My favorite #1 by The Alan Parsons Project is Pyramid. I was fortunate to see Alan Parsons open for Yes during the On Air tour and I also got to see The Time Machine tour and I got to meet Alan and was given a Promo Pack at the show in Towson, Maryland. Truly outstanding Prog Music. Thanks again for sharing this classic APP Music. I personally like all of the APP albums.

Eye In the Sky the only album I ever bought after hearing it in a record shop. I went to the counter and asked who it was then bought it.

APP is life. Incredible artist, composer and engineer. Got introduced to his music through my father. He is a big I Robot and Pyramid fan. Seen him couple of years ago when he did I Robot in entirety plus all the hits. Still great. P.S. Arjen Lucassen made really great cover to Some Other Time on his solo "Lost in the New Real". Check it out.

Nailed the top 3! However, as you may have guessed from the album artwork on my wall when we chat, I'd put Turn of a Friendly Card at #1. But you definitely rocked the cap!!!

Man, I was on vacation and didn't see this video til I got back just now. Idk why, Alan Parsons Project was the band that slingshot me back into Progville for good. Literally an audiophiles favorite band ever. The production on these albums are second to none. Definitely the artist/producer I follow the absolute most. Top 5 Band for me, I love them so freaking much. My ranking goes like this: 1. I Robot 2. Mystery And Imagination 3. Pyramid 4. Turn Of A Friendly Card 5. Eye In The Sky 6. Eve 7. Ammonia Avenue 8. Stereotomy 9. Vulture Culture 10. The Sicillian Defense 11. Gaudi Also, to correct you, Eric Wolfson's first lead vocal was "Time" from Friendly Card.

I totally agree with this ranking. Good work.

Thank you this ranking. Love APP, they dont get enough recognition. Generally agree with your list. I would probably rank Ammonia Avenue higher but love them all, except The Sicilian Defense!

I'm so glad I found this. I love the Alan Parsons Project. I try to choose a favorite but it's too hard cause I love them all.

Really glad you did this one. Love APP, especially those early albums, but they don't get much respect in the Prog community. Still great though. And its also interesting how often you hear the APP influences in modern Neo-Prog bands all the time. Solid ranking. The production aspects are generally touted, but I think another area they excelled in was just how emotionally powerful and effective many of their songs are. My favorite from them is the Turn of a Friendly Card Suite from that album, just sensational. But all those top 5 are great. I do need to check out some of those later ones, however, as I stopped following them after after Ammonia Ave-Vulture Culture. Thanks.

Scot !! Respect, Peace and Love!!! great selection!!! The first two albums are the best for me too!!! "I wouldn't want to be like you", "(The System of)Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether", "The Raven", "Don't let it show", "Cask of Amontillado" are such fantastic songs!!! I agree with you too in "Stereotomy" is a good album, "Beaujolais" is great and of course "Limelight" with the late great Gary Brooker!! I Think John Miles was so underrated, good vocalist, good musician. Many good musicians in APP!!!! Great band, once more you did it Scot!! Greetings from Portugal!!!

Excellent video Scot! Lots of information, relations and thoughtfull criteria. Well done, once again. My favourite are the first two albums, so we are ok!

I Robot. The best work by far!

APP was one of my first favourite bands - right from Tales onwards. I put them in the 'Prog Pop' category with Supertramp and Jeff Wayne. Great video, Scott.

Great list. I agree with number 1, But imho, Pyramid or Turn of a Friendly Card should be 2. APP and AP as a solo has made an incredible amount of music for us to enjoy

Thanks for the review. That was fun. Loved, loved, loved I Robot when it came out. Was a senior in high school. Great memories. Also Really enjoyed Pyramid and Turn of a Friendly Card. Got Eve and Eye in the sky, but never got into either of them. The first three I mentioned are some of my all time favorites.

Great list! APP was one of my introductions to prog, so I'll always have a special place for it in my heart. My list would probably be 11: The Sicilian Defense 10: Gaudi 9: Vulture Culture 8: Eve 7: Stereotomy 6: Pyramid 5: Eye in the Sky 4: Ammonia Avenue 3: Turn of a Friendly Card 2: I Robot 1: Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Cool vid, Scot. I've got the first six Alan Parsons Project albums and agree with your ranking except I might slip Turn of a Friendly Card ahead of Tales of Mystery and Imagination these days. I love good crossover prog! I'll look forward to your Agusa review. That very retro sounding album is one of my favorites of the year so far.

Great list! Mine would be pretty different, but thanks for highlighting this underappreciated band!

Eye in the Sky had really good radio play. they used to play a lot of APP on the old NCRN network that would scroll through the top 40 all day and all night from 81-83

A great set of albums previewed there. I know iRobot but the rest are new to me. Take care. Dave ✅✅

I love every APP album, including Ammonia Avenue and Vulture Culture.

