The Alan Parsons Project Album: “Vulture Culture”

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.

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

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

,

,

, and, even,

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,

,

, and

have never sounded better! But it is the bonus material on this remaster that I found most compelling. How a gemstone like

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

. 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.

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.

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.