Scott Walker....Thoughts?

[Scruffynerfherder]

I was introduced to Scott Walker.... Really diggin this album. Just wanted to hear some other thoughts and opinions.....

This album is genius

[Baribrotzer]

Fascinating stuff, and Out There.

He's one of those artists who occupies his own musical universe, and at this point said universe has become quite distant from anyone or anything else. The closest, perhaps, might be later David Bowie - upon whom Scott was a large and acknowledged influence. However, Scott seems to have no interest any more in pop music, whereas Bowie still retained some connection with the sound, form, and hooks of rock and pop, even if he sometimes got rather far away from them. And while Bowie's last album, Blackstar, could be seen as Bowie finally casting off all commercial pressure, it could also be seen as a love letter to Scott's music and to Scott's defiant independence from The Biz.

Tilt is Scott's last album where you can hear some sort of direct connection to the rest of the musical world, where you hear something relatable to other peoples' songs. After that, the musical backing became closer to eerie, sparse sound effects - but usually created with instruments, not samples - than what would usually be described as accompaniment. Sometime it isn't sparse at all, but almost never does it include the chords, riffs, bass line, or regular beat that almost anyone else would deem necessary to a finished production. And over all this, Scott's otherworldly crooning floats on melodies unmoored from the gravitational effect of conventional harmony, intoning abstract and often impenetrable lyrics; and even when you do know what he's singing about, it doesn't get any easier to follow.

[philsunset]

^^^^ Well said. Scott is one of the TRUE progressive artists. His older music is well liked by many but maybe the world will catch up to and appreciate his later works. Not to mention his still amazing voice.

[JKL2000]

So when his presidential bid fell through he had this to fall back on?

[Zeuhlmate]

Fascinating stuff, and Out There.

He's one of those artists who occupies his own musical universe, and at this point said universe has become quite distant from anyone or anything else. The closest, perhaps, might be later David Bowie - upon whom Scott was a large and acknowledged influence. However, Scott seems to have no interest any more in pop music, whereas Bowie still retained some connection with the sound, form, and hooks of rock and pop, even if he sometimes got rather far away from them. And while Bowie's last album, Blackstar, could be seen as Bowie finally casting off all commercial pressure, it could also be seen as a love letter to Scott's music and Scott's defiant independence from The Biz, and sometimes came stylistically fairly close to it.

Tilt is Scott's last album where you can hear some sort of direct connection to the rest of the musical world, where you hear something relatable to other peoples' songs. After that, the musical backing became closer to eerie, sparse sound effects - but usually created with instruments, not samples - than what would usually be described as accompaniment. Sometime it isn't at all sparse, but almost never do you hear the chords, riffs, bass line, or beat that almost anyone else would deem necessary to a finished production. And over all this, Scott's otherworldly crooning floats on melodies unmoored from the gravitational effect of conventional harmony, intoning abstract and often impenetrable lyrics; and even when you do know what he's singing about, it doesn't get any easier to follow.

That pretty much sum it up.

[Baribrotzer]

So when his presidential bid fell through he had this to fall back on?

I sometimes refer to the Scott Walker we're discussing here as "the real Scott Walker," to distinguish him from the Wisconsin politician, whom I consider a stain upon the good name of Scott Walker. Ironically, "the real Scott Walker" is in fact named Scott Engel. He adopted his stage name while playing in the Sixties pop band The Walker Brothers, none of whom were named Walker, and who were not brothers.

[JKL2000]

Ironically, "the real Scott Walker" is in fact named Scott Engel. He adopted his stage name while playing in the Sixties pop band The Walker Brothers, none of whom were named Walker, and who were not brothers.

If only they'd all called each other Bruce, it would have been so much easier...

[mjudge]

Maybe my favorite musician, right now and for the last several years. Tilt, The Drift, and Bish Bosch are right up there with my favorite records of the last twenty-odd years, and the latter two would be atop my list of best albums of the '00s.

[flytomars]

So, any recommendations for the non-initiated? Are these three that were mentioned a good starting point or is there a must-have from pre-2000?

[Kcrimso]

Tilt is a masterpiece. One of my all-time favorite albums.

[Udi Koomran]

So, any recommendations for the non-initiated? Are these three that were mentioned a good starting point or is there a must-have from pre-2000?

Try his latest Collaboration with Sun))))))

[mjudge]

So, any recommendations for the non-initiated? Are these three that were mentioned a good starting point or is there a must-have from pre-2000?

Tilt is the most accessible of his recent records; I think The Drift and Bish Bosch are utter masterpieces, and I wouldn't quite go that far for Tilt, but it's probably the best point of entry. His side of the Walker Brothers' Nite Flights is also great and much more song-oriented than his latterday work, and if you can get past the '80s production, there's some really good stuff on Climate of Hunter, too (which has to be the only album ever to feature guest spots from both Billy Ocean and Evan Parker).

[Chain]

[moecurlythanu]

I'm listening to the vid in the OP, and have made it around 10 minutes in. Am I wrong in hearing an Andrew Lloyd Webber quality to this?

