Good Feelin' - T-Bone Walker

Advantages: five stars for the Scott Walker songs alone
Disadvantages: the rest of the album is forgettable, but Scott's songs are amazing

...recordings and achieves the rare accolade of being a Scott cover that actually equals the original. "Fat Mama Kick" - a lurching almost disco beat, some bizarre almost shouted lyrics, and then just when it can't get any weirder, a mad saxophone bursts in for nowhere. I love it. "The Electrician" - good as the other three Scott songs are, it would actually be worth buying Nite Flights for this one song. Hugely influential on a great many new wave artists over the next few years, this is a disturbing look at torture in South America, complete with eerie suspended strings, a stunning vocal and even a swinging mariachi middle section. It is impossible to describe the effect that "The Electrician" had on me when I first heard it. I was completely hooked and I played that song over and over for hours, I'd never heard anything quite like it... Read review

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Advantages: utterly unique - an amazing album
Disadvantages: extremely hard to get into

...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... Read review

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Advantages: superb collection of Scott Walker originals
Disadvantages: none at all

...life, the kids and the telly. "Pavements of poets will write that I died in nine angels arms... and they all were smiling!" And you can hear the huge grin on Scott's face as he sings that line. Some, such as "Big Louise" are heartbreakingly sad, others like the hedonistic "Girls From The Streets" are dizzyingly cheerful. "Boy Child" is all shimmering strings, impressionistic lyrics and one of Scott's most impressive vocals ever. Every track has beauty, wry amusement, Scott's glorious commanding croon and some splendid orchestral arrangements. Very few of the songs even seem dated and the sheer joie de vivre on offer here should be enough for you to fall in love with every track. If you don't have the Scott Walker 1960s albums then this is an essential introduction. And then you'll find yourself getting the albums themselves!... Read review

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