The original version of the album was available for several years on vinyl and cassette, but was not immediately available on CD (the CD technology not being commercially available until 1982). The identity of The Alan Parsons Project as a group was cemented on the second album, I Robot, in 1977. Originally simply called The Alan Parsons Project, the album was successful enough to achieve gold status. Reception Professional ratingsĬritical reaction to the album was mixed for example, Rolling Stone's Billy Altman concluded that it did not completely accurately reproduce Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by claiming that 'devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poe's often terrifying works'. The sleeve is one of our better attempts at combining photographs and illustration. The layout and drawings are by Colin Elgie. The illustrated capital letters continue the idea. The booklet (attached to the inside of the cover) is composed of photos related to the songs, and line drawings which explore the taped man as he thrashes about in his restricted world and strives to unravel himself. The narrow strip of illustration from George shows a long shadow of the taped man. Although the clients were intrigued by this idea they did not desire a pictorial cover but preferred instead a precise graphic representation. This motif is partially horror-like, as well as being 'entombed', and the 2' tape appropriately suggests that the album is done by a producer in a studio, as opposed to a band recording material they will play on stage. We came up with the 'taped' man - a mummy-like figure who is wrapped, not in bandages, but in 2' recording tape. Many of his characters have been incarcerated in some form or other - in coffins, brick walls or under floorboards. He described the recurring image of the 'taped' man: Storm Thorgerson said that Eric Woolfson and Parsons wanted a 'classy' design, including a book of lyrics, lengthy credits, and a chronology of Poe's life.

'The Fall of the House of Usher' is an instrumental suite which runs 16 minutes plus and takes up most of Side 2 of the recording. The Prelude section of 'The Fall of the House of Usher', although uncredited, is inspired by the opera fragment ' La chute de la maison Usher' by Claude Debussy which was composed between 19. According to the album's liner notes, 'The Raven' was the first rock song to feature a digital vocoder. ' The Raven' features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder.

Alan parsons project best of album