Customer Reviews

Vulture Culture

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Vulture Culture" was The Alan Parsons Project's (APP) 8th album. It came out originally early in 1985, and on the heels of "Eye in the Sky" and "Ammonia Avenue", a couple of pop-heavier APP discs. In brief, this is one of APP's most mellow albums. The main theme seems to be about the "me-first", and "what's in it for me" attitudes that are so common these days.

If you are an APP fan who prefers APP's progressive rock offerings, e.g., "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", "I Robot", and "Stereotomy", then this disc will probably not be one of your favorites. If, on the other hand, you favor APP's mellower side, e.g., "Eye in the Sky", "Turn of a Friendly Card", and "Ammonia Avenue" then you will almost certainly enjoy this disc.

While I do enjoy APP's progressive rock offerings, I've always favored their mellower side even more, and "Vulture Culture" is therefore one of my favorite APP albums.

The closest APP gets to rock on this disc is the opening track, "Let's Talk About Me", and it doesn't rock that hard.

This is a pop-driven effort, as evidenced by the following tracks: "Separate Lives" (OK to Good), "Sooner or Later" (Good), "Vulture Culture" (Good), and "Somebody Out There" (Good).

What makes this a top-notch album for me, however, are the mellow tracks "Days are Numbers" (absolutely tops) and "Same Old Sun" (great), and the excellent instrumental "Hawkeye."

In short, there's not a stinker in the whole list! And, consequently, I think that you will enjoy listening to the entire album.

To sum up, this ablum is a great mellow APP offering, a stance they moved away from in their 9th album "Stereotomy", which was much harder-driving.

5 stars from this 30+ year APP listener...

The Vulture Culture project, though lacking an obvious theme like the first 4 or 5 APP albums, does have a focus. It's all about getting ahead and getting along in the crazy get-ahead world. If you listen to the tracks and what they say, you'll find that it goes from "me first" to living, to the search people go on to find who and what they are (in "Days are Numbers" one of the all time best APP songs) to what we do to get ahead in "Vulture Culture" to the realization that we are all in this together in "Sombody Out There" and "The Same Old Sun" (another of my favorites on this album).

The songs are great, this is a return to the kinds of sounds you can hear in "Turn of a Friendly Card."

The song "The Traveller" is also a great song to use when you are shopping for a new car or home stereo to see what kind of response and range you can get from a music system.

I highly recommend this album to anyone interested in insightful and thoughtful music in the style of APP.

You'll have to decide. After reading an interview done shortly after this album was released, I was able to see the rift starting between Alan and Eric. I beleive it started with this album. For the first time Richard Cottle (sax, and keys) is made a permanent member of the band, and there is FAR less emphasis on orchestration, and no central theme. The was the last attempt by the Project to shoot for hit songs.

Does it make it a bad album? Certainly not! There are some tracks that really shine, mainly: Days are Numbers / The Traveller (probably one of the all-time best APP songs), Let's Talk About Me, and Sooner or Later.

Up until Eye in the Sky, an Alan Parsons album was meant to be listened to from beginning to end. You didn't just pick out a particular song, you listened for the THEME. Vulture is an example of how you become decreasingly tolerant of the lesser tracks. Overall, not a completely disapointing album, but not one of the best. Thankfully, he got better with age.. :>

Upon my first few listenings of this remaster, I slowly came to grips with the fact that I never really gave the eighth "Project" a fair shake despite all the opportunities to do so over the course of twenty some odd years. By the time it was originally released in the mid-eighties, I had already formed some rather strident views as to what a "Project" was and was not. To a large extent, I think that's why I have been one of Vulture Culture's greatest detractors, but hearing the album remastered as allowed me to look at it again with a far more objective state of mind.

The two biggest hurdles were the absence of Andrew Powell, whose orchestrations would have taken The Same Old Sun to a whole new level, and the presence of a concept that, for the most part, did not leave nearly as much to the imagination as the previous triumphs I Robot, Pyramid, The Turn of a Friendly Card, and, even, Eve did. This was, perhaps, the first (and only) time Eric Woolfson may have painted with too broad a brush.

I think the main problem with the concept behind Vulture Culture is that it applies aggression and opportunism interchangeably in spite of the fact that the two are very distinct from the other. Vultures, themselves, are rather more opportunistic than aggressive, but Vulture Culture seems to use them to symbolize the economic aggression of the West. And, yet, the greatest economic disparities in our world are not between East and West nearly as much as they are between the northern and southern hemispheres.

But all that said, some very, very good music abounds throughout this album. And thanks to Sony's Direct Stream Digital Sampling from the best source tapes available, Let's Talk About Me, Separate Lives, and Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) have never sounded better! But it is the bonus material on this remaster that I found most compelling. How a gemstone like No Answers Only Questions (Final Version) could slip through the cracks and not see the light of day for twenty-three years is completely beyond my comprehension. A folk song of that caliber would have really made me look at the original album in a very different way! Add to that the fact that the best of the three instrumental reinterpretations of the entire albums appears here with The Naked Vulture (Early Mixes). Laden throughout these early mixes is the very witty banter of Lee Abrams that previously only appeared in a heavily edited form on "Let's Talk About Me" back in 1984.

