I Robot | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 8 July 1977 [1] | |||
Recorded | December 1976 – March 1977 | |||
Studio | Abbey Road, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 41:05 | |||
Label | Arista | |||
Producer | Alan Parsons | |||
The Alan Parsons Project chronology | ||||
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Singles from I Robot | ||||
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I Robot is the second studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released on 8 July 1977 by Arista Records. The album draws conceptually on author Isaac Asimov's science fiction Robot stories, exploring philosophical themes regarding artificial intelligence. [3]
The album was intended to be based on the I, Robot stories written by Asimov, and Eric Woolfson spoke with Asimov himself, who was enthusiastic about the idea. As the rights already had been granted to a TV/movie company, the album's title was altered slightly by removing the comma in "I," and the theme and lyrics were made to be more generically about robots rather than to be specific to the Asimov universe. [6] The cover inlay reads: "I Robot... The story of the rise of the machine and the decline of man, which paradoxically coincided with his discovery of the wheel... and a warning that his brief dominance of this planet will probably end, because man tried to create robot in his own image." The title of the final track, "Genesis Ch.1 v.32", follows this theme by implying a continuation to the story of Creation, since the first chapter of Genesis only has 31 verses. [7]
According to the band's website, Paul McCartney unintentionally helped to inspire the song "Some Other Time". When Parsons had asked if McCartney could read a line of poetry for the band's first album in exchange for a favor Parsons had previously done him, McCartney replied by saying; "Some other time Alan, some other time". This gave the band an idea for a song title. [8]
By pure coincidence, the album was released shortly after Star Wars came out in the United States. The group acknowledges that part of the album's success came from it being the only album with a robot on the cover during a time when robots were suddenly "all the rage". [8]
The artwork was created by the English art design group Hipgnosis. The album cover photo features Storm Thorgerson's assistants in the escalator tubes of the circular Terminal 1 building of the Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. [9] The picture was taken without the permission of the airport management. [10] Over this is superimposed a painting of a robot with a stylised atom for a brain. The robot also appears on the label of the record. The original vinyl release has a gatefold-style cover; the inside spread has the lyrics and a monochrome photograph of Parsons. The pose and angle of the photograph echoes that of the robot on the front cover.
Three singles were released from the album: "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", "Don't Let it Show" and "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)". The LP track "Breakdown" went into heavy rotation on AOR stations and continues to be played on classic rock radio.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Christgau's Record Guide | C [11] |
The New York Times praised the "really ingenious use of the possibilities of the modern recording studio," but concluded that "the overall esthetic is still a flatulent one, self-importantly preening itself as art." [12]
I Robot has been reissued multiple times in various formats since its initial release on vinyl, including numerous audiophile releases. Besides the 8-track, vinyl and compact-cassette releases, Arista also released the original aluminum CD along with the rest of the Project albums, up to that time. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) released the album on standard vinyl (MFSL 1-084), UHQR vinyl (MFQR 1-084), Ultradisk One-Step vinyl (UD1S 1-041), and on aluminium CD (MFCD-1-804). Classic Records has released the album in analogue form on 180-gram vinyl, as well as digitally on HDAD (24 bit/192 kHz DVD-Audio and 24 bit/96 kHz DVD-Video). JVC released the album as a K2 edition, with Ammonia Avenue and Eye in the Sky . In 2007, as part of a larger campaign, Sony released a remastered version along with bonus tracks on CD. It was later released in Japan as an SHM-CD, with the same mastering.
The album was re-released under Legacy Recordings as a "legacy edition" in 2013 on CD, with an extra disc with unreleased bonus tracks, mastered by Dave Donelly. There was also a vinyl edition with the same mastering launched one month later.
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, except where noted.
No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
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1. | "I Robot" | The English Chorale | 6:02 |
2. | "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" | Lenny Zakatek | 3:22 |
3. | "Some Other Time" | Peter Straker & Jaki Whitren | 4:06 |
4. | "Breakdown" | Allan Clarke | 3:50 |
5. | "Don't Let It Show" | Dave Townsend | 4:24 |
Total length: | 21:44 |
No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Voice" | Steve Harley | 5:24 |
2. | "Nucleus" | Instrumental | 3:31 |
3. | "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)" | Jack Harris | 3:49 |
4. | "Total Eclipse" (Andrew Powell) | The English Chorale | 3:09 |
5. | "Genesis Ch. 1 V. 32" | The New Philharmonia Chorus | 3:28 |
Total length: | 19:21 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [31] | Gold | 20,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [32] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
Germany (BVMI) [33] | Gold | 400,000 [34] |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [35] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [36] | Silver | 60,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [37] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared writing credits on almost all of their songs, with Parsons producing or co-producing all of the recordings, while being accompanied by various session musicians, some relatively consistent.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Charisma Records and 20th Century Records in the rest of the world. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name.
