The Alan Parsons Project / Vinyl and CD reissues

Formats galore, but are they offering anything new?

A few of The Alan Parsons Project’s early ’80s albums will be reissued in March. The Turn Of A Friendly Card (1980), Eye In The Sky (1982) and Ammonia Avenue (1984) will each be available on the following formats:

• 2LP ‘CV 45 Audiophile Edition’ – Half-speed mastered at 45RPM
• LP – Half-speed mastered available as either black/coloured 180g vinyl
• CD – Expanded and remastered with four bonus tracks

The 2LP sets were done at Abbey Road by Miles Showell and use hi-res transfers taken from the original tapes. They’re pressed at Optimal with 180g black vinyl housed in poly-lined inners with numbered obi-strip

Additionally, the official APP shop offers each of the albums as limited-edition, single LP coloured vinyl half-speed mastered editions. Also, the first 500 orders of any vinyl edition ships with a numbered art print of the corresponding album.

The early ’80s adventures of The Alan Parsons Project saw more symphonic pop-prog studio wizardry from Parsons and Eric Woolfson with a trio of their most cohesive – and most commercially successful – albums. As you’d expect, this means that reissues have been frequent over the years.

The Turn Of A Friendly Card has been well served of late, first with Sony’s 2015 box set and then with Esoteric’s 2020 deluxe edition (including the album and a plethora of bonus tracks on CD and a Blu-ray audio disc), but this will be the album’s first standalone release on wax since Music On Vinyl’s 2011 pressing. That Esoteric set was the gold standard in terms of bonus tracks, with Woolson’s songwriting diaries, demos, rough mixes and backing tracks that make the four previously released tracks on the new CD feel downright stingy.

Recent editions of the multi-million selling Eye In The Sky include 2017’s super deluxe, a lavish (and sought-after today) 35th anniversary set including 3CDs, Blu-ray audio, 2LP and a 7” flexi-disc. Meanwhile, five years later the album was given a 2LP 45RPM Mobile-Fidelity Sound Lab pressing. Again, the bonus tracks on the new CD set are old news to APP fans.

Ammonia Avenue was also given the deluxe, multi-format treatment by Esoteric in 2020, but – as with The Turn Of A Friendly Card – this will be its first standalone vinyl pressing since Music On Vinyl released a single LP edition back in the early 2010s.

The Turn Of A Friendly Card, Eye In The Sky and Ammonia Avenue are out 27 March via Cooking Vinyl

APP Shop Highlights

• 6LP CV 45 Audiophile 3-album bundle (£125)
• 3LP half-speed 3-album bundle (£85)
• The Turn of a Friendly Card CV 24 Audiophile 2LP (£45)
• Eye in the Sky CV 24 Audiophile 2LP (£45)
• Amonia Ave CV 24 Audiophile 2LP (£45)
• The Turn of a Friendly Card – half-speed blue vinyl (£31)
• Eye in the Sky – half-speed coke bottle green vinyl (£32)
• Ammonia Ave – half-speed red vinyl (£31)

Tracklisting

The Turn of a Friendly Card The Alan Parsons Project / Vinyl reissue

• CV 45 Audiophile 2LP
  • LP 1

    Side 1

    1. May Be A Price To Pay
    2. Games People Play

    Side 2

    1. Time
    2. I Don’t Wanna Go Home
    3. The Gold Bug
  • LP 2

    Side 3

    1. The Turn Of A Friendly Card (i) The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Pt 1), (ii) Snake Eyes

    Side 4

    1. The Turn Of A Friendly Card
       (iii) The Ace Of Swords, (iv) Nothing Left To Lose, (v) The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Pt 2)

Tracklisting

Eye in the Sky The Alan Parsons Project / Vinyl reissue

• CV 45 Audiophile 2LP
  • LP 1

    Side 1

    1. Sirius’ (Instrumental)
    2. Eye In The Sky’
    3. Children Of The Moon

    Side 2

    1. Gemini
    2. Silence And I
  • LP 2

    Side 3

    1. You’re Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned
    2. Psychobabble

    Side 4

    1. Mammagamma (Instrumental)
    2. Step By Step
    3. Old & Wise

Tracklisting

Ammonia Ave The Alan Parsons Project / Vinyl reissue

• CV 45 Audiophile 2LP
  • LP 1

    Side 1

    1. Prime Time
    2. Let Me Go Home
    3. One Good Reason

    Side 2

    1. Since The Last Goodbye
    2. Don’t Answer Me
  • LP 2

    Side 3

    1. Dancing On A Highwire
    2. You Don’t Believe

    Side 4

    1. Pipeline
    2. Ammonia Avenue