Eve (Alan Parsons Project album)

Eve is the fourth studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in September 1979 by Arista Records. The album's focus is on the strength and characteristics of women, and the problems they face in the world of men. It had originally been intended to focus on "great women in history", but evolved into a wider concept. The album name was the same as Eric Woolfson's mother-in-law.

Eve is the Alan Parsons Project's first album with singer Chris Rainbow. The album's opening instrumental "Lucifer" was a major hit in Europe, and "Damned If I Do" reached the US Top 40, peaking at No. 27, and reaching No. 16 in Canada. "Lucifer" also is used as title track for the German political TV show Monitor.

Morse code
The album features two different kind of morse codes. At the beginning is a piece of morse code randomly taken from short wave when the album was produced. It can be - as far as the transmission is audible - translated as "...West European cities and marches by millions in eng Egyptian president Anwar Sadat...". Anwar Sadat was in the news all over the world at the time when the album was made. In several press releases, the following text can be found: "On March 27, the Arab world protested the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty with bombs in Israel and Paris, Palestinian demonstrations in West European cities and marches by millions in Baghdad and Damascus denouncing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as a traitor". It looks like the morse code is a part of this release and perhaps edited in the studio due to a missing part, since there is no pause. On another channel you can hear something like a call sign from a coast radio station in Senegal "VVV de 6WW".

Further on in the song, the name "Eve" is repeated on keyboard in morse code.

Cover art
The gatefold cover art for Eve by Hipgnosis features three women wearing veils (two on the front, one on the reverse), with their faces partially in shadow. The shadows and veils partially conceal disfiguring scars and sores (the lesions were not real, however ). Controversy over the disfiguring of the models' faces brought comment from Eric Woolfson, "The cover seemed a mis-match to me. It was a brilliant cover from Hipgnosis, but it didn't reflect my thinking at all, or relate to what is made clear on the Record."

Critical reception
The Globe and Mail wrote that, "like its trio of predecessors, Eve has occasional moments of melodic splendor punctuated by lengthy periods of accompaniment for riding elevators."

Bonus tracks detail
Elsie's theme from "The Sicilian Defence" (the project that never was) was from an experimental album entitled "The Sicilian Defence". Recorded at the same time as Eve, the album was not released at the time. "Lucifer (Demo)" was recorded in a beachfront apartment in Monaco.

Track listing
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.

Eve was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:  "Elsie's Theme from 'The Sicilian Defence' (the Project that never was)" "Lucifer" (demo) "Secret Garden" (early rough mix) "Damned If I Do" (rough mix) "Don't Hold Back" (vocal rehearsal rough mix) "Lucifer" (early rough mix) "If I Could Change Your Mind" (rough mix) 

Personnel

 * Andrew Powell – orchestral arrangements, choral arrangements, conductor
 * David Paton – bass, lead and backing vocals
 * Stuart Elliott – drums, percussion
 * Ian Bairnson – electric and acoustic guitars
 * Eric Woolfson – keyboards, executive producer
 * Duncan Mackay – keyboards
 * Alan Parsons – production, engineering, Morse code (E . V ..._ E .) on "Lucifer"
 * Chris Rainbow – lead and backing vocals
 * Lesley Duncan – lead vocal
 * Clare Torry – lead vocal
 * Dave Townsend – lead vocal
 * Lenny Zakatek – lead vocal
 * The Orchestra of the Munich Chamber Opera care of Eberhard Schoener
 * Sandor Farkas – leader
 * Curtis Briggs – coordinator
 * Shapiro and Steinberg – trivia consultants
 * Hipgnosis – cover art

Two of the lead singers on the album, Clare Torry and Lesley Duncan, previously performed on Alan Parsons' signature engineering work, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.