Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in December 1985 by Arista Records.
Not as commercially successful as its predecessor Vulture Culture, the album is structured differently from earlier Project albums: containing three lengthy tracks ("Stereotomy" at over seven minutes, "Light of the World" at over six minutes, and the instrumental "Where's the Walrus?" running over seven and a half minutes) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and both the LP and CD releases were encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format. Stereotomy earned a Grammy nomination in 1987 – for Best Rock Instrumental Performance: Orchestra, Group, or Soloist – for the track "Where's the Walrus?"
Stereotomy marks the final appearance of David Paton on bass – he went on to join Elton John's touring band – and is the first Project release since Tales of Mystery and Imagination not to feature Lenny Zakatek.
Background
The word "stereotomy" is taken from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe. It refers to the cutting of solid shapes into different forms, and is used as a metaphor for the way that famous people (singers, actors, etc.) are 'shaped' by the demands of fame. The short track "Chinese Whispers" also references "Rue Morgue" in that although an instrumental, it features Eric Woolfson’s daughters Sally and Lorna reciting a sequence of words from the story.
Prior to the recording sessions of Stereotomy, Parsons and Woolfson contacted a mutual friend who worked as a radio programmer to conduct research on what fans of the Alan Parsons Project expected from them. The radio programmer conveyed to them that fans preferred to hear less of Woolfsons' vocals and were also alienated by the band's pivot toward more commercially friendly music. In an interview published by Knight Ridder, Woolfson said that "hit singles [were] never what we set out to do" and maintained that the band's focus was more on making album-oriented rock music.
The band retained the rhythm section of Ian Bairnson on guitars, David Paton on bass, and Stuart Elliott on drums. John Miles sang lead vocals on the title track and Gary Brooker of Procol Harum covered the lead vocals on the song "Limelight".
Recording
Whereas previous Alan Parsons Project albums had been recorded on analog tape and mastered digitally, Stereotomy was recorded digitally from the onset. The band explained that they made this decision to retain the same level of fidelity throughout the recording process, regardless of how many overdubs and playbacks were conducted. Woolfson discussed this method with Dave Zimmer of BAM magazine in 1986. Richard Cottle, who first worked with the Alan Parsons project on Vulture Culture, reprised his role as the band's dedicated session synthesiser player. Woolfson thought that Cottle's role was "more dominant" on Stereotomy due to the band's increasing reliance on a more synthesised sound rather than acoustic keyboards. but lost to Miles Davis's album Tutu, designed by art director Eiko Ishioka.
Release
Arista Records established a release date of 19 December 1985 for Stereotomy, which was reported in the 2 November 1985 edition of Billboard magazine. This date was established for the release of Stereotomy in the United Kingdom. The album's title track received airplay on album oriented rock radio stations and was also given a music video.
Reflecting on the album in 1986, Parsons expressed his belief that the album marked a return to the "three-dimensional kind of quality we'd been missing" and that he intended to replicate this approach for future releases.
Stereotomy generally received negative reviews from music critics. Music Week wrote that with the exception of "Real World" and "Light of the World", the album failed to live up to the potential of the band's previous work, resulting in an album that they found to be "frustratingly commercial, meandering and sadly disappointing." Writing for Sounds, Roger Holland called the album "dreadful" and a "monstrosity" and believed that the album's pre-programmed, computerized technique and self-professed sophistication" came at the expense of "any semblance of human emotion." In his review of the album, J. D. Considine of Musician wrote simply: "Unnecessary surgery."
The Canadian music trade publication RPM said that Stereotomy had "a unique blend of electronic pop and rock vocal styles with fine guitar work from Ian Bairnson." AllMusic felt that the album "came up short" and was only partially salvaged by some of the instrumental compositions, which created "some musical buoyancy among the blandness of the other tracks."
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