The Alan Parsons Project songs I like/really like: A Dream Within a Dream, The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, (The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, The Fall of the House of Usher Some Other Time Voyager, What Goes Up…, The Eagle Will Rise Again, Can't Take It with You Lucifer, I'd Rather Be a Man, Winding Me Up, Damned If I Do, Secret Garden, If I Could Change Your Mind May Be a Price to Pay, Games People Play, Time, I Don't Wanna Go Home, The Turn of a Friendly Card Sirius, Eye in the Sky, Children of the Moon, Silence and I, Old and Wise Ammonia Avenue Stereotomy, Beaujolais, Urbania, Limelight, Where's the Walrus La Sagrada Familia, Closer to Heaven, Standing on Higher Ground, Paseo de Gracia

Awesome 👏

Great rundown! I’m new to APP but I’ve been collecting the discography on vinyl. It’s been a fun journey so far.

Hi, Scott! My ranking would be very similar to yours, although my favourite is Tales without a doubt. I bought it when I was nine years old, and it blew my mind. And it still does! I must confess that I never cared much for Vulture Culture, but after 20 years without listening to it... I'm really digging it now. Yes, it's poppy and comercial, and 80's sounding, but it has some great songs, and I really like some of the production.

Hey Scot! I may have told you this story before? Saw APP a few times. Great in concert, every member seems to sing a song. Most memorable show was when they opened for YES on The Talk Tour. YES had their surround sound set up around the venue. AP asked while on stage if they could use YES' sound set up? A huge NO came through the surrounding speakers! Lol!! Of course YES blew APP off the stage with the most incredible sound ever! APP were good, but YES is YES and the Talk Tour was excellent! Would have to look up how many shows i saw on both legs of the tour. Still love Talk, great album! So looking forward to RIO!!! Ok Scot gotta run. Later my brother.❤🌅👍😎

I remember buying that good damn boxset only because of "The Silician Defence" - And i regret it to this day, I gave away my other copies, which had excellent bonus tracks not in this box (i should have known) - Ended up rebuying "Tales" 2CD / "I Robot" 2 CD and "Turn..." 2CD. Great Ranking and TOO CLOOSE to my own !!

Yay! Love APP! Bar-setting production standards too

I love APP. This is one of the very first bands that turned my attention to prog, when hearing the release of “The Raven “ in ‘76. But at the time, I had no clue just how great of piece the “ Tales “ debut was until I acquired the vinyl. I was blown away by it’s stunning originality and darkness. And it helped immensely that I was already into classical music. Even to this day it’s still my favorite by them with “ I Robot “ at a very close 2nd. Plus I’ve never had “ Pyramid “ but I think it’s high time I add that one to the collection. As always, thanks for the review Scot !

a fun list i have always bin a alan parson fan .always put eye in sky on to show people vinyl is the best . your top 5 is great and for me difficult to choose from

I love the Alan Parsons Project. I remember listening to them with my dad back the 90s. One of my all-time favs.

Great show Scot,ranking the albums of The Alan Parsons Project they have great albums.I like "The Turn of a friendly card.(1980),But their are others I enjoy.

An old friend used to buy these albums as they came out. I'd borrow them and sometimes copy them to cassette. TBH they were a bit middle-of-the-road for me, but I did like some of them. Maybe time for a re-assessment?

I haven't listened to APP for a long time, but I was a fan back in the day. What a fantastic array of singers they had. I really loved EW. As far as the debut goes, I love the Poe based songs, side 2 of the LP was just throw away for me, so that would make me rank it far lower. Gaudi never got any respect for some reason, but I always liked it. My #1 would be Turn of a Friendly Card. I Robot get's high grades too!

I simply LOVE APA and feel like more people need to give pretty much all the albums a hard listen! While I would put Turn of a Friendly Card below Pyramid and put Eve a bit higher, totally agree with all of your points.

Great band , great rankings

A very good ranking, there are a few very good albums but also a few very forgettable ones. I have about 80% of them but they rarely find their way to my turntable.

❤️APP, Woolfson unsung genius. Favs are Tales, I Robot, Pyramid and turn of. 🤘🏻👍🏻

So good! But where is Freudiana album?

I have The Raven on my rock and roll Halloween mix. APP is just different from everyone else.

Great musician and an excellent sound engineer. Let’s not forget who engineered on The Dark Side Of The Moon!

Thanks for this ranking. I'd like to see a Barclay James Harvest ranking the albums. 🤓

I only have Tales of Mystery and Imagination. It's enough! I was just listening to Fire by Arthur Brown. Weird coincidence... Steve Harley, definitely not The Cockney Rejects, Cockney Rebel please. One of the first bands I saw live.

I love The Alan Parsons Project. Their album "The Turn of a Friendly Card" is my favorite APP album. "Day after Day (The show must go on)" from "I, Robot" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

I could agree with most of your ranking, with one big difference. I love Vulture Culture. You are right, that production is quite poor, it is very much in 80s vibe and it is maybe most popy album from APP. But the songs are just beautifull. I love most of the songs and it's poetic goes well with mostly electronic arrangements. So I would put this album somewhere around 5th or 6th place.

Great show. Personally I never been a fan of APP, but there is some solid music on their albums. For me nothing special, but still legendary band.

I have 5 of their albums on vinyl! All purged from my dad's friend's record collection, except for one that was from my brother's future wife's dad.

