The second side of Vulture Culture kicks off with the title track. The song is sonically constructed in a favored Project style. It begins with just a couple of instruments and adds parts as the song continues. Parsons uses this trick often in his work, but this ranks as one of the most effective. The bass line (which I'm not sure is played by a synth or a bass guitar...if I had to guess I'd say a guitar dripping with effects) takes the lead part here with a low moaning sax and ethereal keyboards adding atmosphere. The rather sparse arrangement is continued through the verses and the chorus, but the drums get heavier adding to the weight of the track. The building up on tension in the song is released after the guitar solo when the chorus is brought out for the last time.
The lyric is as stark as the instrumentation, presenting the harshness of a cut throat economic landscape. However the view is "top down" as opposed to "bottom up." It is in fact a cynical call to be co-opted by some sort of capitalistic carnival barker.
Vulture culture,
use it or you loose it.
Vulture culture,
choose it or refuse it.
Hollywood is waiting striking up the band.
Everyone one on wall street shakes you by the hand.
Such a vulture culture, never lend a loser a hand.
It's a vulture culture, living off the fat of the land.
So there is presented only one choice, be a winner or a loser. However, in this case being a "winner" is more parasitical than anything else. The song really isn't about offering alternatives, but it does underscore a less savory dark side of economic success in the Western mode.
The instrumental track "Hawkeye" is next. It is a bright, bouncy, and almost cartoonish number that sounds like it would be at home in a funny Bugs Bunny short. Once again the saxophone plays a prominent role, but it is really the percussion and synths that lead he way. There is a very interesting tambourine sound that seems sampled into a kind of sonically blurred white noise. It is tremendously effective.
"Somebody Out There" returns to the theme of self alienation touched upon indirectly in the tracks "Sooner or Later" and, to a lesser extent, "Vulture Culture." IN this lyric the protagonist is a bit of a mess.
Maybe I'm imagining the things they say about me
Maybe there is really nothing there at all.
Standing in the middle while the rumors fly around me,
hiding from the shadow on an empty wall.
When my back is turned he's up to something else,
and I must not stop believing in myself.
Am I dreaming?
Will the nightmare just go on and never end?
Somebody out there
says that he's you.
Somebody out there
talks like you do.
he calls up your number
you cant get through.
Somebody out there.
At this point in the lyric it can be read as a complaint about another person, but as the song continues it becomes clear that the disconnect here is within the individual.
I wish that I could run away and leave it all behind me.
I wish I wasn't hurt by all the things they say.
If I didn't need to know the simple truth about me,
wouldn't it be easier to walk away?
And I don't need more confusion in my life,
no more pain and disillusion in my life.
If I'm dreaming,
Will the nightmare just go on and never end?
Somebody out there
using your name.
Somebody out there
you get the blame.
There's doubt and suspicion
it's hard to explain.
Somebody out there.
The vocals are handled by Colin Blunstone (best known as the lead vocalist for The Zombies), to good effect. His voice has a breathy quality that lends itself to the uncertainty inherent in the song. The protagonist is uncertain of just about everything, and Blunstone's performance gets across the questioning and even a touch of hysteria of the character.
The music in much of a piece with he rest of the album. Keyboards take the lead playing several riffs throughout the song. It may have benefited by featuring more electric guitar up front, but Parsons chooses to hold back and put heavier guitar only on the bridge sections. ("And I don't need more confusion in my life...") It works well in those sections, but the absence of heavy guitar in the rest of the song makes it feel a little lighter than it maybe should. (The same criticism could be levelled against the Parsons produced album by Keats, which is basically the lineup of "Somebody Out There" (Ian Bairnson, guitar; David Paton, bass; Stuart Elliot, drums; Colin Blunstone, vocals) with the addition of keyboardist Peter Bardens.)
The last song on the album is the wonderful ballad "The Same Old Sun." It is here that the Beach Boys influences come most to the front. The Project had flirted with Beach Boys homage before, most notably on the instrumental "Secret Garden" from the album Eve, but nothing else they ever did was as Brian Wison-ish as this song.
It begins softly with clear, almost bell like keyboards, with the clipping of cymbals adding accent, while Eric Woolfson begins the lyric:
Tell me what to do,
now the light in my life is gone from me.
Is it always the same? Is the night never ending?
Tell me what to do,
all the hopes and dreams went wrong for me.
There's a smile on my face but I'm only pretending.
Taking my life one day at a time
'cause I can't think what else to do.
Taking some time to make up my mind,
when there's no one to ask but you.
There is no way around it. The verses contain a melancholy message. But the message is clear. After the pain and hardships are inflicted upon us, life continues and offers hope.
The same old sun will shine in the morning,
the same bright eyes will welcome me home.
And the moon will rise way over my head,
and get through the night alone.
And the same old sun will shine in the morning,
the same bright stars will welcome me home.
And the clouds will rise way over my head
I'll get through the night on my own.
The touch of defiance and self perseverance is a welcome relief after the skeptical and negative tone permeating most of the album's lyrics. The music also swells around the hopeful words of the song reaching its climax in the outro. This has lead many to claim that the song has orchestration, but it doesn't. It "feels" as if it does, but that is only because Parsons has done his job perfectly. It is emotionally manipulative in the best possible way, and when Bairnson's guitar comes in echoing the melody line of the lyric it sounds like a moment of triumph.
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