Scott Walker

’Til The Band Comes In | Water

By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 26, 2008

4.0 Stars

Let’s say you’ve accepted the received wisdom about Scott Walker’s career. Like everyone else, you own and revere Scott 4 (1969), and most likely you’ve checked out and enjoyed the earlier solo records, with their potent mixture of schmaltz, Brel, existentialism, and that voice. You’ve even managed to find those elusive four tracks in the Walker Brothers’ Night Flights (1978) that redefined the post-punk landscape (Bowie and Eno on their knees: “We’re not worthy!”) and that sound like the future even three decades down the line. Those (including the singer himself!) who avoid anything between those two landmark recordings should reconsider this welcome reissue of ’Til The Band Comes In. In 1970, upset at the commercial failure of his experiments, Walker switched gears on what should have been Scott 5 and decided to devote himself to more-accessible MOR covers, finally crashing with an exhausted reading of Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over.” But all too often what is painful for the artist is a blessing for the fans: frustration, compromise, and confusion clashing into Cold War novelty tracks (“Jean the Machine”), touching quirkiness (the sublime “Time Operator”), and a few portraits of loneliness that rival Sinatra at his most heartfelt (“Joe”). This is one of the classic artistic-breakdown albums, as revelatory as the Beach Boys’ Wild Honey or the Beatles’ Let it Be.

Related: The Big Hurt: The decade ahead, Hard target, Green is the new black, More

Topics: CD Reviews , The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, More

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