The Secret

First, this album has Alan Parsons on lead vocal and (I believe) lead guitar for what is probably the most powerful song on the album, "As Lights Fall". Alan on lead vocals, Alan at center stage, Alan playing a prominent guitar part is "a" new thing, maybe "the" new thing". He played lead guitar in a group called "The Earth" on their first (and only) album "Elemental" back in 1968. He did a lead vocal in 1976 for "The Raven" on his first album "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", but we're talking a heavy vocoder performance that is not identifiable as him. That was the last lead until 2004's forgettable (sorry, Alan) "We Play The Game" from "A Valid Path".I saw his first live tour back in 1995 (twice: first at the infamous Turtle Lake Music Festival and then at Pine Knob, which is now known as "the DTE Energy Theater"). It seemed to me that Alan was reclusive in those days, sort of off in the corner in the back. He only did occasional backing vocals, if he sang at all. Watch one of his newer concert videos, where he gets into the middle of things, playing and singing multiple leads. The 2016 Columbia tour has him on lead for "Don't Answer Me" (which works pretty well), "The Raven", "Nothing Left to Lose" (which he just kills) and "Eye in the Sky" (another good one). This album follows the "Columbia recipe", first an instrumental, then a powerful vocal from someone like Jason Mraz or P.J. Olson, then Alan finally showing us he can do more than "just" produce and engineer an album (I use "just" in the sense of Elon Musk being a guy who "just" makes some cars and launches a few rockets). I call this his "Captain Kirk" period: he's in the center seat, doing stuff and leading the away missions.Second, this is "his" album. The cover is an homage to his "second life" as a stage magician: the cover is a practical shot, there really are dozens of magic wands making up that path. That's part of the context that is both the strength and weakness of this album: it kinda' sorta' doesn't work without that context, but once you understand it, you're "one of the cool kids" and it all comes together.Third, it has videos for several songs, and some of them are very important to understanding what the heck is going on here. Alan Parsons has not exactly been big on videos: we have the 1976 "I Wouldn't Want to Be With You" (which is kinda' cool), 1981 "Games People Play" which is basically vignettes of the studio (although seeing a very young Lenny Zakatek is worth the viewing), the 1984 "Don't Answer Me" where the crude animation doesn't have anything to do with the story, and the charming 2010 "All Our Yesterdays", a single that exists primarily as a video for his DVD set "The Art & Science Of Sound Recording". Never before have the videos been integral to appreciating the music.These videos are a lot more fun. I'm going to start with what I consider the most important:"As Lights Fall" - Alan is on lead vocal and lead guitar, and is undoubtedly the star of the video. It's his biography, and maybe his swan song. (It's def "a" swan song, although he did say in the interview it's not necessarily his swan song). (OK, last time I do the "a" vs "the" thing. Promise). It's a pleasant mix of animation and live action, and has got some great moments, like the beginning where he's swabbing the deck of the ship "Abby Road" while the Beatles look on.[You will have to look this up yourself on that famous vidoe site]"I Can't Get There From Here" - This one is vignettes from the movie "5-25-77" with brief cuts of Alan Parsons singing under a tree and playing guitar. This is a little misleading because Jared Mahone is the lead vocalist on that song, but it's still interesting. The song reminds me, both musically and thematically of "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)" from I Robot. Again, it's the movie's context that lifts this up from "we've heard that one before".[You will have to look this up yourself on that famous vidoe site]"One Note Symphony" - Alan Parsons owns a starship? Of course Alan Parsons owns a starship, who better? (What's that, Joseph? Your two favorite songs on the album are ship songs? Yep, kinda' looks that way). The video alternates between scenes from the 2018 short sci-fi film "The Shipment" and shots of the current "Live Project" band and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Oh, and I think it's hella cute and touching that his wife Lisa and daughter Tabitha are credited as "production assistants". In a way, the song is a failure: without the text and visual exposition in the video it's "just an OK song". That added context takes it up a level. And Alan is full-on Captain Kirk, in the center seat between the Philharmonic and the Live Project band.[You will have to look this up yourself on that famous vidoe site]It takes a special kind of nerd/geek to appreciate "One Note Symphony". The "one note" is ultra-low-frequency electromagnetic energy that literally blankets the earth: from a depth deeper than the bottom of the oceans to the edge of space. The video explains it as "Science has determined that a tone, known as the Schumann Resonance, exists between the Earth and space... Its frequency is 7.83 Hz."Imagine the surface of earth as your bathroom. You know how singing in the shower sounds more full and rich than it does in open air or much larger rooms? That's "resonance", in this case acoustic resonance in a space maybe 400 cubic feet, powered by your voice.The Schumann resonance is powered by lightning. All the lightning. Every joule of energy that doesn't go into actually incinerating the occasional golfer, tree, or building bangs around in the "bathroom of the earth". About 100 bolts a second at 10 gigajoules each: it has a bit over a trillion watts of power, 24/7/365, in a bathroom of about 52 billion cubic miles.We can't hear or feel 7.83 Hz electromagnetic fields: if we could this would probably drive us insane. But that is the sound of our world, the sound that permeates everything: there's nowhere on earth (or near earth) you can go to get away from it. Exactly 28 humans have been far enough from the earth to have escaped the Schumann resonance for a handful of days.While we cannot hear 7.83 Hz, but it's possible to use something called a "ring modulator" to modulate a sound we can hear, and that's the sound of the singer's voice in most of One Note Symphony: a human voice modulated by the loudest note in the world, a note we can't hear.