According to Wikipedia Pyramid made it to number 26 in the US. Number 49 was for the UK.

Great records that execute the sound of their time better than most

A very fair list here brother! I Robot is my favorite as well! As for saving Charles? Nah!❤

Eye in the sky just NEVER gets old. I should investigate this band further.

Alan Parsons, another musical genius, like you and me. Good name too! 🦓

Fantastic band! Rather than "watered down prog", I think they're better framed as "super proggy pop music", but whatever you call them, their music is excellent I've got their whole discography on vinyl except for Stereotomy (still kicking myself for not picking it up in high school when my local record store had the original color filter sleeve. Wouldn't have picked up their other later ones at the time if I hadn't found them at thrift stores, I was a bit of a snob back then and ignored a lot of artists' 80s stuff). I still remember how excited I was when the original mix of Tales of Mystery and Imagination was finally released on CD, for years the only digital version available was the awful 1987 remix (I love a good guitar solo as much as the nexy guy, but throwing one into The Raven absolutely kills the vibe). It's been ages since I've listened to any of them except the debut, Turn of a Friendly Card, or Stereotomy, this is a good reminder to go back through them again

Can't argue with that list, Scot, though I personally would swap nos. 1 and 2. Meanwhile, have you ever read Asimov's 'I Robot'? It's a lot more nuanced that robots taking over the world and destroying everything! (And it's more of a collection of short stories with a framing narrative than a traditional novel.) Recommended.

Turn of a Friendly Card is my fav. Bought Vulture Culture to add to my collection based on its great cover. Really didnt like it. 😢 Not what I was expecting I guess. Good show and lookingvforward to you showing us your new albums.

Already as a teenager I liked the Project and still love them.For me I rank Ammonia avenue much higher.

Someone on a message board once described APP as "a cross between Pink Floyd and Air Supply." To be honest, that's not too far off the mark...but I like a lot of their stuff anyway. However, I Robot is the only album of theirs I might consider essential.

I loved Vulture Culture as well as Ammonia Avenue

APP isn't prog?! That's happy crappy. Agree with the rankings, " Turn Of A Friendly Card " is my sentimental favorite Great info in the introduction, BTW. Stuart Elliot played drums for Al Stewart for a bit too

Hot take: Eye in the Sky is not my fav post-ToaFC APP song! It is Ammonia Avenue (title track).

Eye in the sky blu ray 5.1 is great

I robot is a classic sounding album good top choice Scot

Hello Scott. APP balladry is cool. The world needs Poetry.

I give 4 stars (out of 5) to all the albums, except for "Eve" : 5 stars (ah, the girls!) and 3 stars to "Stereotomy", "Gaudi" and "Sicilian Defence" (and 2 ou 3 stars to Parsons' solo albums).

I agree with the top spot. Tales is adventurous and interesting but just isn't cohesive enough to be a masterpiece. I Robot strikes the perfect balance between catchy and proggy. Pyramid etc try to recreate the formula or play a bit with the catchy-proggy balance, but overall fall flat.

If you like APP, you might like the Keats s/t album from 1984. It has four of the regulars from APP. Colin Blunstone, Ian Bairnson, David Paton and Stuart Elliott. It's not bad. My ranking would be; 1. Pyramid 2. I, Robot 3. Tales O Mystery... 4. Ammonia Avenue 5. Eve 6. Turn O A Friendly Card 7. Eye In The Sky 8. Gaudi 9. 10. Stereotomy 11. Vulture Culture

Se agradecería un ránking de Vangelis.

With APP it's kind of easy. The earlier ones are good and the later ones not so much.

Steve Harley Cockney Rebel not Cockney Rejects very different bands.

The correct Alan Parsons Project ranking: 1/ Tales of Mystery and Imagination. 2/ The Turn of a Friendly Card. 3/ Eve. 4/ Eye in the Sky. 5/ Pyramid. 6/ I Robot. 7/ Stereotomy. 8/ Gaudi. 9/ Ammonia Avenue. 10/ Vulture Culture. 1 and 2 are very close. 5 and 6 are very close. 7 and 8 are very close.

Harley from Cockney Rebel, 😉

Summary, Lenny Zakatek sung more cool songs than other vocalists.

More pop than prog, but I like the early releases quite a bit.

interesting run down scott .. if your a prog guy like myself where is the best entry point

Vulture Culture 1985

Is that hat a little too small??? It rides up when you get excited 😅

I thought AA was from 1983 not 1984. Quiet surprising for me.

I can't really relate to someone who would rank Eye in the Sky higher than Ammonia Avenue

I Robot is so overrated. More of a pop album with weak songs. Actually, it's a combination of pop songs and tuneless dirges. The only track I like is Some Other Time which is a top 5 song. Their best albums are Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Eve, and The Turn of a Friendly Card. Pop/pap: I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You, Breakdown, Don't Let It Show, The Voice, Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) Tuneless dirge: Nucleus, Total Eclipse, Genesis Ch. 1 V. 32

Give me a break, They Re Prog,just not BOMBASTIC!.