New Scott Walker album: 'The Drift'

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Terrifying! How can something so scarey and operatic sound so right? I normally hate this kind of thing when it's done by bands like say In The Woods or some other Goth/Metal but the fact it's by Scott Walker (whom I'm afraid to say I have only previously heard on the Scott 4) just makes it awesome.

Can anyone give insight into how/why he's decided to go down the road of nightmare soundscape operas in his old age? I'm not complaining, it's just so fricking bizarre for someone who used to be a 60s crooner.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Sunday, 21 January 2007 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

it's not a sudden change of direction, he's been heading down this road since "Nite Flights" (1978) at least.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 21 January 2007 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

okay. i guess i need a bit of educating. it was such a shock for me you see.

just finished listening to the whole thing (i had to listen in sittings) and it is awesome. the donald duck voice! ARGH!

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Sunday, 21 January 2007 17:11 (nineteen years ago)

i love Scott but i don't really listen to this. Tilt is much greater.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 21 January 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

It seems to be available as an "overstock" via Amazon. Did they overestimate its popularity? Seems like it would be an expensive mistake, what with the nice booklet and all.

BTW I have never really listend to this album properly. I wonder if I ever will.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 22 January 2007 11:30 (nineteen years ago)

You should.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 January 2007 11:38 (nineteen years ago)

I got it as a freebie download off emusic.

It actually is sort of what I expected, even though the only solo scott of this ilk that I know is "The Electrician" (i know, I know)..

As someone says, it is very "post-punk" gothic, and all the good for that.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 22 January 2007 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

great album. I go back to it a lot. this weekend I listened to it on a plane. not recommended if you're a nervous flier.

"I'm the only one left alive."

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:05 (nineteen years ago)

That only put me in mind of the Dalek's "I am alone in the universe" off Dr Who, recently.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

You know, I've been waiting for someone to make an album like this all my life and I just didn't realise it. The fact that he can do something like this and not be panned as experimental quasigoth art wank is a miracle unto itself. IT's the equivalent of someone walking along a tightrope and nearly falling off every five seconds but somehow not. What he'd fall into is too awful to mention.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:19 (nineteen years ago)

Unfortunately it received a worse critical treatment than the "experimental quasigoth art wank" drubbing you'd expect; it was patronised with three-star reviews and a general "oh it's just Scott" air as opposed to PROPER experimentation like er Joanna Newsom.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:22 (nineteen years ago)

really? online reviews have been mostly favourable I thought?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:31 (nineteen years ago)

Online yes, but not in print media.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

Dunno, their Metacritic ratings are a dead heat:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/walkerscott/drift?q=scott%20walker#critics

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/newsomjoanna/ys?q=newsom#critics

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 22 January 2007 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

That Donald Duck voice at the end of the penultimate track makes me jump out of my skin every time i hear it!

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 22 January 2007 15:43 (nineteen years ago)

i gave it a good print review. and my word is law.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 22 January 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

I saw the trailer for '30th century man' last night, it looks really good.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 22 January 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, the trailer has been on the web for ages. i like listening to his interviews.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 22 January 2007 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

I ordered Tilt yesterday. I'm excited.

― Ivan G (Ivan), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 03:07 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, you should be. Re "The Drift" vs "Tilt" i'm kinda surprised at how hard it is for me to compare two such similar (broadly, comp to the rest of music mostly etc, made by clearly same dude w/similar tools) recs. There's something deeply diff about them which w/any luck I will NUT OUT when I attempt a review. Timely!

― 808 the Bassking (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 10:57 (nineteen years ago)

this album was selling like hotcakes for a period last year. at least at local indie store. did tilt do the same in 95/97?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:15 (nineteen years ago)

I still haven't really listened to it properly - I mean, I've heard it multiple times on my MP3 gizmo on various bus journeys but, in full, off CD, up reasonably loud, through my stereo - no. There are some records you sort of need an evening without the rest of your family around to enjoy. (Late night headphone listening after everyone's gone to bed = not being able to hear crying children* that I need to attend to [* except those conjured by Walker]).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

Tilt went Top 30, which possibly could only have happened in a year like 1995.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

jarvis cocker's endorsement helped perhaps?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

The limited edition 1000-copy vinyl issue probably did more to help - there was no explicit Jarvis endorsement back in '95.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

there was no explicit Jarvis endorsement back in '95

Indeed, the week after Walker's performance on Later: With Jools Holland, Cocker was interviewed by Holland on the show, did a little impersonation of Walker doing Rosary ("Oo-wah-oo") and said something to the effect of "it was very strange". I mean, he probably said it semi-admiringly but I don't think he was urging people to buy the record, matily concurring with Holland's befuddlement.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

this album was selling like hotcakes for a period last year. at least at local indie store. did tilt do the same in 95/97?

no. "the drift" has almost double the sales of "tilt" in far less time.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

27 Scott Walker Tilt May 1995
53 Scott Walker The Drift May 2006

Looks like half the sales.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

hi marcello, i live in the united states, so that was what i was talking about. thanks.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

I would have thought "The Drift" would have sold substantially more, if not in a single territory then globally (little bits here and there) mainly due to the expansion in the cult of walker or whatever, which is definitely more appreciable than 5 years ago or whatever.

