Alan Parsons' 3rd effort is a strange little album really. The critics panned it on release, and even today, not too many folks are singing its praises. I've even read that some listeners rank it below Eve, which is crazy in my estimation. Mostly it's an introspective melancholic work. I'm always left with a taste of sadness. The primary exception, and the album's best track IMO, is 'In the Lap of the Gods'. A fantastic instrumental, the piece is driven by choppy piano, and features some excellent rockin' orchestra and choir - more or less the ingredients of any great Parsons track. 'Hyper-Gamma-Spaces' predicts the rise of the more upbeat electronics in APP's sound, which would flower on Eye in the Sky. 'Pyramania' is a bit silly, but otherwise, I enjoy all the tracks on Pyramid. Even though these days I may hear the album once a decade, I still have it pretty much memorized, having absorbed it so much in my youth.
Ownership: LP: 1980 Arista (Germany). Gatefold. I somehow managed to get to 2021 without realizing that Pyramid was ever released as a gatefold. Here in America, it was released as a single sleeve and that's the only way I've ever seen it! I've been on the lookout for a clean LP copy anyway, and when one of our local b&m's had this one for $5, I nailed it. I've owned this album in one form or another since 1978, when it first came out. By that time I was already very familiar with APP's first 2 albums, having listened to their albums constantly. That worn out LP was replaced by the commodity CD which is being released.
4/13/21; 4/29/22 (new entry)
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