The turn of a friendly card is the fifth album from The Alan Parsons Project, the “band” led by acclaimed producer and engineer Alan Parsons and composer, musician and manager Eric Woolfson. Inspired by the time both men lived in Monte Carlo, this album’s 1980 sessions, which took place in Paris, feature contributions from guitarist Ian Bairnson, bassist David Paton and drummer Stuart Elliott. Elmer Gantry, Chris Rainbow and Lenny Zakatek will provide vocals along with Eric Woolfson. The 2023 limited edition box set includes three CDs and one Blu-ray Disc – the music originally featured on the album plus an additional 42 tracks from Eric Woolfson’s songwriting diaries and studio session outtakes.
Disc one contains the remaster of the original album. There are the hits we know, like “Games People Play”, “Time” and the swinging, mostly instrumental pop-prog classic “The Gold Bug”. Aside from these popular tracks, the album’s final suite is a perfect counter. From the lilting piano ballad and Chris Rainbow’s soft, perfect voice of The Turn Of A Friendly Card, Pt. 1′ to the significant hits of ‘The Ace Of Swords’ and arguably Woolfson’s finest vocals, the title track repeat in part two – it’s all top notch. Vocal overdubs, “simple” tracks, early studio releases and demos make up the rest of the offering.
On the 13-song second CD entitled Songwriting Diaries by Eric Woolfson, we get a unique vibe from one of the Alan Parsons Project’s key songwriters working through the melodies. With only the man singing along to his piano, with a few tracks with no lyrics aside from Woolfson’s vocals, it’s quite nice to hear the simple beginnings of songs like “Games People Play” and “Time”.
Disc three, titled Recording of session bonus tracksShe has 14 songs in total. Comprised of early demos, some fairly well produced, others containing just a few instruments, such as “The Gold Bug” featuring Clavinet with Echo. This is another behind-the-scenes look at what would become The turn of a friendly card.” There are also individual edits of Games People Play, Snake Eyes, and The Turn Of A Friendly Card.
Disc four, a Blu-ray disc, contains 2019’s 5.1 surround sound mix, a high definition mix. and the original stereo mix o of the album by Alan Parsons. There is also an ad for the album and videos for Games People Play, The Gold Bug and The Turn Of A Friendly Card. To round out the set there is an illustrated book with a new essay, photos, memorabilia and memories by Alan Parsons and Sally Woolfson. And of course you will also receive a reproduction poster. Overall, this limited box set is from The turn of a friendly card has everything fans of this band want. I dare say you turned over every single card in the deck while listening to the goodies here.
~ Ralph Greco Jr.
English
العربية
Nederlands
Français
Deutsch
Italiano
日本語
한국어
Русский
Español
Svenska
Türkçe
اردو
Tiếng Việt