Ammonia Avenue is the seventh studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in February 1984 by Arista Records. The Phil Spector-influenced "Don't Answer Me" was the album's lead single, and reached the Top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, as well as the fourth position on the Adult Contemporary chart. The single also reached the Top 20 in several countries and represents the last big hit for the Alan Parsons Project. "Prime Time" was a follow-up release that fared well in the Top 40, reaching No. 34. "You Don't Believe" was the first single in November 1983, reaching #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Since the Last Goodbye" was a minor hit.
Eric Norman Woolfson was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of the band the Alan Parsons Project, who sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Woolfson also pursued a career in musical theatre.
Eye in the Sky is the sixth studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in May 1982 by Arista Records. At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards in 1983, Eye in the Sky was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album. In 2019, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Pyramid is the third album by progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in May 1978. It is a concept album centred on the pyramids of Giza. At the time the album was conceived, interest in pyramid power and Tutankhamun was widespread in the US and the UK. Pyramid was nominated for the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
Eve is the fourth studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in September 1979 by Arista Records. The album's focus is on the strength and characteristics of women, and the problems they face in the world of men. It had originally been intended to focus on "great women in history", but evolved into a wider concept. The album name was the same as Eric Woolfson's mother-in-law.
The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tracks. The Turn of a Friendly Card spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. An edited version of the title piece combining the opening and ending parts of the suite was also released as a single along with an official video.
Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985.
Vulture Culture is the eighth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985 via the Arista label.
Gaudi is the tenth album by The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1987. Gaudi refers to Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan Spanish architect, and the opening track references what is probably Gaudí's best known building, the Sagrada Família.
Alan Parsons is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer.
Freudiana is a rock opera by Eric Woolfson. It was to be the 11th album by the Alan Parsons Project, but during its development, Woolfson had creative differences with Alan Parsons. The production, released in 1990, utilizes the Project's personnel as well as many guest vocalists.
The following is the complete discography of the Alan Parsons Project. Over the years they have released 12 studio albums, 14 compilation albums, and 38 singles.
The Best of the Alan Parsons Project is a 1983 greatest hits compilation by the Alan Parsons Project. In addition, it contained a new song "You Don't Believe", which would be included on the next Project album, Ammonia Avenue. In 1986, it had become the first album of the group to be released in the Soviet Union, although the song "Psychobabble" was removed from it. No songs from Tales of Mystery and Imagination were included, presumably because that album had not been released through Arista.
The Essential Alan Parsons Project is a compilation album released by English progressive rock musician Alan Parsons and the Alan Parsons Project on 6 February 2007. It was released through Sony BMG as part of The Essential album series. The album featured some of the band's best known songs as well as some rare tracks.
Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an album by Eric Woolfson. It contains some, but not all, of the songs from his musical Edgar Allan Poe.
"I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" is a song by the British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, featured on their 1977 album I Robot. Written by band leaders Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" was sung by pop singer Lenny Zakatek, who would go on to sing many of the band's songs. In the United States, the song was a moderate success and charted at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Don't Answer Me" is a 1984 song by the Alan Parsons Project from the album Ammonia Avenue. It reached number 15 on the Billboard charts in the United States and was the final Billboard Top 20 hit for the group. It also reached number 58 in the United Kingdom, the group's highest chart placing in their native country. The music video was rendered in comic book style, with art and animation by Michael Kaluta.
The Sicilian Defence is the eleventh and final studio album by The Alan Parsons Project, released in 2014. It was named after the Sicilian Defence, a famous chess opening. Having been released 24 years after the split of the band, it has so far only been available as part of the eleven-CD box set The Complete Albums Collection. In December 2023, it was made available for download purchase and on streaming sites.
Songs such as the title track, "If You Think You Know How to Love Me," "We Live for Love," "Heartbreaker," "So Sincere," a remake of Alan Parsons' "Don't Let It Show" ...
"Don't Let It Show" is an Alan Parsons song and this tune perhaps ...