Alan Parsons ProjectThe Complete Albums Collection

So first and foremost ‘the complete albums collection’ - nothing more or less. ‘The Sicilian Defence’ included to ensure description holds - and not as a stand-alone release. The presentation isn’t luxury but more than adequate (again as per title). The cardboard replica sleeves are the ones I prefer - sturdier than many and easier to release the disc without any finger gymnastics. The booklet is a typical glossy spread with some rare photos and thankfully all the album/track details as the covers are of course small. The much maligned CD format here though - it shines! The good news is that these albums all sound completely fantastic. Remastered in 2013 ahead of release - the sound quality is amazing for a collection spanning the mid 70s to mid 80s. These albums garnered accolades for sound engineering and tasteful songwriting craft and as such when released and haven’t dated as much as I had feared. I had some on vinyl (not all), and they were good then, but to me better now. I have heard more recent recordings that would struggle with the fidelity on offer here. I love APP so a presentation such as this is ideal and given the current price - sub £40 it would be churlish to deny it’s value. I guess if you own the deluxe albums recently re-issued nothing much here other than the aforesaid never released disc. But it is easy to see why it wasn’t - reading the liner notes merely confirms its probably not worth the effort if your collection is already in place. My favourite album - purely for personal reasons is ‘Ammonia Avenue’ and it sounds quite superb. I am now re-evaluating others I haven’t heard for some time, and it is simply a massive thumbs up here. What was great then is still great now.

Great collection

Many old favourites and some not heard before. Easy on the ear listen a good buy if you still have a good cd system

The Alan Parsons Project created the most beautiful, tasteful and well-crafted albums of gentle rock through the late seventies and into the late eighties. Here you can have them all in one quite small box which seems to be the fashion these days. The albums themselves are housed in cardboard sleeves of which I worry about the durability and the risk of scratching - having said that, I probably won't play the originals often after having ripped them to my HD.The sound is lovely - this latest mastering is clear and detailed and doesn't suffer from too much dynamic compression.The music is fantastic - Eric Woolfson was a real hidden gem of a songwriter. Thoroughly recommended.

People's appreciation of this set will largely depend on how much they paid for it. It originally came out at £60 or thereabouts, then dropped to £30ish, which seems to be the market rate for these sets (see also Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Byrds but NOT Pink Floyd or the Beatles).It's an obscenely cheap price for a well packaged newly remastered set. I didn't buy any of the 2007/08 remasters, so can't make a comparison and I've only ever owned about half the albums here. Before this my only copy of "Tales..." (the first disc here) was the 1976 lp, so hearing Orson Welles' distinct tones at the opening was a very pleasant suprise. It's too soon to say which version of this album I prefer, but it's the one example where it's good to own both versions.The albums I'm most familiar with are Eye in the Sky and Vulture Culture. They sound good, great even, but nothing to blow me away in comparison to earlier cds. The music is just as good as I remember though. Some of the music hasn't dated well, Pyramid and Eve are particularly patchy.The white borders on the covers are annoying. They reduce the size of the original 12" album sleeve even further than necessary and spoil the gatefolds, particularly the controversial group portrait on Eve, which is split in half with the centre model's shoulder cut off from the rest of her body. I didn't expect super quality Japanese style covers at this price, but I did expect better transfers than we have.Overall it is a good package, if you get it for a good price. At £60 you could have got all the 2007 remasters and had change for the other version of "Tales..", at £30 it earns it's four stars.

Just all the APP albums in one place - Yes I already had some of them, this boxset was cheaper than filling in the blanks, plus you get the otherwise unreleased bonus album. I love the presentation with the miniaturised album sleeves in the box too.

11 great albums for less than a fiver each, what's not to like?

Had some of these albums in tape format, in the 80s. Wanted to have a replacement solution, in longer term playable format. Really good to have larger collection than I had. Still enjoy the music