The last couple years or so, I've been on a big Alan Parsons Project kick. This no doubt stemmed from my dad getting me a compilation album for Christmas. Since, I've purchased most of the albums on LP and have listened to them quite often. The aforementioned compilation set gets frequent playback in the car, which means I'm listening to it a lot because the Bay's commute traffic is awful.

When listening to an artist so much, you start to pick up on things they like to do. One of these I noticed about Alan Parsons Project is what I'm going to call "setup, opposite comparator" (or SOC). Over the course of a verse, a series of back-to-back comparisons (often opposites) are made. Here's a bunch of examples:

What goes up... (Pyramid)

What goes up, must come down What must rise, must fall

Gemeni (Eye in the Sky)

Watching, waiting Rising, falling Listening, calling ... Touching, feeling Seeing, believing

Psychobabble (Eye in the Sky)

It ain't Kodachrome and it isn't black and white ... Well, I'm never on my own but there's nobody in sight ... It's in Dolby stereo but I never hear it right ... Well, I see the way to go but there isn't any light

and the Queen Mother of all of them is You Don't Believe which I won't write down, because the whole song is a series of SOCs. Check for yourself:

I'm sure I've missed a few of these, but those were the one's off the top of my head. It's an interesting hallmark of the group for sure.