The Alan Parsons Project-Ammonia Avenue (1984)

Two years after the success of "Eye in the Sky", The Alan Parsons Project returned to recording with "Ammonia Avenue", a work initially conceived as a double concept album. With two distinct parts, the first would explore loneliness and the lack of communication in contemporary society, while the second would focus on the problems of a competitive, capitalist society in today's world. Ultimately, however, two separate albums were recorded: "Ammonia Avenue", released in 1984, and "Vulture Culture", released the following year. For "Ammonia Avenue", Alan Parsons continued as keyboardist, arranger, and composer, while Eric Woolfson sang on most of the tracks and co-wrote all the songs with Parsons. As was typical for Alan Parsons, he enlisted a stellar lineup of collaborators for the recording, including Mel Collins, Ian Bairnson, Colin Blunstone, David Paton, Andrew Powell, Stuart Elliott, Chris Rainbow, and Lenny Zakatek. The album comprises nine songs, which, while not reaching the heights of his previous work, constitute one of his most successful albums. On the progressive side, the album features the grandiose and intense title track. The rest of the songs navigate between pop-rock and art rock, such as the firm melody of "Prime Time", the powerful "Let Me Go Home", the sinuous "One Good Reason", the romantic "Since The Last Goodbye", the monumental "Don't Answer Me", and the instrumental "Pipeline". Not forgetting the magnificent "You Don't Believe", these tracks provide ample evidence to classify this work as one of the best contributions of this project in the 1980s.