[Turn Me to Stone] -- It's the penultimate Flashback of 2025, we're deep in the holiday season, so you would be excused if you thought we'd feature a Christmas album. You'd also be wrong.
40 years ago today, the Alan Parsons Project released their ninth studio album, Stereotomy. It marked a change in sound, which had been evolving through the 1980s. And structure for this album was also new ground for primary members Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson – Stereotomy contains three tracks exceeding six minutes in length, one of which is an instrumental, and two songs under two minutes at the end of the record. This album was also the band's first effort at a full digital production with no analog tapes.
Stereotomy received fairly negative reviews, with the topper being the ever snarky J. D. Considine calling the album "Unnecessary surgery" [Rock Short Takes, Musician April 1986, p.92]. But it still reached #43 on the Billboard 200, and within the top 50 of several global album charts. The title track was the lone single, released in early 1986, and it peaked at #82 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was also the band's last appearance on that particular chart.
Stereotomy may lack the genius of previous Alan Parsons outings but it is an enjoyable, if unsurprising, listen. And it does have a few glimpses of what made the band special, particularly the instrumentals: "Where's the Walrus?" and "Urbania".
Flashback: Stereotomy (December 19, 1985)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
See you in seven!
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