This was the next-to-last album with Woolfson as lyricist and vocalist, and I can't help but think it was his siren call for help at not dealing with the fact that the Project was not as successful as it used to be and as maybe Alan was telling Eric it would be.

The album opens with the song Stereotomy, a vague title that seems to mean different things to different people. From what I can tell, it has to do with splitting the two hemispheres of the brain--maybe an allusion to the splitting of Eric and Alan philosophically? The song has a lot to do with fear and paranoia ("Silent knives dissect me and I feel no pain...do anything you want with me...it's always the same"). Beaujolais is very catchy, but check out those depressing lyrics ("One race I can't win with an alter ego...wherever I go he go...Beaujolais will be my ruin"). Urbania is one of Alan's most creative instrumentals, with a jazzy flair unlike any other recording of his. Limelight sounds like Eric giving up on ever being in the limelight ("I can hear the roar of a distant crowd, they are calling my name...limelight you were all I ever wanted since it all began"). In The Real World is very much about not being in the real world ("Don't want to live my life in the real world"). Where's The Walrus? is also one of the Project's more creative instrumentals; very dark guitar & synth-oriented. Light Of The World describes a descent into powerful depression "I am lost in so many ways I can walk no more...No matter how much I try the tide will not turn for me...I can take no more". Chinese Whispers is a short but interesting transition to the next song. Stereotomy 2 closes with a reprise of the opening.

Don't get me wrong--this isn't boring. Depression and conflict are powerful emotions, and this album has a lot more emotion and oomph than most of the Project's boring 1980's albums. This is eccentric but a real keeper.


The Project Get Tougher   January 22, 2004
Alan Caylow (USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Although a fine album, the Alan Parsons Project's 1984 release, "Vulture Culture," with it's pop-oriented sound, had many Project fans worried that the veteran studio group had gotten too soft in their musical approach. So, Project leaders Alan Parsons & Eric Woolfson decided that the follow-up disc, 1985's "Stereotomy," would be a tougher-sounding Project album, for which many fans breathed a sigh of relief. This is a powerful, punchy, mostly hard-rocking Project album, and one of their best. The title track is an awesome, classic Project rocker, which segues quite well into the fun, upbeat "Beaujolais." Next up is the terrific, ambient-rock instrumental, "Urbania," and then, the Project turn the volume down a bit for one of their all-time greatest ballads, "Limelight," beautifully sung by the one-and-only Gary Brooker of Procol Harum. "In The Real World" is a cool pop-rocker, and the pumped-up instrumental "Where's The Walrus?" is absolutely electric. "Light Of The World" is a gorgeous song, a true Project buried treasure. Finally, there's the brief, atmospheric "Chinese Whispers," and the grand finale, "Stereotomy Two," with the group charging for home with guns blazing. The album is outstanding from beginning to end, with first-rate songs & instrumentals, incredible, energetic musicianship & production, and great lead vocals by John Miles, Chris Rainbow, Gary Brooker and Graham Dye. Quite simply, "Stereotomy" rocks. The Alan Parsons Project's album sales may have been in decline by this point, but "Stereotomy" certainly remains one of the group's very best releases. Pick it up and crank it up!


Lots of depth for repeated listening   February 8, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

As a strong Alan Parsons Project fan, I am sometimes frustrated by the couple throw away songs on every album, as well as the strict adherence to "formula" songwriting.

For one glorious album, they seem to have thrown the shackles off and let themselves go, and it shows! This may sound a little obscure at first listen compared to their other stuff, but if you keep coming back it has more depth than their other efforts. The irony is that it doesn't really have a central theme, yet it almost works best as an album moreso than any of the others, which often had great singles. There is a great flow and spontaneity to the whole thing that I still love having first purchased the cassette when it initially came out, and now having the CD.

Hidden here (and a travesty that it was left off 'The Definitive Collection', an otherwise top notch collection) is 'Where's the Walrus?', my favorite Project song and the rare instrumental that energizes, mesmerizes, and is just plain fun all at the same time. There is just more umph to this collection (the title track is their first out and out rock song since 'Games People Play') that makes it a hidden gem...


Obscure but delightful   May 25, 2000
joe_n_bloe (Ester AK USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Easily one of my favorite Alan Parsons Project albums, Stereotomy has a zero clunker content --something that isn't true of most of the APP albums following I, Robot. The album is the first by APP to make use of several new technologies including Yamaha's FM synthesizers (synthesizer buffs will agree that this album has some of the most tasteful FM work in existence) and the new generation of digital reverbs. As a result it has a cleaner, sharper sound than its predecessors. It also has a more electronic and synthesizer-oriented character than any other APP album. I gather that the record label pretty much abandoned Parson and Woolfson on the marketing for this slightly out of the mainstream effort. It lapsed into instant obscurity as a result, but hopefully the passage of time has revealed it to more listeners. "Beaujolais" is my favorite but, as I said, all of the tunes are decent or better.


Stereotomy   September 29, 2005
B. K. MORTON (Utica, New York USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Strangely enough, my online dictionary defines Stereotomy as: "The science or art of cutting solids into certain figures or sections, as arches, and the like; especially, the art of stonecutting." Is this how the album describes the splitting of Parsons/Woolfson? It certainly is the most personal album of the entire Project, and one of my favorites.
As for the cover - if you turn the picture upside down, you can see it's not part of any ink-blot test - it's the negative of a gorilla's head and shoulders. The inner beast of the artist, perhaps?