The Vultures - Three Mothers Part 2

If you’re a fan of macabre, twisted songs backed by baroque strings, The Vultures are guaranteed to be your cuppa. Two years ago, The Vultures released Three Mothers (Pt. 1). Here’s Pt. 2, an EP. I won’t touch on the reasoning behind the marketing but combined with Pt.1, you have a more than a complete album on your hands.  

Part 2 begins with the sweet yet, willfully ominous, ‘Ballad of The Werewolf’. A song that is out for more than just a leisurely stroll home from the Pub. With its churning strings and wistful melody, its an opening cut that can't help but seduce the unsuspecting.

Albert Camus once quipped, “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” 
Taking their cue from the French Existentialist, ‘Suicide’ is a hit single if I ever heard one. Pulsing strings set to a sardonic baritone. The song’s accompanying video is downright demonic, giving the bunny in Donnie Darko a run for its creepiness.

Elsewhere, ‘Le Denier Jour’ (The Last Day) sounds like it could be lifted straight off one of Mick Harvey’s English Serge Gainsbourg tributes. The Vultures’ front man nearly a dead ringer for Harvey vocally. Speaking of Gainsbourg, it’s clear the old roué is big influence on this outfit. Despite that, there is nothing imitative going on here. In fact, it’s a cue that reveals tremendous taste, if you ask me.

‘Rumpelstiltskin’ takes on the classic fable with suitable perversity. More than anything this track reminds me of something out of some Kurt Weill operetta. It all goes to show there is indeed a theatrical flair to this band. "Life is not mandatory," our narrator quips. Some of the fiddle work here reminds me of David Bowie's 'Yassassin' off Lodger.

‘The Bat and I’ is the most driving track on this EP. “Sick dreams and demented minds” pretty much sums up the lyrical proceedings. I can see a group of drunken Cossacks dervishing on tables to this one.

The Vultures bring this dark little cabaret to a close with ‘Substance’.  Lines like, “There is no cure for what we have not got”, reveal a wit and humor missing from much of today’s commercial Pop. Musically, its the most cinematic cut.

There isn’t much press on this band and from what I can gather they’ve been kicking around since 2013. Something tells me the sewers of Paris would be prime real estate for these minstrels. Beyond their influences, they nod toward the same Grand Guignol as The Tiger Lillies whilst haunting the same dark alleys as Timber Timbre. All I can say is, my appetite is whetted and I’m looking forward to hearing much more from The Vultures. Wonderful stuff.