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 don’t often do reviews of much content, most have already said what needed to be said and said it well, but I was very motivated and excited to want to share my views and impressions on what I found, also hoping to help others not miss out on this opportunity.I really felt with one song, that I was listening to the main soundtrack of an intense and well done SciFi movie (Tron 3?), I could feel a movie was playing, sort of jonesing there was one, it deserves it! Same with another where I felt a popular Broadway play by some of the greats (not the music, just the level of presentation it had, very moving!!). Different vocalists, all perfectly matched to the songs and the words and the musical accompaniment, elegant and perfectly honed as AP has always done.I have not been this excited (after spin 4) about a new album from our times (we know who we are ;-), and was anxious to test it out more, and hear it on different systems, large listening area of my living room makes good use of the big sound with all the instruments in play, can’t stop cranking it! Driver’s seat in my vehicle with high-end aftermarket gear and a truly awesome front row seat and goosebumps with each movement of the music, I was even trying different listening levels to reveal more and was always throughout every listen, a big smile stuck on my face!No skimping on the booklet included, 16 page sides, big name players and many involved in doing these song, no wonder there is so much to each song, but to make it all work; that’s the secret of a talented artist.Not at all easy to make a part 2 or part 3 movie, or music album, harder still when the 1st ones were listened to over and over and part of your history growing up and you expect them to be the same right away. You got used to listening to them often, which you really have to do when such a song is so much more than a quickie pop tune as often the radio does, but not these, layered and complex like a orchestral performance, you need time/at least 3 spins to have it unfold in your mind, then the turbo kicks on and blows you away!Sound quality for sure a 10, never less with this guy. And if you have subs, there are a few that make good use of them.Mix of songs as well a 10, intimate to roaring, solo to orchestral, blends of each, all there with the AP signature sound at his best.Songs and words excellent with a great diversity of emotions portrayed in each, another 10.No copying of what’s been popular of late with sounds and studio tweaks, all original and pure AP.Once again hold off on your first impressions, its not junk food yummy, no fast burning pop tune here, this is a full 8 course gourmet meal, take time to let all the flavors sink in. Cheers and I hope others are as moved.