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

whatever=11 or 12 years?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

I had another listen to some of it last night. I think it is going to take a long time to sink in, if it ever does.

Tilt was on a major label, so you could get it more or less anywhere. I don't know if that is true of The Drift. I don't even know if 4AD is part of something else now.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

I think the whole way the album chart is done has changed so much!

When the Who's first album was re-released by Virgin, it charted quite highly.

When it was recently 'deluxed' in stereo and with extra unreleased tracks on the 2nd CD, it made no impression. But I bet you know someone who has one.

Have 'deluxe' editions ever made the album chart?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

No, but given their general high prices (which is why they are "Deluxe" editions) they are not tailored towards the mass market, hence they don't chart. They sell gradually and steadily.

Also, the first reissue of My Generation coincided with the Mod revival, Quadrophenia, the Jam and all that.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:29 (nineteen years ago)

More damaging to The Drift was the decision of Universal to issue a spoiler best-of compilation one week prior to its release, so that went Top 30 and The Drift got buried. No doubt this was deliberate.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

Do those things get 'reissued' rather than 'made'?

I mean, how many 'greatest hits' are there covering Scott/Walker Bros?

There was a "New" monkees hits comp, being sold alongside the 'previous' one which is now £5.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:45 (nineteen years ago)

Five-year marketing renewal/customer awareness strategy innit.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:46 (nineteen years ago)

Was that "Classics and Collectables"? The second disc of that is pretty duff and the first disc is "already got it".

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

No, it was a straightforward Walker Brothers/Accessible Scott best of tailored for Radio 2 listeners; you can probably guess the track listing.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 24 January 2007 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

The Scott Walker Five Easy Pieces (?) box set is going for a fiver in the Bond Street/Oxford Street branch of HMV. They had about six left last night, some with crumpled packaging, but then the packaging is fairly disposable anyway, being just a cardboard tray in a slipcase.

They also had some stuff for a pound, like Hairy Cornflake John Martyn albums, and some Van Morrison stuff.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 1 February 2007 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

Very tempted by that, PJM - might wander up there today. There's some Pola X and Ute ThumperFromBambi stuff on it, isn't there? As well as a few tracks from 'Til The Band Comes In which seems to have been deleted on regular CD. Mind you, in the original pressing, one of the discs had a dead channel - no way of knowing whether these are affected.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

I think this might be a later pressing, or from Australia or something, because of the poor packaging. You can also get it for several times the price in a nice hardback book packaging with truer colours, etc. Inside there are five CDs in individual card sleeves, one of which appears to be "dark" stuff and one of which is film stuff. But I haven't really looked very closely yet.

I hope the Walker Brothers box set goes down to a fiver one day as well.

Oh, there was also an Eno album for a pound, but I was put of by the presence of Daniel Lanois.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:09 (nineteen years ago)

Was it Apollo? That's lovely, that is. I've had that record (on rather thin EG vinyl) for about 20 years so, if there's a stupidly cheap remaster going, I'll have that too.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:12 (nineteen years ago)

Something to do with the moon, yes.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:30 (nineteen years ago)

Some review copies of the third CD (An American In Europe) had a dead right channel but mine was OK.

I have expressed my deep reservations about this box set in the past but at a fiver it does provide the opportunity to pick up some otherwise hard-to-get material...and for the two Ute Lemper tracks alone I would deem it essential.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

I may make a trip later then...

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 1 February 2007 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Five Easy Pieces was one of the few things the Wire has ever slagged off, mainly for the duff channel on one of the CDs.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Thursday, 1 February 2007 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

I'd buy it for a fiver

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 1 February 2007 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

So would I. Oh well.

― N.i.c.o.l.e (Ex Leon), Thursday, 1 February 2007 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

It looks like it's going to be a bit of a race down to HMV at lunchtime then. I might rip the stuff I haven't got off the Walker box and sell it on eBay.

Sorry, I was only to supposed to think that, not type it.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 1 February 2007 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

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