(Review from wikipedia, progarchives.com)

During the summer of 1974, Alan Parsons met Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios. Parsons had recently engineered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and had already produced a number of acts. During that time, Woolfson had been working as a session pianist, but he was also a songwriter and had already composed material for a concept album idea based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Parsons asked Woolfson to become his manager and Woolfson managed Parsons’s career as a producer/engineer through a string of successes including Pilot, Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel, John Miles, Al Stewart, Ambrosia and The Hollies. Parsons commented at the time that he felt frustrated in having to accommodate the views of some of the artists which he felt interfered with his production.

Recalling his earlier Edgar Allan Poe material, Woolfson saw a way to combine his and Parsons’ respective talents — Parsons would produce and engineer songs written by the two. Although the true core of the Project have always been the duo of Parsons and Woolfson, only Parsons’ name was chosen for the band because of his “fame” as the top engineer at Abbey Road. Thus Alan Parsons Project was born.

As the album name implies this is a concept album about a writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) whom at end of his life, exactly on October 3, 1849, in mysterious circumstances he is discovered unconscious and is taken to hospital and he dies four days later. The album kicks off with a narration by Orson Welles that remarks the first track “A Dream within a Dream” (4:13) with some orchestration. The music enters with bass lines and drum work in repetitive notes followed with nice keyboard work and guitar. The music moves in crescendo with drum sound and it slowly fades out maintaining only the bass guitar to keep the beat. “The Raven” (3:57) enters beautifully with EMI vocoder voice line combined with orchestra and real Parsons’ voice. It’s a good track combining clean vocal, stunning guitar solo and orchestra.

“The Tell-tale Heart” (4:38) is a rockier track performed in an operatic singing style accompanied with a melodic arrangements of guitar, keyboard, bass guitar and drumming. At the background, the orchestra enriches the music textures especially during quiet passages. “The Cask of Amontillado” (4:33) is a song-oriented music with powerful melody that is really tasty to most ears, performed with excellent vocal and orchestration. This is my favorite APP track because I love the melody very much. The orchestration part is really good and I urge you to play it outloud with your stereo set. “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” (4:20) brings the music into uplifting emotion with a combination of electric guitar solo, soaring keyboard sound and voice line.

The album features an instrumental epic “The Fall of the House of Usher” that comprises five parts: Prelude (7:02), Arrival (2:39) , Intermezzo (1:00), Pavane (4:36), and Fall (0:51). The epic is exploratory in nature and it contains excellent orchestration work. It finally concludes with a ballad “To One in Paradise” (4:46) using acoustic guitar and backing vocals as main rhythm section.

The album set the Alan Parsons Project on their way, and gave them instant success. After the success of their first album, “Tales of Mystery and Imagination”, Arista Records signed them for further albums.

Line-up:
- Eric Woolfson / keyboards, organ, backing vocals
- Alan Parsons / projectron & synths, recorders, backing vocals
with
- David Paton / bass, guitars, backing vocals
- Ian Bairnson / guitars
- Andrew Powell / orchestral arrangements and conduction, organ
- Francis Monkman / harpsichord, organ
- John Leach / cimbalom & kantele
- Hugo D’Alton / mandolin
- Billy Lyall / keyboards, recorders
- Christopher North / keyboards
- Stuart Tosh / percussion
- Burleigh Drummond / percussion
- David Pack / guitars
- John Miles / guitars
- Joe Puerta / bass
- Les Hurdle / bass
- Darryl Runswick / string bass
- Laurence Juber / acoustic guitars
- Kevin Peek / acoustic guitars
- Orson Welles, Leonard Whiting / narration
- Jack Harris / backing vocals
- Terry Sylvester / backing vocals
- Jane Powell / backing vocals
- Bob Howes and The English Chorale / backing choir
- Westminster City School Boys Choir / backing choir

Track List:
01. A Dream within a Dream (4:13)
02. The Raven (3:57)
03. The Tell-tale Heart (4:38)
04. The Cask of Amontillado (4:33)
05. (The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (4:20)
06. The fall of the House of Usher
- Prelude (7:02)
- Arrival (2:39)
- Intermezzo (1:00)
- Pavane (4:36)
- Fall (0:51)
07. To One in Paradise (4:46)

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