Monday, May 22, 2006

Scott Walker's "The Drift"

There is a review of Scott Walker's latest, The Drift, in the New York Times. Let's take a look:

"Most of the songs are slow, yet utterly devoid of the comfort of ballads. Dissonant orchestral strings appear and disappear, swelling or muttering or shivering high overhead. Lone instruments, like a fluegelhorn or a slide guitar, loom up out of silence. Electronic sounds lurk in dim recesses."
...
"'Jesse,' which he has described as his song about 9/11, is also about Elvis Presley's stillborn twin; it starts with a barely recognizable hint of 'Jailhouse Rock' and ends with Mr. Walker singing, completely unaccompanied, 'I'm the only one left alive.'" [That sounds awesome! -jh]
...
"In 'Hand Me Ups' he imagines how it feels to be crucified; the backup includes an Arabic-inflected voice, a giant bass saxophone called a tubax, a screaming woman and, when he sings, 'Its audience is waiting,' a lone rhythmic handclap."

Sometimes I fell like what I'm doing here is a lone rhythmic handclap. Maybe I should give Scott Walker a call. And in case you're wondering, I would have to say that Scott Walker is an excellent candidate for Advancement. I don't know quite enough about him to say for sure, but what I know is promising. And weird in the weird way that Advanced Artists are weird. That is, weirdly weird rather than predictably weird.

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