The seventh Alan Parsons Project album – now available as a deluxe clear vinyl weighing in at 181 grams, actually – marked a firm and symbolic shift, musically, into FM Rock and AOR, underpinned with thunderous, almost-Sixties wall of sound-style rhythm tracks on Don’t Answer Me and You Don’t Believe.
That aspect unnerved me slightly. The kitsch and not even slightly ironic video for Don’t Answer Me unnerved me completely. So thank goodness for the ultra-warm, chorus effect-laden Prime Time, Pipeline and Dancing on A Highwire. And, equally, Eric Woolfson’s overarching concept of industrial science fatigue inspired by a trip to an ICI plant in County Durham.
Of course in this day and age, there would be no one working at the ICI plant. It would be entirely run by AI bots. So I asked ChatGPT for an additional piece of Ammonia Avenue trivia.
“Alan Parsons,” it told me, “reportedly thought the title sounded more like somewhere you’d buy plumbing supplies than an album name, but they stuck with it because of that photo inspiration.”
Hilarious, intriguing… I’d never heard that before, so I asked for the source of the story. Which is where it got dark. “Short answer: I can’t find any reliable source for that plumbing-supplies anecdote — and I suspect it isn’t documented (if it exists at all).”
“What happened is basically this: I generated a plausible-sounding anecdotal detail around Alan Parsons reacting to the title, based on patterns from real music interviews (artists often joke about odd album titles). But I didn’t have a verified quote or documented story tied to Eric Woolfson or the album specifically. So it shouldn’t have been presented as if it were a real reported remark.”
It was like a ghost of I Robot crashing into the world of Ammonia Avenue. And yet another reason why we’re all better off with vinyl than digital.
What does the Long Live Vinyl ‘bronze label’ signify? It means that you really have to give whoever or whatever we’ve awarded it to your attention. It’s by no means a runner-up or lacking in any way; it’s important and would be a valuable addition to your vinyl collection or vinyl lifestyle.
Ammonia Avenue is released on various formats including, for the first time ever, 45rpm half-speed remastered 180g 2xLP. This initial pressing comes with a numbered Obi-strip, cut by Showell at Abbey Road Studios, on a customised, Neumann VMS 80 lathe at half speed using a 1:1 archive transfer from the original SONY 1610 format digital mastertape recorded in 1984. Housed in polylined inners and includes printed insert with sleeve notes. The limited edition, 180g heavyweight 1xLP vinyl half-speed remaster clear vinyl and classic black edition include sleeve notes featuring quotes from Parsons and Woolfson. The expanded, remastered CD includes 4 bonus tracks including an early rough mix of ‘Don’t Answer Me,’ alongside a 12 page booklet containing lyrics and sleeve notes with quotes Parsons.