Stereotomy
 | This article possibly contains original research. (May 2009) |
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Stereotomy is the penultimate album by The Alan Parsons Project.
Although generally considered better musically than its predecessor, Vulture Culture, it was not as successful commercially, perhaps due to much fewer vocals from Eric Woolfson (he only appears on a small section of the title track). The album is structured differently from earlier Project albums, containing three lengthy tracks (one the longest instrumental the Project ever made) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and the CD release was encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format.
The original vinyl packaging of the album was different from all the reissues: it featured somewhat more elaborate artwork of the paper sleeve supplied with a special color-filter oversleeve. When inserted, the oversleeve filtered some of the colors of the sleeve artwork, allowing four different variations (2 per side) of it. That was supposed to symbolize visual stereotomy. In the reissues, only one variant remained.
The word "stereotomy" is taken from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. It refers to the cutting of existing solid shapes into different forms; it is used as a metaphor for the way that famous people (singers, actors. etc.) are often 'shaped' by the demands of fame.
Despite its commercial underachievement, Stereotomy earned a grammy nomination in 1987 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance - Orchestra, Group, or Soloist for the track "Where's the Walrus?"
Track listing
All tracks written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson
- "Stereotomy" (lead vocal John Miles backing vocal Eric Woolfson) – 7:18
- "Beaujolais" (lead vocal Chris Rainbow) – 4:27
- "Urbania" (instrumental) – 4:59
- "Limelight" (lead vocal Gary Brooker) – 4:39
- "In The Real World" (lead vocal John Miles) – 4:20
- "Where's The Walrus?" (instrumental) – 7:31
- "Light Of The World" (lead vocal Graham Dye, backing vocal Steven Dye) – 6:19
- "Chinese Whispers" (instrumental) – 1:01
- "Stereotomy Two" (lead vocal John Miles) – 1:21
Stereotomy was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
- "Light Of The World" (backing track)
- "Rumour Goin' Round" (demo)
- "Stereotomy" (Eric Woolfson guide vocal)
- "Stereotomy" (backing rough mix)
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Billboard 200 | 43 |
| 1986 | Canada | 32 |
Inspirations
The track "Chinese Whispers" is based on the game of Chinese whispers. It has some snippets of dialogue, but they are in English (not Chinese, as the song title implies) and heavily overlaid on top of each other. The words are taken from Edgar Allan Poe's work Murders in the Rue Morgue:
"...The larger links of the chain run thus -- Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichol, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer."
The titles of "Urbania" and "Where's the Walrus?" can be attributed to Lee Abrams, a (then) radio programmer for WLUP Radio (Chicago, IL) and friend of Parsons and Woolfson. Eric Woolfson remembers:
"He was really quite inspirational in this album [Stereotomy] in telling us what we'd been doing wrong, in his view, on the previous albums... `Urbania’ was one of the words he came out with during the course of a long conversation. Another title he's responsible for... is `Where's the Walrus,’ the other instrumental, 'cause he was really giving us a hard time, I must tell you: 'Your guitar sounds are too soft, and your whole approach is, you know, slack, and your lyrics—there’s no great lyrics anymore! I mean, where's the walrus? I don't hear the walrus!' Referring, of course, to John Lennon's `I am the Walrus’..."
Abrams is frequently credited on Project recordings as "Mr. Laser Beam" ("laser beam" being an anagram of Lee Abrams).
- The song Limelight was used by NBC Sports at the close of the 1986 World Series.