Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rich, dense and beautiful, 22 May 2007
Scott Walker is a new discovery for me, I thought I would check him out after hearing that some of my favourite artists (Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright, Bowie) cite him as a major influence. I learned that this album was one of his worst in terms of sales and got deleted soon after release which I find absurd because this is a classic album! His silky voice croons over lush, string-laden textures and the arrangements are breathtaking, just as good as anything that's around at the moment. The combination of that distinctive voice, quality songwriting and powerful lyrical content makes this timeless music. To top it off, it has been digitally remastered and booms out of the speakers! Trust me, this album is worthy of your pennies.
|
|
|
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pearls Before Swine, 4 Aug 2007
You have to appreciate an album like this in the context of the times in which it was made. In my humble opinion, Scott had already made his rare and beautiful masterpiece - Scott 3 - but he was unhappy that too much of that album had been conceived in 3/4 time and therefore there wasn't much differentiation between tracks. Such are the hang-ups with minutiae that great artists have, and who am I to argue that Scott was WRONG WRONG WRONG! Any album containing songs of the calibre of Big Louise, It's Raining Today, We Came Through, 30 Century Man, Two Ragged Soldiers, plus his inimitable take on Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away), deserves a place in any serious record collection. What you get on Scott 3 is pure unadulterated Scott to tug away at the heartstrings, but here's the rub: that was an album that charted, just like the previous two, though not as high up. Maybe it was too much of Scott for most tastes, but more likely that it was a finer distillation of his two previous outings (let's not forget the fine original classics both of those albums contain: Montague Terrace, Plastic Palace People, Such A Small Love, etc.) and what most people were looking for was The Walker Bros. mk II.
Without a trace of irony, then, Scott 4 was conceived in order to win back some of that audience that had drifted away. That it was intended for popular consumption at all seems almost astonishing to me. Songs like Seventh Seal, i.e., almost a transliteral commentary on the Bergman film of the same name (watch it, then listen to the song, and be amazed at its accuracy), the Mahler-like strings and spaciness of the classic Boychild, the Bo Diddley skank of Hero Of The War, the Dylanesque simplicity of Rhymes Of Goodbye, and the almost progressive rock-out of Get Behind Me. Something for everyone, you'll agree, but had it been made today, i.e., most people would never get to hear of it unless it was nominated for the Mercury awards or by chance surfing the net. There are certainly few media outlets for music of such quality today. Great as Scott 4 undoubtedly is, it's one of those adorable children who just can't find a place in the big world, destined to fade into obscurity, much like Scott's subsequent output: both paradox and enigma, that such craft and beauty and, above all, such a great voice must needs be buried under the weight of past expectations. The ultimate failure of this album was a real kick in the teeth for Scott (who never recovered). There are subsequent highs: No Regrets, Lines, Nite Flights, Sleepwalker's Woman, The Electrician, Farmer In The City, and at least Scott's content to plough his own random and sporadic furrow, but you cannot invest as much as he did in those late sixties records to reap such scant reward without it affecting your whole outlook, I'm certain. Still, had Scott not gone out on such a limb, or had he not tried to ensnare the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake of popular song, we wouldn't have half of what we have today. Scott was and always will be that rarest of pop creatures: a true visionary. Long may he be content to drift.
|
|
|
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece, only heard by a priveliged few..., 24 Jul 2002
In the recording studio in 1993, Radiohead's Thom Yorke started to rehearse something with the working title of "Our Scott Walker Song". The song would eventually be released under the title "Creep" and it would become one of the greatest songs of the Nineties. Yet it wouldn't make it onto this album. Scott 4 is without a doubt the pinnacle of this remarkable man's catalogue and is one of the most beautifully atmospheric LP's ever made. It is an immensely varied work, from the charging brass intro to The Seventh Seal to the gentle acoustic strum of The Angels Of Ashes. However, the voice is the focal point, and behind Jeff Buckley, Scott Walker is probably the greatest singer to have ever lived. On Your Own Again, the second track, doesn't even last two minutes, yet manages to convey more emotion than Coldplay will probably manage in their whole career. The whole album is incredibly engulfing and consumes the listener. In musical terms, it is very hard to imagine if you haven't heard it before. Try to think of Sinatra's "In the Wee Small Hours" mixed with Nick Drake's "Bryter Layter". Actually, it's a lot better than that even. Track five, Boy Child is, in my opinion, the peak of music itself, The Best Song Ever written, across any musical medium in any time period. Beautiful lyrics, and a tune that I would be quite happy to listen to for the rest of my life. It is a crying shame that so few people have heard this astonishing album. People who would like to think they have any reasonable knowledge of music will already own Revolver, Blood On The Tracks, The Queen Is Dead and OK Computer. If you'd like to think you are one of these people, then you really should own this record too. Without it, your experience of music is incomplete.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
