Alan Parsons Project - Ammonia Avenue

Silken rhythms -- the musical kind

This is probably APP's most underappreciated album, even though back in 1984 "Don't Answer Me" was a top-40 hit, and the album enjoyed some commercial success with that song and with "You Don't Believe."

The usual APP themes of alienation, disbelief and loss play varying roles in most of the songs. Production values are, as usual, impeccable, and the instrumentation imparts a silken, surreal feel. This is a great album to play at night, when you're by yourself studying, or when you're with a person you care about and with whom you want to share some intimacy. April 15, 2008

The theme escapes me...

"Ammonia Avenue" was released in Feb of 1984, and was The Alan Parsons Project's (APP) 7th album. It came out on the heels of "Eye in the Sky", an extremely popular disc. While most of the earlier discs had strong central themes, the theme of this album escapes me, and seems more like an assortment of APP tracks that were done when it was time to release an album.

As at least a few other reviewers have commented, this album has the traditional mix of APP progressive rock, pop, and mellow music, along with one instrumental track. It differs from some earlier efforts, such as "I Robot" in that this disc has a much stronger emphasis on pop rather than progressive rock. That worked well for APP at the time, however, since this album contained one of APP's bigger singles - "Don't Answer Me."

As for the rest of the tracks:

- If you enjoy APP mellow/melancholy tracks, then check out "Prime Time" (good), "Since the Last Goodbye" (best), and the title track "Ammonia Avenue" (good).
- If you like APP progressive rock, then try "Let Me Go Home" (pretty good, but not great) and "You Don't Believe" (also so-so).
- I guess you could call these progressive pop(?), but for more of a pop sound give "One Good Reason" (OK), "Don't Answer Me" (most commercially successful track on the CD), or "Dancing on a Highwire"(only so-so).
- For me, the highlight of this track is the only instrumental on the disc, "Pipeline" (truly excellent).

All in all I'd rate this CD about a 3 for a concept album, and the mixture of strong and so-so tracks, but I give it a 4 overall for the strong tracks that are there.

This album is a MUST for APP fans, but if you are just starting your adventures with the music of APP I recommend "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", "Turn of a Friendly Card", "Eye in the Sky", or "Vulture Culture" as better starting places.

All in all, I give this disc 4 stars.

From a 30+ year APP fan...happy listening! February 20, 2008

Alan Parsons Project - One Of Their More Underated Efforts

"Ammonia Avenue" seems to be one of the Project's more underrated works. I have always really liked it, but sales paled in comparison to the band's previous monster hit "Eye In The Sky". The album gets mixed reviews from APP fans. Some love it and some loath it. As with "Eye In The Sky" the band definitely move in a more pop oriented direction on much of this disc. For the most part the songs are all good. "Prime Time", "Let Me Go Home", "Dancing On A High wire", "You Don't Believe" and the instrumental "Pipeline" are all solid. The single "Don't Answer Me" is also a decent pop track. The real highlight of this album however, is the title track "Ammonia Avenue". For me this ranks up with the best things APP ever did. The track is orchestrated progressive rock in all it's bloated glory. I really like the lyrics to it as well. "Ammonia Avenue" would begin the decline of APP fortunes in album sales and on the charts, but the album remains one of my favorites from the band. December 5, 2007

A Great Alan Parsons Project Treatise On Human Behavior

AMMONIA AVENUE is a great treatise by the Alan Parsons Project concerning how human behavior has become more antisocial, and how people as a whole have become more isolated from each other over the years. I've observed this happening in various programs I've been in, as peers and neighbors, some of the latter of whom had a "nimby" (Not In My BackYard) attitude towards people with disabilities, sided with authority figures against me. This problem was particularly bad in my program in Connecticut, because I lived in an upper-middle-class neighborhood where people were afraid that we were "taking over their town", and the press were particularly hard on us, leading to my opposition to journalist shield laws. These people could have learned a thing or two by buying and listening to this CD, which sends the message that if we have negative attitudes towards others, it will destroy us in the long run. Some reviewers said that Parsons was moving too far towards pop on this album, and that may be true, but that doesn't take away from the lyrical message the album sends to people. Any fan of the Alan Parsons Project, as well as anyone who has ever disliked anyone "different", should own this CD. October 4, 2007

Classic APP

I love this album. It has some great songs that I had forgotten about over the years. I listen to it over and over. January 3, 2007

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