Poe: More Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Bethlehem PA

Poe: More Tales Of Mystery And Imagination

Eric Woolfson

LimeLight Records, 2003

REVIEW BY: Duke Egbert

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/12/2003

Thomas Wolfe said you can never go home again. Apparently no onetold this to Eric Woolfson. Good thing, too.

Woolfson, half the central core of the Alan Parsons Project, hasbeen doing a lot of different things since the Project's breakup in1987. He's done some musicals in Germany and Korea (including thecritically noted Gambler), written some songs, and spent a lot of timeworking with more theatrical music -- unlike his counterpart,Parsons, who has stayed in rock and whose new album is reportedly aventure into electronica. However, it seems he's always wanted torevisit the first subject he ever handled as a musician -- the workof Edgar Allan Poe, the subject of the Project's 1976 debut.Finally, Woolfson, working with a new band and vocalist SteveBalsamo, has released Poe.

First things first. This is not a Project album -- this isn'teven a progressive rock album. There are elements that are similar,but Woolfson has spent a decade or more in musical theater, and itshows. Poe is closer in spirit to Chess or the work of Tim Rice. That's actually a good thing;longtime Project fans know that Woolfson's commercial-soundingvocals (on songs like "Time") helped destroy the Project'sprogressive rock sound through record label pressure. Free of thatpreconception, Poe turns out to be a solid, enjoyable, andwell-performed work with very few miscues.

The musicianship is excellent; sometime Project bassist LaurenceCottle joins a host of new names to put together a stellarperformance. Special kudos have to go to guitarist John Parricelli,who handles multiple styles with ease and aplomb. Production andengineering show that Woolfson must have taken notes during allthose years of collaboration; the sound is crisp and clear, nosimple task on harmony-heavy tracks like "Goodbye To All That" and"The Murders In The Rue Morgue."