This Is How You Disappear- despite borrowing its title from "Patriot", a track on CD3- is an alternate "greatest hits," focusing on Walker's later, more avant-garde releases. Where's the Girl? is subtitled Songs of Lady, Love and Loss, but as its proper title suggests, the emphasis is on "loss." The third disc, An American in Europe, divvies up his ruminations on his home and adopted home- thankfully including only one of his country-rock songs. The UK releases were only a slightly better bet: Sings Jacques Brel and Boy Child- which compiles the best of Walker's own writing from 1967-1970- are merely adequate snapshots of one particular phase of Walker's career.Ī specialist approach was also attempted by the compilers of 5 Easy Pieces, in which each of the set's discs is arranged by theme, or "ways into the heart of Scott Walker." The In My Room disc collects kitchen-sink dramas and lonely howls at the moon. Of the latter, Razor & Tie's It's Raining Today is far too Spartan and scattershot to be recommended. After that release, Walker drifted further into reclusion, releasing solo albums in 1984 ( Climate of Hunter) and 1995 ( Tilt), only recently re-surfacing to do soundtrack, songwriting, and production work for (or alongside) artists ranging from Pulp to Ute Lemper to Sonic Youth.Įarlier attempts to compile Walker's career have focused either solely on The Walker Brothers or his initial solo output. Angular pieces with opaque lyrics and elements of both Krautrock and Sheffield's burgeoning electronic scene, Walker's new work couldn't have been further from the Nashville-tinged dirges that the Brothers Mk. Yet, unexpectedly, on a third Walker Brothers comeback album, 1978's Nite Flights, Scott kicked off the second half of his career, offering four original tracks- his first compositions in eight years. When a couple of mid-70s albums by the reunited Walker Brothers did little to stir the commercial or critical pot, Walker's career seemed stranded. During this time, he hosted his own TV variety show and released five limp albums of standards, film themes, and country-tinged pop covers. After 1970's 'Til the Band Comes In- a quick follow-up split evenly between Walker originals and covers- also tanked, Walker spent the rest of the first half of that decade returning to his balladeer roots. The commercial failure of Walker's fourth (and best) solo album, Scott 4- the first of his releases to feature only his own songwriting, and one criminally not represented on this box by either "Duchess" or "Two Ragged Soldiers"- dented his confidence. These songs, colored by existentialist musings, overweight prostitutes, Josef Stalin, The Seventh Seal, and the Sisyphean struggles of vulnerable, damaged souls, didn't sit well with his established fanbase. Soon, however, Walker shifted from song interpretations to original compositions. More a Left Bank stylist than a Las Vegas one, Walker's earliest solo records are best characterized by bawdy, cabaret-esque Jacques Brel covers. run consisted of just two top 20 singles.) The group disbanded in 1967, and Walker released four solo albums over the next three years, laying his expressive and sometimes bombastic vocals over lush string and horn arrangements. Born Scott Engel in Ohio, Walker was one-third of The Walker Brothers, a group of ex-pats sold back to America as the crooner arm of the British Invasion, but it was in the UK that The Walker Brothers had the most success, enjoying a pair of #1 singles and rivaling The Beatles, Stones, and Monkees as the biggest-selling band of the mid-1960s.
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