Alan Parsons parlayed his success as a recording engineer (Abbey Road, The Dark Side of the Moon) into a career as the frontman—or, at the very least, the namesake—of a successful band, the Alan Parsons Project, which he formed with partner Eric Woolfson. The pair, along with a bevy of guest musicians, made a series of albums in the late ’70s and early ’80s that reside at the unlikely intersection where prog and soft rock meet. While they’re best remembered for the massive 1982 hit “Eye in the Sky,” it’s for daffy concept albums like 1977’s I Robot and 1978’s Pyramid—complete with the requisite cover art by Hipgnosis—that the Alan Parsons Project’s easygoing brand of pomp should be rediscovered (something that’s very easy to do, as they can be found in every dollar bin in every record store).

by Ned Lannamann