by Phil Obbard © Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All
rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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Think different. Don't think "alternative music" - instead imagine something you've simply never heard before. Anywhere. Something beyond avant-garde. And even that frame of mind probably won't prepare you for Scott Walker's latest offering, Tilt. Afte r a little more than a decade of silence, Walker's abilities have resurfaced undiminished - quite possibly strengthened - but his music hasn't become any more accessible during his absence. Scott Walker (real name: N.S. Engel) is not a rock star these days, much less a celebrity. But in the mid-1960s, as a member of The Walker Brothers, he became a teen idol with hits like "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore." After the Walker Brothers split, he gradually sank into obscurity with a series of increasingly dark but well-made solo albums. The Walker Brothers reformed in the mid-1970s to some commercial success before recording their final album, Night Flights, in 1978.
Night Flights was Scott's avant-garde breakthrough, an album in which he managed to synthesize his deep, baritone delivery with a more obtuse songwriting ability. Walker followed with a single solo album before resigning himself to total obscurity thro ughout the 1980s. Despite the interest of devoted and notable followers like Julian Cope, Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, and Daniel Lanois, the enigmatic Walker remained out of the recording studio (and out of reach) for 12 years.
Tilt, much like "The Electrician" from Night Flights, is not an easy thing to describe, let alone listen to. The opening track, "Farmer in the City," finds Scott wielding an operatic style to great effect, while on "The Cockfighter" he tests the outer limits of industrial music. And the title track could be a television theme song (almost). Tilt is a vast and daunting array of styles, genres, and eras.
The lyrics are a separate matter entirely, being the product of a Burroughs-style cut-up exercise. "Bloody Lemon Cola..." Scott repeats over and over on "Bolivia '95", interspersed with meaningful dialogue like "Doctorie / give me a / C / for this / ba baloo." "That ribbon cracks / Like this one / This one cracks like / Those over there and / Those over there crack / Like these two," he sings in "The Cockfighter." And despite the overtly dark overtones of Tilt, when Scott says he's "pledging my love," h e somehow still manages to sound sincere.
Tilt is an extremely difficult album to evaluate. Because there is nothing else that sounds anything like it, there is nothing with which to compare it. Definitely one-of-a-kind, its existence proves that genuine innovators are continuing to make innov ative music in our time.
That being said, I must give one word of caution: I strongly recommend that you listen before you buy.
-- Phil Obbard
© Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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