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I open the vinyl cover in my hands, and the face of the automaton, in its pride, dominates the futuristic environment. Then I flip it to the inside and Alan appears, his hair, the lumberjack shirt, and the so human gap between his incisors. "I, Robot" is this, nothing more, nothing less.
A struggle for dominance between men and machines, machines built by men and then machines built by other machines. Inspired by the novel "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov (from which the comma disappears for mere copyright reasons), the LP was released in 1976 by Arista, and directly follows the convincing debut work "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe," innovative and beautiful. The work is a concept woven into gothic atmospheres, in a climax of increasingly ominous tones, to underline the rise of automatons and the simultaneous eclipsing of man.
It starts with "I Robot": the title track is a fascinating instrumental, dominated by electronic sounds and with a highlighted rhythm section (Stuart Tosh on drums, David Paton on bass. The core lineup is completed by Ian Bairnson on guitar and the authors on keyboards) leading to the famous "chimes" in the finale. Then the carefree "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", where Lenny Zakatek's "black" voice seems to address the automatons... "I wouldn't want to be like you". Then comes a triptych, in my opinion, the best sequence of tracks in the entire discography; "Some Other Time" is a poignant ballad in which I sense an awareness on the part of humanity. It's sung by two voices, those of Peter Straker and Jaki Whitren, of different genders but so similar that they blend perfectly. Confusion sets in, "where are all the friends who used to speak to me?" is one of the questions in the fourth track, "Breakdown", where Allan Clarke's emotional singing culminates in a chorus (of robots? Or of men against the threat? Many episodes of ambiguity in the album): "Freedom, freedom, we will not obey!". Side A ends with the beautiful ballad, very Parsons-like, "Don't Let It Show", in truth somewhat extraneous to the concept. The voice, chilling when accompanied by the organ, is that of Dave Townsend (I admit I did a little research for the various singers, as in the LP credits they appear alphabetically...) Pause.
The needle is reset, and "The Voice" begins. Steve Harley is on vocals, and the obsessive distorted line "He's gonna get you" implies a robotic presence spying on everyone, almost Orwellian, definitively undermining human freedom: "You have no choice because you can't escape from the Voice". It is followed by the second musical track: "Nucleus" focuses again on electric sounds, as the outside world is now almost dominated by machines. Musical opening: the sweet voice of Jack Harris (who will go down in history, at least for me, with the extraordinary "Pyramania" of the album to come) plays with childhood memories, moments with his father... staring at the sky of a world that, for him, is no longer free because dominated by automatons. But, as the title says, "Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)". But destiny is fulfilled; "Total Eclipse" (arranged by orchestrator Andrew Powell, a cornerstone of the project with Parsons and Eric Woolfson) is emblematic: in its title, in its dark and gothic tones like never before, in the choruses. It would seem over, in short, as if the robots, created by man in their image, had taken their place, to the point of rewriting history and, why not, the Bible: a new verse in the first chapter of Genesis, "Genesis, Ch. 1, V. 32". Or is it man who attempts rebellion, and he is the one writing this new chapter? As far as I'm concerned, it's yet another ambiguity of this fantastic album, its strength. A peculiar feature of the Project, that of guest voices: the performances of the various singers convey what Parsons and trusty Woolfson imagine (his beautiful voice is indeed missing from this work).
This album too is permeated by an incredible atmospheric aura, as in all their work from the '70s: it is varied, dark, unclassifiable in a genre and indelible in the soul.
It is... Wonderful.
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