I love Alan Parsons' music. This album did not disappoint.

I was very happy to hear that Alan Parsons was finally releasing a new album after fifteen years. I read a review on here that pretty much sums up my feelings of the album, but I feel led to write it in my own words. Alan Parsons has been my favorite musician ever since I first heard "Turn of a Friendly Card" back in 1980 as a kid (it remains my favorite album). I enjoyed 2004's electronica experiment "A Valid Path," but wanted more of the classic Parsons sound. Then there was a long break, so long in fact, that I feared Parsons was going to retire or just disappear. I was happy to learn that he was finally coming out with a new concept album, which Parsons does so well, about magic. Was it worth the wait? Yes, for the most part, but there are some hiccups, the biggest one being that the album is ballad heavy with few rockers and instrumentals to balance it out. To be honest, there isn't an album Parsons has made that I downright hate (he is my favorite musician after all), there are just some I like more than others. In the case of "The Secret," it ranks above "A Valid Path" and Parsons' albums from the '90's (for the most part, except maybe "Freudiana," but the '90's albums also had more of a balance of the rock, ballad & instrumentals than this one). Still, I have to give Parsons credit for trying something new here, while sticking to his classic sound and eagle - eared listeners should pick up on some classic Project references throughout the album (which I will get to later). So here is my track by track breakdown.1. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" - Parsons is known for opening an album with a memorable instrumental. "I Robot," "Sirius," "H.G. Force 1," among others all had that catchy opening that starts out slow at first, then builds and picks up, drawing you in. We don't get that here. You'd think Parsons would have done something unique with this piece. To be fair, I never heard the original by Paul Dukas, but when compared with the above examples, this instrumental falls flat. There is nothing about this song that screams Alan Parsons. I don't sense his touch on this piece, but that's because Parsons didn't really conduct this, Tom Brooks did, so no wonder it feels out of place. This is also the only instrumental piece on the album. I would have liked another, more memorable one later on, as Parsons usually has, with some exceptions, at least two instrumentals per album. "A Valid Path" was very instrumental heavy (5 out of 9 tracks were instrumentals, not a bad balance), so maybe Parsons wanted more vocals on this one. Still, he could have given us another one that has his unique touch. The biggest let down of the album for me.2. "Miracle" - How many songs about miracles have been done before? Pet Shop Boys did one. Mike & the Mechanics did one. This one is sung by Jason Mraz. I get where Parsons is going with this, but the song falls flat, not so much in the lyrics ("Show me a miracle. Show me the real me." What does "the real me" have to do with a miracle?), but in the production of sound, which is disappointing when you know what Parsons is capable of. The melody is good and sounds like classic Parsons, but the guitars during the chorus sound soft and should be much louder to get the full effect. Just listen to something like "Prime Time" or "Cloudbreak," to hear what I mean. Those songs also have a better balance of vocals and guitars than this one. Perhaps Parsons was playing to Mraz's style, whose vocals are usually up front and center. I think Parsons could have found the right balance between the two without compromising anything. A good song that could have been better.3. "As Lights Fall" - My favorite song on the album and it's classic Parsons. The song reminds me a lot of "Prime Time" from "Ammonia Avenue." The melody, the guitar, and the keyboards are reminiscent of that song and something I haven't heard from Parsons in a while. Parsons sings lead vocal here and if you listen to the lyrics, you can tell he is reflecting back on his career. Just listen to the chorus: "Meet me there as lights fall. This will be my curtain call." The video for this song is well thought out and seems to suggest this, with images from past project albums scattered throughout. I certainly hope it's not his last call, but either way, it's a song worthy of the Parsons legacy.4. "One Note Symphony" - Ingenious! The entire song literally revolves around a single note. I actually read one review here where someone said this was lazy. Seriously? Far from it. In fact, I've read that the sound here is not easy to reproduce and that nothing like this has ever been produced before. I've read a lot of other reviews praising Parsons for his originality. Only Parsons could produce a song like this. It has his musical touch to it and the song, sung by Todd Cooper, is quite catchy. Much has already been written about this song online, implying that Parsons has made history. This doesn't surprise me as Parsons has done so before. Anyone remember "Mammagamma?" That was produced entirely on computers, which may not seem like much today, but back in 1982, that was an accomplishment. "One Note Symphony" is a breakthrough in