Gaudi
	Produced by Alan Parsons
	Released on January 1987
	US CHART POSITION #57
	Find it at GEMM
AC-8448 cover

T he last album credited to The Alan Parsons Project, Gaudi is a concept album “inspired by the life and works of architect Antonio Gaudi.” As with most Parsons’ projects, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the concept. Inspiration takes many forms, and drawing a line from that to “based on” the life of Gaudi would be a mistake, as only the opening “La Sagrada Familia” and (presumably) the instrumental “Paseo de Gracia” deal directly with Gaudi’s architectural works. The remaining tracks may simply be Eric Woolfson’s personal reflections in the wake of having seen La Sagrada Familia and some other Gaudi works on a visit to Spain. Like all Parsons projects, the record contains immaculate pop songs (“Standing On Higher Ground,” “Closer To Heaven”) and rock/disco with a slight edge (“Money Talks,” “Too Late”). It also contains Woolfson’s first genuine foray into musicals with the opening “La Sagrada Familia” and instrumental reprise “Paseo de Gracia.” It’s here that Gaudi makes its deepest impression. “La Sagrada Familia” is classical pop in the best sense of the world, as good an overture as you’d hear from Andrew Lloyd Webber (with whom Woolfson worked in the early days). That Woolfson had grand designs for Gaudi became more clear when he turned it into a musical in the mid ‘90s. And so in Gaudi we have an ending and a new beginning. Honestly, The Alan Parsons Project had run its course after Ammonia Avenue. They continued to release quality records, of which this is one, but the cooling of commercial interest likely made it easier for Eric Woolfson to explore noncommercial projects like Freudiana.

TRACK LISTING

1. LA SAGRADA FAMILIA
2. TOO LATE
3. CLOSER TO HEAVEN
4. STANDING ON HIGHER GROUND
5. MONEY TALKS
6. INSIDE LOOKING OUT
7. PASEO DE GRACIA (INSTRUMENTAL)
   
   All tracks written by Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons

CREDITS

IAN BAIRNSON -- guitars
LAURIE COTTLE -- bass
RICHARD "TRIX" COTTLE -- synthesizers and saxophones
STUART ELLIOTT -- drums and percussion
CHRIS RAINBOW -- vocals
ERIC WOOLFSON -- pianos and keyboards, executive producer
Geoff Barradale -- lead vocals (4)
David Cripp -- horn leader
The English Chorale --
John Heley -- cello
Bob Howes -- timps, conductor
John Miles -- leads vocals (1,5)
Andrew Powell -- orchestral arrangements
Lenny Zakatek -- lead vocals (2)
Alan Parsons -- engineer
Tony Richards -- engineer
FISA and Ediciones Poligrafa, S.A. -- photographs
Maude Gilman -- art direction & design

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