VULTURE CULTURE

Now have I come to Alan Parsons Project's eighth studio album "Vulture Culture" and now for the first time with this band I feel forced to kind of let the album down. Compared with other APP albums this is quite mediocre. The red cover shows an ancient find, a snake biting its own tail. The musicians were David Paton, Stuart Elliott, Ian Bairnson, Eric Wooldson, Richard Cottle, Alan Parsons, Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek and Colin Blunstone. The record was released the same year as their earlier "Ammonia avenue" but it holds not the same class.

Vulture Culture starts with a quite nice song "Let's talk about me" which has something of Supertramp in it but in some ways I find it deficient(5/10). I have almost the same thoughts about "Separate lives"(5/10) but "Days are numbers" is inferior unfortunately(4/10). "Sooner or later" then is the album's best song a very melodic and harmonic song with a great flow and a lovely texture(6/10). In the title track the saxophone is amongst the only things I actually liked(4/10). The instrumental "Hawkeye" is second best here(6/10). I like its laziness and the saxophone. "Somebody out there" is a rocky and decent song (5/10) but "The same old sun" feels like something reused and enough uninteresting for me(4/10).

Over all must I say this is Alan Parsons Project's least interesting piece so far. It is not a bad record but I can't place it amongst relevant records. I recommend these songs: "Hawkeye" and "Sooner or later" which are representing the greatness of this band: its ability to combine pop rock music with intelligence and clever song making. But otherwise there are better records to listen to.