Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, The Alan Parsons Project’s I Robot was released in 1977. That was the year, you might recall, when spaceships and robots were all the rage, largely due to a movie called Stars Wars. With its sci-fi theme and sound, I Robot surely was in step with the times.
With Parsons producing and engineering songs written by singer Eric Woolfson, the result was incredible music into the pop-prog firmament. This second APP album features an array of different vocalists and players, with Steve Harley, Allan Clarke, Lenny Zakatek, Peter Straker, Jack Harris, and Jaki Whitren all piping in, alongside guitarist Ian Bairnson, bassist David Paton, drummer Stuart Tosh, and Woolfson on keyboards.
Four singles were released from I Robot, including the most successful, “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You,” a Top 40 hit. The album snuck inside the Top 10 and eventually went platinum. But, as with all of The Alan Parsons Project releases, there is lots more here than just the hits, and on this newly expanded set, there is even more than the goodies the original album gave us. A lot more.
First, we get the 2025 remaster of the original album. Featuring some solid commercial ditties with sweeping key instrumentals and the use of The English Chorale midway into the second side, I Robot is actually pretty damn funky in lots of places, which I had forgotten.
From the opening title track instrumental that slips into a solid groove about mid-way, into the pop bounce of “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You,” to Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel singing what surely becomes, like it or not, some near disco-prog (if there can be such a thing) on “The Voice.” Ian Bairnson plays a tasty yet simple lick on “Genesis Ch. 1 V. 32.” But it’s “Breakdown,” on the first side, featuring Allan Clarke, that has it all. The Hollies’ lead vocalist cuts through amazingly with his unique pipes.
Beyond the fully illustrated, 12-page booklet containing sleeve notes, quotes from Parsons and Woolfson, plus a lyric sheet, we get four bonus tracks on the 2025 remaster. The included Blu-ray Disc features a promo video of “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You,” interview footage of Eric Woolfson discussing the I Robot album, and Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Sound mixes by Parsons from the original multi-track master tapes.
Further onward and outward, across what make up a whopping 80 tracks in all, we get snippets of mixes, radio adverts for the album, cuts like a soprano vocal rehearsal, an experimental lead guitar piece that includes the studio guide count, recorder and horn outtakes, as well as tons of isolated instrument tracks, plus rough mixes of the album’s songs, and what are called ‘experiments.’
I’d be hard-pressed to imagine that there is much more to find from this record than what you get from this Super Deluxe Box Set of I Robot. But the question I always seem to ask myself when faced with this much stuff is: How much of the ‘extras’ are substantive enough for a fan to satisfy his or her completist Jones or even that the casual listener will enjoy? That really depends on how badly you need it. By the looks of it, there’s seems to be enough folks out there to keep releases like this coming.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
