Keats-Keats (1984)

Keats was a side project of The Alan Parsons Project, which released an album in 1984 that went somewhat unnoticed for various reasons. Let's set the scene: in 1984, something quite unusual happened within The Alan Parsons Project. While they were recording the album "Ammonia Avenue", some of the musicians involved in that recording formed a side project and, practically at the same time, recorded two albums at Abbey Road Studios in London. One was the aforementioned "Ammonia Avenue", the seventh album by The Alan Parsons Project, and the other was the first and ultimately only album by Keats, the band these musicians had formed. These musicians were Ian Bairnson, Colin Blunstone, David Patton, and Stuart Elliott, who, along with contributions from Pete Bardens and Richard Cottle, recorded an album that Alan Parsons himself produced and which received invaluable assistance from Eric Woolfson. In other words, the entire Alan Parsons Project participated, but under the name Keats. However, the original idea to create a separate or parallel band, as we might call it, came from Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, who wanted to give more prominence and greater recognition to the members who regularly recorded with the Alan Parsons Project. Even the name Keats was Woolfson's idea, taken from the English poet John Keats. The final result of this album, as is obvious, is synonymous with The Alan Parsons Project, with a series of tracks that could easily belong on any of his albums. It's an album with a typical 80s sound, imbued with the timelessness that Alan Parsons brings to his creations, and boasts enormous and exquisite quality. Tracks like "Heaven Knows", with the introduction by saxophonist Richard Cottle and Blunstone's melodic voice, transport us to magical moments like "I Robot" or "Pyramid". A similar effect occurs in tracks like "Tragedy" or "How Can You Walk Away". while AOR sounds in a more melodic Toto vein are present in "Walking On Ice" or "Turn Your Heart Around". In contrast, "Night Full Of Voices" is a superb mid-tempo track very close to "Eye Of The Sky", and in "Hollywood Heart", Blunstone's voice and the instrumental melody remind us of tracks like "Old and Wise".