How do you go about describing something that is utterly unique?
I can guarantee you will never have heard an album quite like The Drift. Not even previous Scott Walker albums prepare the listener for the experience of The Drift. It is, quite simply, the most beautiful, the most emotional, the most intense and the downright scariest album you will ever hear.
I can't even imagine what was going through Scott's mind to compose and create such songs. The music is an uneasy mix of conventional instruments, bass, guitar, drums, with orchestral instruments and thoroughly unconventional sounds - on one track the percussionist is thumping a side of meat, on another concrete blocks are used.
Lyrically Scott seems to be trying to convey the horror of war and terrorism with oblique asides concerning 9/11, the deaths of both Mussolini and Elvis, via donkeys and a truly frightening appearance from Daffy Duck. I am not joking. The production is amazingly clear, with the music shimmering in from near silence at times, to raging noise at others. Scott's voice, once that warm and comforting baritone, now has a more quavering operatic sound, one that is fully capable of love and affection, but is more usually sounding a warning note.
The opening track, "Cossacks", is almost commercial, but don't be fooled by the first song. The rest is firmly avant garde classical music, if such an appellation means anything. The final track features Scott whispering "Psst", closely miked, which has the disconcerting effect on headphones of making him sound like he's right at your shoulder.
Is it any good? I would say definitely Yes. It's a work of art, as dramatic an album as you could ever hope to hear, and it's hugely impressive. It's not the sort of album that can be dipped into, you have to play the whole thing or not at all. It's also not the sort of album that you'll want to listen to very often, but it is well worth having nonetheless, for those times when only a challenging, mature, inventive, unique selection of music will do.
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Gosh! I didn't realise Scott (Walker) Engel was still around in the music business. I wonder what he's been doing for all these years. He's certainly been quiet for about 3 decades now, occasionally only rearing his head above the parapet..
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