[revporl]

Maybe my favorite musician, right now and for the last several years. Tilt, The Drift, and Bish Bosch are right up there with my favorite records of the last twenty-odd years, and the latter two would be atop my list of best albums of the '00s.

Yes, just that!

[mjudge]

To give you an idea of what you're in for with The Drift, here's one of my favorite pieces of music by anybody ever, Scott's mini-opera about Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci during the last days of World War II:

[mjudge]

And, for me, Scott is far and away the best lyricist on Earth right now. Much as I love Tom Waits, David Bowie, John Cale, David Sylvian, certain things by Bob Dylan and Nick Cave, Scott's really the only "songwriter" I can think of whose work actually stands up without the music.

[100423]

To give you an idea of what you're in for with The Drift, here's one of my favorite pieces of music by anybody ever, Scott's mini-opera about Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci during the last days of World War II:

That is my favorite album of his, and one of my favorite songs on that album. I need to get, Soused. The album that is...

[N_Singh]

Meh. Screw that weird shit. Just given to the overwhelming sonorous beauty of Scott 1, Scott 2, Scott 3, and Scott 4. And don't forget to check out the Jacques Brel album.

[regenerativemusic]

Thanks for this thread. I tried to get into him a few years ago but didn't have the time to really focus on him. Now I do, and I'm pleasantly surprised. The only one that comes to mind immediately as being able to do all the instruments and sing and write good lyrics is Hammill. It seems like he might have influenced Nick Drake.

[Drake]

It's Walker and Sylvian. Always developing their sound.

[Interstellar]

Listening to The Drift was my first SW experience, and obviously it was a shock. Equally disturbing and fascinating.
Now I'll probably go back in time and work my way in chronological order.

[Baribrotzer]

Scott has a new one out.

It's called The Childhood of a Leader, and consists of the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Brady Corbet, who wrote and directed that film, apparently wanted Scott to score it, as his first choice. In interviews, Corbet said that despite Scott's reputation for reclusiveness, he was quite pleased to do it and easy to work with - open to discussion, focused, very professional, and delivered excellent work. And that's important because Scott's music is essential to the film: in a way, it serves as a narrator, and was intentionally mixed quite loud.

However, for those who want to hear more of Scott's unique voice and lyrics, you'll have to wait. It's entirely instrumental, mostly scored for a 60-or-so-piece orchestra of strings and brass, plus a bit of percussion and synths toward the end - uncredited, but apparently played by Scott and his usual collaborators, Peter Walsh (co-producer) and Mark Warman (orchestrator and conductor). Stylistically, the music is avant-classical from start to finish, with little or nothing discernible of Scott's pop-music background. Yet that still appears in couple of ways: There's an odd sort of tunefulness to some of it, in spite of its fiercely 20th-Century harmonic and sonic palette and its extreme dissonance, a tunefulness rare among "real" modern classical composers. Not all of it has that quality, indeed quite a bit sounds like the backgrounds on his recent albums, more like sound effects produced with instruments than anything you'd conventionally call "music". But a certain amount of it does have melodies - harsh and spiky melodies to be sure, but melodies nonetheless. Also, its musical structures often echo the songwriting tradition Scott originally comes from: four-bar phrases, repeats, clear-cut A and B and C sections, build-ups over repeated passages, and other familiar musical elements often shunned by formally trained composers in favor of through-composition and equally "difficult" forms.

Besides the score, the album (which is short, more like an EP in length) contains an epilogue of sorts: Scott's music for a scene not used in the final version. And this illuminates a bit of his working methods - it's played by synths instead of the orchestra, and sounds like the output of a scoring program. Which is to say, it seems to show that the way he actually sits down and writes that strange, difficult stuff might be surprisingly straightforward and non-mysterious.

As for the film itself, it was Brady Corbet's first time directing, although he's acted quite a bit. Set in 1918, it deals with a nine-year-old boy whose father is an American diplomat in the midst of negotiating the Versailles Treaty; it also deals with the appearance and rise of Fascism. While various particulars of the boy's experiences and personality echo the biographies of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Peron, and others, none of them fit entirely - and that's clearly intentional. One could say that, rather than anyone specific, the boy is a symbol for Fascism itself, from his childhood as a friendless, thoroughly unpleasant, simultaneously abused and spoiled brat in a thoroughly dysfunctional upper-class family, to a brief glimpse of his adulthood as something much more and much worse.

So is the album worth getting? That depends on your interest in 20th Century orchestral music and soundtracks. I think it's just fine, although most of it does consist of short cues, and its instrumental nature means that it lacks Scott's voice or words. But it hangs together in a way unlike much of Scott's vocal material - without his voice to provide continuity and a narrative, Scott had to write music that could tell the story on its own, and I think it does that quite well.

[Kcrimso]

"The Childhood Of A Leader" is great. Just listened it again today. Especially "Opening" is stunning piece of music.

[100423]

Hmmm. I need to check it out. Thanks for the info, John.