New Scott Walker album: 'The Drift'

words

Well, to be precise, it's one of his only vocals in years!

I listened to "Tilt" recently for the first time in ages, it's an album that gets less impressive the more you listen to it. Still looking forward to the new 'un tho, of course!

Do tell — I've been listening to it the last few days myself...

Geri

Seeing that "Jesse" has a visual element all prepared for the upcoming doc, who would direct the video for "Cossacks Are" aside from SW himself?

http://www.4ad.com/releases/

for those interested in analysis found this disection of the lyrics for "Tilt" in an old ILM discussion....

'A moving aria
for a vanishing
style of mind'

'A noble debut
tackling vertiginous
demands'

'Has absence ever
sounded so eloquent
so sad
I doubt it?'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

'Touching in the
shattered lives
it unearths'

'A nocturne
filled with
glorious ideas'

'A chilling
exploration
of erotic
consumption'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of
white roses

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of
white roses

"That's a
nice suit"
"That's a
swanky suit"

"Been a pope
like no other"

"I'm looking
for a good
cowboy"

'A rare outcry
makes you lead
a larger life'

'You could easily
picture this in
the current top
ten'

'Medieval savagery
calculated cruelty'

'Its hard to pick
the worst moment'

'Its hard to pick
the worst moment'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

i totally agree with this assessment, though sw himself denied it.

having read the lyrics and the notes now, i'm even less inclined to believe there is a meaning to be extracted from most of these songs now. he may say, or have once said, that every

that every moment--music, lyrics--of each song is intended to convey a specific meaning. but if that's really the case, that meaning is so hidden/recessive that it will never be available to anyone other than scott himself

(Reuters Tuesday, February 22, 2005)
Bush was asked by a French reporter if relations were now good enough for Bush to invite Chirac to his Crawford, Texas, and ranch, an honour bestowed by Bush on his closest allies.

"I'm looking for a good cowboy," Bush responded.

(Guardian Unlimited book review/The Pope in Winter: The Dark Face of John Paul II's Papacy
Saturday February 12, 2005)
John Paul II, the Polish pope, born Karol Wojtyla 84 years ago in Wadowice, is perhaps the most extraordinary and influential Christian of modern times. He has "been a pope like no other": not just because of his longevity; not just for supplanting the centuries-old tradition that popes must be Italian;....

(Sunday Times book review /Slavenka Drakuliæ :The Taste of a Man
Abacus March 1998)
'Astonishingly sensuous... a chilling exploration of erotic consumption... engrossing' -- Sunday Times

An easy google search will back up these results.

(BBC news /Tuesday, 12 February, 2002/ "Milosevic accused of 'medieval savagery")
Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte:
"Some of the incidents revealed an almost medieval savagery and a calculated cruelty that went far beyond the bounds of legitimate warfare"

As we are for every other song ever as well.

The Drift (1989). Directed by John Aes-Nihil, based on the Tennessee Williams novel.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183015/fullcredits

His website Archives of Aesthetic Nihilism looks interesting
http://www.aes-nihil.com/

dadmomsis
driving in
the black car

dadmomsis
sighting on
the white line

long come something
in a blinding
light

long gone something
in a blinding
light

dead all dead
ooh all dead

dead all dead
ooh all dead

bloody foot
bloody head

eat the nose
for christmas

eat the toes
for lent

eat the car
for eat-a-car

send the bones
to kent

Robert Nedelkoff did an incredible interpretation of Tilt's lyrics in the zine Nestful of Ninnies I believe, I hope he posts his readings on this album somewhere. Hearing Scott Walker croon "pee-pee my pants" has to be one of the most bizarre musical moments of the year.

Been listening to this a whole lot over the last week. On first listen it sounded kind of flat and, well, slightly disappointing. As noted upthread, very monotonous melody lines. Took me about 6 plays to really warm up to it - but, I am now LOVING this record.

Put 'Tilt' on this evening, and it sounded lush and wondrous like a Burt Bacharach album.

blank mumble
blat babble
song babble

song foaming
at the mouth

won ton
soupie

spit gargle
retch easter
bunny juke

puke

family zoo
me and
you moo

moo moo

the beast
is loose
least
is best

pee pee maw maw

It is very funny how pretty and accessible Tilt sounds next to this!

Tilt is still his best album for me. But this is close.

I thought he might be using the slabs of pork on " Clara" to simulate the crowd's beating of the strung up corpses of Clara Pettaci and Mussollini. Can anyone hear the African/Arabic wailing on " Hands me Up", it adds a nice touch of chaos to the sonic clash and clang. There are more " external" vocal elements (very subtle) on The Drift... as is in the case of " Buzzers".. that sound " Gidda, Gidda, Gidda" after the " stick the fork in him line".

He repeats a lot of animal imagery here as he did on Tilt... with sparrows (Another Pasolini reference), Donkey's, Horses, Crocodiles, and of course ducks. The sexual imagery is more overt with references in " Cue" to clit and Hepatitus... that fine line between animalistic savagery/auto erotic restraint.