While I would never have given this album the high marks I have here in its original form, this remaster deserves every bit of praise. Not only is there a drastic improvement in the sound quality with this remaster, the bonus material really is something very special. Of all The Project remasters, only the bonus material from Eye In The Sky rivals that which is here. I suppose I will always have some of the same problems with a few of the songs for their over-reliance on pop music convention, but this remaster is an entirely different experience altogether.

No matter what any review will say, this is yet another strong Parsons' album. It followed Ammonia Avenue, which gives Vulture Culture extra points for being way better than its predecessor. The album opens with Let's Talk About Me, perhaps the best song on the album. It focuses on people's obsessions with themselves to the exclusion of others.

Following the opener is the worst song on the album, Seperate Lives, which is probably also the song that fits the overriding concept of the album the least. Still, it isn't bad, just not great. Days are Numbers is next, and while it is a very good ballad, it doesn't cut it compared to many earlier Parsons' ballads (or later [limelight], for that matter).

Sooner or Later is the next weakest song on the album, but it is still an enjoyable song. Vulture Culture fits the concept the best, but the type of music is not particularly my favorite. Still, it is yet another strong track on this album. Hawkeye, the only instrumental, is not, as some reviewers may claim, Parsons' best instrumental (Lucifer and I Robot take #s 1 and 2), as it is too repetive, but it still adds to the album as a whole.

Following Hawkeye is the only song that competes with Let's Talk About Me. Somebody Out There is a marvelous song about identity theft (listen to the chorus) that is excellent musically and lyrically. Finally, the album ends with The Same Old Sun, another ballad that falls about where I put Days are Numbers, good, but not up to usual standards.

All in all, this album is very strong, with each track being worth listening to. The collective value of the album is, as with all true concept albums, greater than the sum of the parts. This CD is well worth owning.

1984's "Vulture Culture" finds the Alan Parsons Project simplifying & softening their musical approach. No real traces of the group's earlier progressive rock elements on "Vulture," and there's a stronger leaning towards pop, with more emphasis on synthesisers and synth drums (and no orchestrations by Andrew Powell, either). But Alan Parsons, songwriting partner Eric Woolfson, and their team of excellent singers (like Woolfson himself, Lenny Zakatek and Colin Blunstone) and studio musicians (like guitarist Ian Bairnson and drummer Stuart Elliott) still know how to craft music that's catchy and great-sounding. In the end, "Vulture Culture" is still a fine Project album. With it's theme about lack of communication, "Vulture" contains some sparkling Project gems, like the strong pop/rock of "Let's Talk About Me," the incredibly beautiful "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)," the smooth-sounding title song, and the quirky instrumental, "Hawkeye." But the rest of the album is equally good.Okay, so if you had to rank all of the Alan Parsons Project's albums, "Vulture Culture" would probably come in last, but that still puts it in good company. "Vulture Culture" is the softest Project album of the bunch, but make no mistake, it's still very good.

This is, easily, one of the best albums by Alan Parsons Project. It's not cool or easy to understand (some of the more critical reviews seem to think every album should be about horror poetry, pyramid mythology, or robots) but the lyrics offer up a pretty harsh indictment of the self-centered and, consequently, disassociated nature of individuals and the corporate-centered nature of the masses. The music is, as always, solid and the production values are, inevitably, great. The attempts at hits succeed, whatever the subject matter, because Alan Parson knows musical talent when he sees it and is a master at pulling everything together in the studio. If you like strong music, incredible production values, and lyrics that explore real issues, this is The Alan Parson Project album for you.

A transition from the style of Eye and Ammonia, this disc foretold the musical style that was to follow in '85 with Stereotomy. If you listen to the title cut, it really has an 'Urbania' feel to it even though it's not an instrumental song. It's actually one of the best Lenny Zakatek tunes in the Parsons catalog. There is a shift apparent on this disc and I believe it was much needed and well done. The only song that doesn't score big is ironically Hawkeye, the lone instumental. Usually the Parsons instrumentals are the best reason to pick up the newest disc, that is not the case with this disc. Still, I do enjoy VC and it is probably in the top 5 of my fave Parson's discs.

As a true diehard Alan Parsons fan (I have all his albums), I was a little disappointed in "Vulture Culture." It may be because by this time Alan seemed to be losing focus on some of his arrangements, and his lyrics began dissolving into meandering gibberish. But please don't take this as entirely negative. The album does have some gems: "Let's Talk About Me", a marvelous plea for recognition; "Days Are Numbers," a tuneful and pensive look at the life on the road; and "Same Old Sun" an appropriate closing to the set. "Hawkeye" is the obligatory Parsons instrumental, but it is not nearly as imaginative as some of his earlier instrumentals like "Pipeline," "I Robot" and "Voyager." However, even a mediocre AP release is better than 90% of the junk now filling the CD racks! Worth a listen!

Michael Butts

Featured on the cover of this 1984 album is the alchemical Ouroboros serpent eating its own tail-a symbol for the cycles of nature.A tad 'lighter'than their previous output in the seventies,this album maintains the same quality that one was accustomed to expect from Alan Parsons,Eric Woolfson&Co.:intelligent lyrics,well written songs permeated by vision and capable of creating a great atmosphere.This was certainly one of the best releases of 1984 and remains representative of that not yet equaled creative 80's decade.