PARSONS GETS TOO VOCAL

“STEREOTOMY.” The Alan Parsons Project. Arista. My father, a music junkie, exposed me to every example of the Alan Parsons Project’s work while I was growing up, so my disappointment in “Stereotomy” is justified. Parsons’ strength has always been his instrumentals, but there are only three such pieces in this album--and they are faithful to what made the Alan Parsons Project innovative: the intricate weaving of seemingly independent passages into a fine tapestry of merging music. But the other songs, with their excess of vocals, are repetitive and lacking in musical imagination. As someone who has thoroughly enjoyed the Alan Parsons Project in the past, the opportunity to hear and review its latest effort was an exciting one. Alas, I must nurse my wounds of disappointment with his earlier albums, and hope for the group’s redemption.