it's own right and does so in classic Parsons style.5. "Sometimes" - I'm not a fan of Lou Gramm or Foreigner for that matter, but he sounds okay here. "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose," sure, it's cliche' and maybe the lyrics could have been more creative, but it's not annoying. It's an enjoyable song and the first of many ballads on this album. I would have liked it had they rearranged the order of the songs so as to show more of a variety of ballads and rock songs. Maybe switch this with "As Lights Fall" to mix things up a bit and not be so ballad heavy in the second half. Parsons pointed out in an interview that he never actually met or worked with Gramm, since Gramm recorded the lyrics in one studio, while Parsons recorded the music in another and connected the two through the internet. Never would have known that as it sounds great. Ahh, the wonders of technology.6. "Soiree Fantastique" - Another ballad, sung by Todd Cooper with additional vocals by Parsons and Doug Powell on the chorus, with a classic Parsons touch to it. I enjoyed this one better than "Sometimes." This song is full of throwbacks to past songs. At one point Cooper says the line "Now you see me, now you don't" in reference to magic, but eagle - eared Parsons fans will remember that line from "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned." He follows this with "says the man I used to be," which is similar to a line John Miles sang on "The Shadow of a Lonely Man," from "Pyramid." There is also a guitar riff by Jeff Kollman around the 4 minute mark that sounds like Iain Bairnson's guitar solo at the end of "Silence and I." Finally, the song begins and ends with people talking and church bells chiming in the background, which springs to mind the beginning of "La Sagrada Familia" and "Paseo de Gracia" from "Gaudi."7. "Fly to Me" - (sigh) Another ballad. Mark Mikel sings this one and at this point, I'm tired of ballads. Again, not a bad song, just too many ballads in a row and I would have liked a few more rockers in between. Mikel sounds a bit like Graham Dye here, who sings probably my favorite (or one of them anyway) project recordings, "Light of the World." The song ends with that unresolved note that Parsons does so well.8. "Requiem" - Now we're picking up. This one sounds more like Supertramp because of it's Vaudeville - like sound (think "Breakfast in America" or "My Kind of Lady"). Sung by Todd Cooper, it's a bit of a departure for Parsons, especially the part where the music stops and the musicians start snapping - a bit of an eye - roller when you realize who you're listening to, but it's an enjoyable song and it's nice to see Parsons try something new for a change (plus, it's not a ballad).9. "Years of Glory" - Another ballad (are we tired of these yet?) sung by P.J. Olsson, the only returning member (other than Parsons of course). I have heard comments that Olsson sounds like Peter Gabriel here. I never thought about that before, but after listening to the song again, I can concur he does. I want to like this song, but, at this point, too many ballads in a row has gotten to me and I'm afraid I'm bored. It's not a bad song by any means, though I would have appreciated a more rock - like song before it. Thankfully, things are about to do a 180.10. "The Limelight Fades Away" - Finally, a real rocker that I can get into. Jordan Huffman sings lead here, while Dan Tracey and Todd Cooper accompany him on the chorus. It's an upbeat song that you can tap your feet to, but it sounds like Huffman or someone sings too high and "off" on the chorus, at least during the first round or two. Whoever it is, sounds like he is trying to outdo the other two. It would have worked better had Parsons tried to match the vocals better and layered them so they're more balanced. That being said, it doesn't ruin the song for me, which is very enjoyable and one of my favorites on this album.11. "I Can't Get There From Here" - another favorite, sung by Jared Mahone, whose voice sounds similar to Colin Blunstone (who sang "Old and Wise" among others). The song is used in the motion picture "5 - 25 - 77," which is the release date of the original "Star Wars," (and two days after I was born incidentally). The movie is about a group of twenty - somethings who take a road trip to the premiere of "Star Wars," and one of them tries to make his own home movie. Coincidentally, this is also the same date that Parsons released "I ROBOT," in 1977. Ian Bairnson shows up here, delivering a classic guitar riff at the end, similar to that of "Turn of a Friendly Card" part 2 and "Same Old Sun" (from "Vulture Culture"), which is so good it almost made me cry upon first listen because it reminded me how much I missed that classic sound.Well, there you go. I say, if you're a Parsons fan, get this album. It has a mix of the classic sound, and some knew stuff. Some of it will have to grow on you I think (the ballads in particular), so you may have to give it multiple listens to fully appreciate it, but I'm just glad we got another album by Parsons, who I feared was never going to produce knew music and tour instead. I'm glad I was proved wrong. Yes, it's a bit different, but change is good and I'm just glad Parsons is back.