Back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, prog-rock keyboard innovator Alan Parsons earned his midas touch as an engineer at Abbey Road studios in England on a number of EMI albums recorded by the Beatles, Pink Floyd and many other bands and artists. The famous Parsons studio sound came part and parcel starting with the first album from The Alan Parsons Project in 1976. Arista Legacy released an excellent overview in 2007 entitled The Essential Alan Parsons Project and in January 2009 they reissued a number of studio albums by Parsons and company. Included in Legacy’s latest batch of APP CD remasters are Pyramid (1978), Eve (1979), The Turn Of A Friendly Card (1980), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). Parsons’ time on Arista proved to be quite a prolific one and each CD features numerous bonus cuts with 40 total between the six ‘09 remasters, this thanks to a trawl through the archives by Parsons and his APP cofounder Eric Wolfson, the group’s principle lyricist. Looking back on the heyday of late ‘70s progressive rock through to the advent of the CD and ‘80s New Age rock, Alan Parsons Project may have been well ahead of their time but thanks to these Legacy remasters, their albums still look and sound sharp and cutting edge 30 years later. www.AlanParsonsProject.com

Attention Artists and Record Companies: Have your CD reviewed by mwe3.com. Send to: MWE3.com CD Reviews Editor Robert Silverstein, P.O. Box 630249, Little Neck, N.Y. 11363-0249 E-mail: breakthru87@mwe3.com