fans; this concert includes the entire \u201cTurn Of A Friendly Card\u201d suite from the album of the same name, and it\u2019s quite interesting to hear it done live and see some of the differences. The final one\u2014and it\u2019s a bit of an odd choice, but performed perfectly\u2014is \u201cWhat Goes Up\u2026\u201d from Pyramid<\/i>. <\/p>\n
As far as I know, these songs have never been recorded live before, and they\u2019re a treat. The rest of the CD is quite good as well; the usual live version of \u201cSirius\/Eye In The Sky,\u201d which makes the crowd roar with delight, the pathos of \u201cOld And Wise,\u201d using \u201cGames People Play\u201d to close the set\u2026 all somewhat standard and all excellent.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve only two complaints. One is one I never thought I would make for a Parsons recording; there are times when the mix seems a bit muffled, not as crisp as it should be. Quite a shocker, and quite a disappointment. The other is that this CD has a live version of \u201cSilence And I\u201d from \u00adEye In The Sky<\/i>; not a favorite song of mine, and it lacks the energy needed to make it work live.<\/p>\n
Far from being a redux of his previous live album, Live In Colombia<\/i> shows a different side of Parsons\u2019 music, and is a definite must-have for fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10869],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46698","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-alan-parsons-symphonic-project","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46698","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46698"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}