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I Robot is the second studio album by British rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released on 8 July 1977 by Arista Records.
The album draws conceptually on author Isaac Asimov‘s science fiction Robot stories, exploring philosophical themes regarding artificial intelligence.
Alan Parsons delivered a detailed blueprint for his Project on their 1975 debut, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, but it was on its 1977 follow-up, I Robot, that the outfit reached its true potential.
Borrowing not just its title but concept from Isaac Asimov’s classic sci-fi Robot trilogy, this album explores many of the philosophies regarding artificial intelligence — will it overtake man, what does it mean to be man, what responsibilities do mechanical beings have to their creators, and so on and so forth — with enough knotty intelligence to make it a seminal text of late-’70s geeks, and while it is also true that appreciating I Robot does require a love of either sci-fi or art rock, it is also true that sci-fi art rock never came any better than this.
Compare it to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, released just a year after this and demonstrating some clear influence from Parsons: that flirts voraciously with camp, but this, for all of its pomp and circumstance, for all of its overblown arrangements, this is music that’s played deadly serious.
Even when the vocal choirs pile up at the end of “Breakdown” or when the Project delves into some tight, glossy white funk on “The Voice,” complete with punctuations from robotic voices and whining slide guitars, there isn’t much sense of fun, but there is a sense of mystery and a sense of drama that can be very absorbing if you’re prepared to give yourself over to it.
The most fascinating thing about the album is that the music is restless, shifting from mood to mood within the course of a song, but unlike some art pop there is attention paid to hooks — most notably, of course, on the hit “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” a tense, paranoid neo-disco rocker that was the APP’s breakthrough.
It’s also the closest thing to a concise pop song here — other tunes have plenty of hooks, but they change their tempo and feel quickly, which is what makes this an art rock album instead of a pop album.
And while that may not snare in listeners who love the hit (they should turn to Eye in the Sky instead, the Project’s one true pop album), that sense of melody when married to the artistic restlessness and geeky sensibility makes for a unique, compelling album and the one record that truly captures mind and spirit of the Alan Parsons Project.
Borrowing not just its title but concept from Isaac Asimov’s classic sci-fi Robot trilogy, this album explores many of the philosophies regarding artificial intelligence — will it overtake man, what does it mean to be man, what responsibilities do mechanical beings have to their creators, and so on and so forth — with enough knotty intelligence to make it a seminal text of late-’70s geeks, and while it is also true that appreciating I Robot does require a love of either sci-fi or art rock, it is also true that sci-fi art rock never came any better than this.
Compare it to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, released just a year after this and demonstrating some clear influence from Parsons: that flirts voraciously with camp, but this, for all of its pomp and circumstance, for all of its overblown arrangements, this is music that’s played deadly serious.
Even when the vocal choirs pile up at the end of “Breakdown” or when the Project delves into some tight, glossy white funk on “The Voice,” complete with punctuations from robotic voices and whining slide guitars, there isn’t much sense of fun, but there is a sense of mystery and a sense of drama that can be very absorbing if you’re prepared to give yourself over to it.
The most fascinating thing about the album is that the music is restless, shifting from mood to mood within the course of a song, but unlike some art pop there is attention paid to hooks — most notably, of course, on the hit “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” a tense, paranoid neo-disco rocker that was the APP’s breakthrough.
It’s also the closest thing to a concise pop song here — other tunes have plenty of hooks, but they change their tempo and feel quickly, which is what makes this an art rock album instead of a pop album.
And while that may not snare in listeners who love the hit (they should turn to Eye in the Sky instead, the Project’s one true pop album), that sense of melody when married to the artistic restlessness and geeky sensibility makes for a unique, compelling album and the one record that truly captures mind and spirit of the Alan Parsons Project.
The artwork was created by the English art design group Hipgnosis. The album cover photo features Storm Thorgerson's assistants in the escalator tubes of the circular Terminal 1 building of the Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. The picture was taken without the permission of the airport management.
Over this is superimposed a painting of a robot with a stylised atom for a brain. The robot also appears on the label of the record.
The original vinyl release has a gatefold-style cover; the inside spread has the lyrics and a monochrome photograph of Parsons. The pose and angle of the photograph echoes that of the robot on the front cover.
Three singles were released from the album: “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You“, “Don’t Let it Show” and “Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)”.
The LP track “Breakdown” went into heavy rotation on AOR stations and continues to be played on classic rock radio
Side one
1. I Robot (Lead Vocals: The English Chorale) - 6:06
2. I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You (Lead Vocals: Lenny Zakatek) - 3:19
3. Some Other Time (Lead Vocals: Peter Straker & Jaki Whitren) - 4:05
4. Breakdown (Lead Vocals: Allan Clarke) - 3:50
5. Don’t Let It Show (Lead Vocals: Dave Townsend) - 4:21
Side two
1. The Voice (Lead Vocals: Steve Harley) - 5:21
2. Nucleus (Instrumental) - 3:35
3. Day After Day (The Show Must Go On) (Lead Vocals) Jack Harris) - 3:43
4. Total Eclipse (Lead Vocals: The English Chorale) - 3:05
5. Genesis Ch.1.V.32 (Lead Vocals: The New Philharmonia Chorus) - 3:37
Companies, etc.
- Recorded At – Abbey Road Studios
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Arista Records
- Copyright © – Arista Records
- Published By – Woolfsongs Ltd.
- Printed By – Robert Stace
- Pressed By – Phonodisc Ltd.
Credits
- Arranged By [Orchestra & Choir] – Andrew Powell
- Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals [Additional] – David Paton
- Chorus Master [Choirmaster] – Bob Hughes
- Cimbalom, Kantele – John Leach
- Contractor – David Katz
- Design [Cover], Photography By – Hipgnosis
- Design [Robot] – George Hardy
- Drums, Percussion, Vocals [Additional] – Stuart Tosh
- Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals [Additional] – Ian Bairnson
- Engineer [Assistant] – Chris Blair, Pat Stapley
- Executive-Producer – Eric Woolfson
- Illustration – Richard Manning
- Keyboards – Duncan Mackay
- Keyboards, Synthesizer [Projectron], Vocoder – Eric Woolfson
- Lacquer Cut By – Blair's, Gastric Lavage
- Mastered By – Chris Blair
- Producer, Engineer, Acoustic Guitar, Keyboards, Synthesizer [Projectron], Vocoder, Vocals [Additional] – Alan Parsons
- Steel Guitar – B. J. Cole
- Vocals – Allan Clarke, Dave Townsend, Jack Harris, Jaki Whitren, Lenny Zakatek, Peter Straker, Steve Harley
- Vocals [Additional] – Hilary Western, John Perry, The New Philharmonia Chorus, Smokey Parsons, Stuart Calver, The English Chorale, Tony Rivers
Notes
Release: 1977
Format: LP, Vinyl
Genre: Progressive Rock
Label: Arista Records
Catalog# AL 7002
Vinyl: Goed (VG)
Cover: Goed (VG) Gatefold
Prijs: €20,00
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