The Alan Parsons Project discography holds eleven studio albums: ten released between 1976 and 1987, plus one recorded in 1979 and only issued in 2014. The Project was a British duo formed in London in 1975 by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, who had met in the canteen at Abbey Road Studios the year before. This guide goes through every Alan Parsons Project album in order, with a few pointers on where to begin.

How the Project worked

Parsons handled production and engineering; Woolfson wrote with him and, on later records, sang lead on some of the best-known songs. The two shared writing credits on almost all of their material. Rather than a fixed band, the Project used session players and a rotating cast of guest singers, with members of Pilot often forming the studio band and Andrew Powell arranging the orchestral parts on most albums.

The 1970s albums (1976–1979)

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976) drew on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. It was followed by I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978) and Eve (1979).

I tell the British side of this story in my book Beyond the Thames →

The 1980s albums (1980–1987)

Then came The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1985) and Gaudi (1987). Gaudi was the final release: the next planned project, Freudiana, became a stage musical developed by Woolfson, while Parsons went on with a solo career.

The lost album (2014)

The Sicilian Defence was recorded in 1979, during contract talks with Arista, and the label declined to release it. It has been described as a contractual-obligation record, made almost as a throwaway. It finally appeared in 2014 as a bonus disc in the box set The Complete Albums Collection.

Where to start

Start at the beginning with Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976), then jump to The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980) and Eye in the Sky (1982) to hear how the Project’s songwriting developed. If you are curious about where songs like these sit between prog and the charts, my guides to progressive pop and crossover prog explain the labels.

Go deeper

The Alan Parsons Project band page has a guide to each of the ten albums released at the time. If you are new to the genre, start with my progressive rock for beginners guide.

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