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Vulture Culture

Alan Parsons Project - Vulture Culture Audio CD

A fair review of the Alan Parsons Project "Vulture Culture" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Alan Parsons Project reviews here, or go back to the Alan Parsons Project tabs.

Band: Alan Parsons Project
Title: Vulture Culture
Rating:

Release Date: 2009-03-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Let's Talk About Me - The Alan Parsons Project 2: Separate Lives - Alan Parsons 3: Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) - The Alan Parsons Project 4: Sooner or Later - The Alan Parsons Project 5: Vulture Culture - Alan Parsons 6: Hawkeye - The Alan Parsons Project 7: Somebody Out There - Alan Parsons 8: Same Old Sun - The Alan Parsons Project 9: No Answers Only Questions [Final Version][*] - The Alan Parsons Project 10: Separate Lives [Alternative Mix][*] - The Alan Parsons Project 11: Hawkeye [*][Demo Version] - The Alan Parsons Project 12: Naked Vulture [*] - Alan Parsons 13: No Answers Only Questions [The First Attempt][*] - The Alan Parsons Project

Excellent!!!
I had to replace an old lp long gone. Excellent as always. I still need to get a few more. I saw Alan Parsons Project about 10 years ago and then Alan Parsons with other artists at Summerfest in Milwaukee about 8 years ago. He/they were great!! .

Not the best place to start
There are some worthy moments on this cd but you would be advised to start somewhere else. If you are curious to explore APPs music then don't start here. This album was meant to be used along with Ammonia Avenue to make a double album. The project was changed into two separate works and the production used for this album was changed to try to fit the times. That was a sad mistake that the APP would never recover from.

Starting with this album from 1985 the quality of their work diminished and APP faded from the music scene and would not resurface with another great album until 1996's On Air. I still think that this album is worth buying but if you like art-rock, then don't do yourself the injustice of giving yourself a lower impression of the Alan Parsons Project by buying this one first. I would rate this album high in APPs ouvre only for the best album cover and title in their catalog. This album saw the removal of the lush orchestrations that APP used in previous works and made the album more synth based to keep up with the 80s trend to used more keyboards. These changes marred what could've been a much better album.

Highlights:
Let's Talk About Me
Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)
Vulture Culture
Hawkeye
The Same Old Sun

Alan Parson's albums in order of preference

Eye In The Sky
The Turn Of A Friendly Card
Ammonia Avenue
Eve
I Robot
On Air
Time Machine
Pyramid

(Sorry folks, not a fan of Tales of Mystery and Imagination)

The remastering job on all APP albums is amongst the best I've ever heard. If you buy any of their albums get the Alan Parsons remasters.

Rave review from one of Vulture Culture's Greatest Detractors!
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. Upon my first few listenings of this remaster, I slowly came to grips with the fact that I never really given the eighth "Project" a fair shake despite all the opportunities to do so over the course of twenty some odd years. 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.

Outstanding and Perhaps Life Changing
I know how it feels - the guilt, the pressure, the head games. If you are in some sort of co-dependent relationship or just ready to break it off with someone and move on with your life, this album will give you the push you may need. When Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson created this album, they unknowingly may have helped many na�ve young guys (like myself at the time) make some grown-up decisions that would make a world of difference later in life.

The songs on this album are truly inspiring and thought-provoking. This album was released in 1984, two years after their popular album "Eye in the Sky. " The songs are pop- and radio-friendly, with very catchy tunes and lyrics with real meaning.

Track 1 Let's Talk About Me *****
Track 2 Separate Lives *****
Track 3 Days are Numbers (The Traveller) *****
Track 4 Sooner or Later *****
Track 5 Vulture Culture ****
Track 6 Hawkeye (Instrumental) *****
Track 7 Somebody Out There ****
Track 8 The Same Old Sun ****

The album as a whole is a 5-star masterpiece, and the fact that it was so instrumental (pun intended) in helping me to "move on," makes it even more so. Bravo to Alan and Eric, and thank you.

My review is for the original album with 8 songs, not the one with the extra 5 demo tracks.
.

Outstanding addition to the Alan Parsons experience i love it!
Great album, highly recommended! If your a Parsons fan its a cant miss experience!.

You can see a complete list of all Alan Parsons Project discography, or go back to the Alan Parsons Project tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.