On Air is the second solo studio album by English rock musician Alan Parsons. The album's chief creative force was the Alan Parsons Project's long-time guitarist, Ian Bairnson. Its concept revolves around the history of airborne exploration.
| On Air | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 24 September 1996 | |||
| Recorded | December 1995 – June 1996 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 49:36 | |||
| Label | River North | |||
| Producer | Alan Parsons | |||
| Alan Parsons chronology | ||||
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| Singles from On Air | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
Musically, this album is somewhat different from Try Anything Once and the Alan Parsons Project albums, opting for more of a soft rock sound and a more stable band line-up rather than the funky rhythms, symphonic flares, or rotating vocalists of the past.
Concept
editThe album follows the history of airborne exploration, from the mythological flight of Daedalus and Icarus to escape the labyrinth of the Minotaur in "Too Close to the Sun", through Leonardo da Vinci's search to design a flying machine, or ornithopter, in long-time Project drummer Stuart Elliott's "One Day To Fly", until finally mankind's aspirations for space exploration placed on the shoulders of a single astronaut in "So Far Away" and the subsequent superpower race to put a man on the moon in "Apollo", a track backed by John F. Kennedy's famous speech of 25 May 1961.
The song "Brother Up in Heaven" remembers Ian Bairnson's cousin Erik Mounsey who was killed in a friendly fire incident above Iraq in 1994.[2] "Fall Free" is inspired by skysurfer Rob Harris, who died in 1995. "So Far Away" also references the Challenger tragedy in 1986 in its last verse.
Release
editOn Air was issued as both a stereo CD and a 5.1 channel dts mix. Included with the music CD was a CD-ROM exploring the On Air theme.
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocalist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Blue Blue Sky" | Ian Bairnson | Eric Stewart | 1:38 |
| 2. | "Too Close to the Sun" | Alan Parsons, Bairnson, Stuart Elliott | Neil Lockwood | 5:04 |
| 3. | "Blown by the Wind" | Bairnson | Eric Stewart | 5:25 |
| 4. | "Cloudbreak" | Bairnson, Parsons, Elliott | none | 4:39 |
| 5. | "I Can't Look Down" | Bairnson | Neil Lockwood | 4:37 |
| 6. | "Brother Up in Heaven" | Bairnson | Neil Lockwood | 4:02 |
| 7. | "Fall Free" | Bairnson, Elliott, Parsons | Steve Overland | 4:21 |
| 8. | "Apollo" | Elliott, Parsons, Bairnson | none (spoken words by John F. Kennedy) | 6:06 |
| 9. | "So Far Away" | Bairnson | Christopher Cross | 4:07 |
| 10. | "One Day to Fly" | Elliott, Scott English | Graham Dye | 6:16 |
| 11. | "Blue Blue Sky" | Bairnson | Eric Stewart | 4:24 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Apollo Ambient Mix (Moon Boots)" (Remix by Solar Quest) | Elliott, Parsons, Bairnson | 7:59 |
Several additional remixes of "Apollo" were released on 12" singles.[4][5]
Personnel
edit- Alan Parsons – keyboards (tracks 2, 4, 8), mixing, engineering
- Andrew Powell – orchestral arranger and conductor
- Ian Bairnson – guitars, bass synthesizer (4), bass guitar (6)
- John Giblin – bass guitar
- Stuart Elliott – drums, bongos (11), keyboards and drum programming (8)
- Richard Cottle – saxophone (2), keyboards (2, 5, 7, 8)
- Gary Sanctuary – keyboards
- Christopher Warren-Green – orchestra leader
- Eric Stewart – lead vocals (tracks 1, 3, 11)
- Neil Lockwood – lead vocals (tracks 2, 5, 6)
- Steve Overland – lead vocals (track 7)
- Christopher Cross – lead vocals (track 9)
- Graham Dye – lead vocals (track 10)
- Peter Beckett – backing vocals (track 6)
- Storm Thorgerson – cover design
- Alan Parsons/Adrian van Velsen – Mastering Engineer
Charts
edit| Chart (1996) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[6] | 22 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[7] | 61 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[8] | 54 |
Notes
edit- ^ DeGagne, Mike. On Air at AllMusic. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ "Alan Parsons – Brother Up in Heaven". Discogs. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- ^ "Alan Parsons – On Air (CD, Album)". Discogs. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ Alan Parsons – Apollo (Remixed By Solar Quest), retrieved 27 May 2022
- ^ Alan Parsons – Apollo, retrieved 27 May 2022
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Alan Parsons – On Air" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
- ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Alan Parsons – On Air" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Alan Parsons – On Air". Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 December 2020.