Customer Reviews

Drift

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"---indeed! And you thought Tilt was dark.The beating of raw meat as percussion, the distant sound of screaming children, the sinister flicker of a film projector...The only viable comparison would be demented Harry Partch cut with a lethal dose of Samuel Beckett.

Picking up where Tilt left off, Walker once again touches on such toe-tapping themes as torture, fascism & genocide. That's not to imply that The Drift lacks beauty or even humor. How else are you going ot take a line like "I'll punch a donkey in Galway"? Yet throughout this Atrocity Exhibition, Walker still has the vocal magic even at the ripe age of 63.

True, Walker's fractured lyrics tend to verge on the arcane. But do a Google search on the quotes he uses in "Cossacks Are" & the opener will seem less baffling. After repeated listens, narratives of a sort can be divined. "Clara" deals with the bloody fate of Mussolini & his mistress, going to show all's never fair in love or war. "Jesse" finds none other than Elvis Aaron Presley in a doped up stupor, muttering to stillborn twin brother,Jesse.

Musically, this album certainly has a plethora of hair-raising moments, but perhaps the most chilling is at the end of "The Escape" where Walker suddenly bursts into what can only be described as a demonically rabid Donald Duck impersonation. You don't know whether to laugh or jump out of your chair.

Where "Cassacks" charge in at the inception, things finish with Walker crooning about the likes of Bambi & Tintin (between some rather ominious Psst Psst's's). His only accompaniment---a lone, spare acoustic guitar. Though not quite a return to the maudlin ballads of his youth, still it's a dramatic exit after all the madness he releases on this thing.

Obviously, this is far from easy listening & one could argue the point of subjecting oneself to such a bleak, unremitting record. It's certainly not something you're going throw on everyday. I mean, who really wants to listen to the sonic equivalent of a Francis Bacon painting? So why take the trouble to make such a record? As far as Walker is concerned, I suppose the answer lies in inner necessity. But if cynicism is underestimating one's audience, Walker is doing anything but. No one can deny these are pretty tumultous times: Sept 11, terrorism, Iraq, Darfur, global warming...Perhaps the "drift" we're supposed to catch could be as simple as---step up & face the music.

Call it pretentious, self-indulgent, mind boggling or "Guernica---The Musical". Whatever you may think, The Drift is certainly a one of a kind experience, a powerful one. Guaranteed to raise the hairs on your neck.

I fell in love with Scott Walker's voice the first time I ever heard it. I have followed him religiously wherever he wants to travel. Life is all about changes and though I relish the first four solo albums, the Brel period, and Scott's fabulous songwriting, I have accepted that he's pushing the limits on language, personae, and music concrete. I never ever expected a song from Elvis Presley's point of view about his dead twin brother, I never expected a song about Benito Mussolini's gory end. (My next door neighbor when I was growing up was actually there when the bodies were strung upside down.) Braying donkeys. Meat punching as percussion. And still THAT VOICE. Scott strings words like beads between the abrasive sound effects, between the heavenly strings. Slam poets aspire to this sort of integration of music, language, and vision. Scott may be on an island all his own but I remain astonished that he can leave his hermitage every decade and gather the images and sounds that so encapsulate the times. Sure, wouldn't it be great to look back on those 60's songs and bask in the warm trough of nostalgia. But look outside your window--could that be the four horseman of the apocalypse? Why sing covers or croon love songs when the world is burning? I'm grateful to be alive at the same time as an artist of Scott Walker's caliber. His is not an easy listening vision. He makes you work for every subtle moment of beauty. He makes demands. If you want passive entertainment please embrace the new cookie cutter babes of today's corporate sound. If you want to catch the latest addition to a mature artist's ouevre, check out "the Drift." Thank God for 4AD.

If anyone calls this terrible as an insult, then it is a poorly placed one, because that's the whole point.
Noel Scott Engel is a man unashamed of his nightmares, focusing on the points that make the horrific visions of this day and age so nauseating, troubling, and, if you can adapt well to reality, absurdly humorous.
The arrangements exemplify the formidible beauty of spareness, or "minimalism" as some may like to refer to the instrumental backing. All that is left are the subtle and not so subtle "blocks of sound" (as Scott himself says) which augment the torrent of consistently precarious, sentient lyrics without overwhelming the essesntial beauty of the stark melodic structures.
His sonorous voice carries the quivers, resolve and aching along the path of songs like a feather experiencing every kind of weather condition before "drifting" into a patch of sheltered solitude.
If you like to be uncomfortable, or if you really can't take being uncomfortable, you really must listen to this. Scott Walker's music can provoke empathy like nothing else, for you are all at once immersed in the centre of calamity, even without realizing it. Catharsis sculpts the soul, and such are the aspirations of the creative human mind.

Psst. With The Drift, Scott Walker has made the best record of the new century. Psst. That's in keeping for the man who made some of the best records of the last century, especially Scott 3 and Tilt. Psst. These aren't waltzes for dodo's. Psst. The strains of eeriness heard even on his recordings with The Walker Brothers are now fullblown and realized. Throughout this bleak soundscape, there are touches of absurdist humor that certify an artist at his peak dealing with an inane and indifferent world. Psst.

I have never in my adult life had a movie, let alone music, scare me. I listened to it at 'high volumes' as Scott suggests on the sleeve notes, on very nice headphones after midnight.
There I was, a 35 year old who doesn't believe in ghosts or goblins or anything I can't see, looking over my shoulder to make sure something wasn't creeping up on me to suck me into the landscape of horror and isolation that this recording paints.
I love all of Scott's work. 1-4 and the rest. I also love Climate, Tilt and this. I was physically exhausted after the first listen. I felt like I had walked away from a terrible car accident with a few bruises. Fantastic!
For an artist to have this kind of power equates to genious.
The genious of Scott Walker...

The packaging is superb as well. I look forward to Scott's next release in 2017.

Considering he started in the music business in the late 50 and early 60's, as a teen idol, with the sort of original tunes and covers, which also features sweeping, bloated orchestral arrangements. His steady progression from teen crooner, and subsequent metamorphosis into an Avant-garde, Experimental, unrelenting singer/ songwriter of some the bleakest, and downright disturbing arrangements in his whole career, is one of the strangest career choices in recent memory. Hints of this drastic musical shift were gleamed on "Climate of Hunter", but it's real purpose and potential came to bear on the astonishing "Tilt". Now, considering that there is a 11 years gap between "Tilt" and "The Drift", what would be eventually (given Scott's erratic career) be released, was anyone's guess?? But in the end, this is continuation, or evolution of the broad themes, arrangements and loosely orchestrated compositions of "Tilt". But it is worth noting that this is a darker, more sprawling, claustrophobic, distraught and less arranged, alternately suffocatingly dense piece of work, and ultimately resembling something more akin to avant-garde horror film or possibly a harrowing modernist opera.

If you haven't had the opportunity to hear either this album or "Tilt", it's strongly advised that if you do decide to buy this, that you hold onto your receipt, just in case. Do you like songs that are tightly composed arrangements?, tracks that have a strong melody or Chorus?, strong songwriting with catchy or memorable lyrics?....then unfortunately you're in the wrong album, my friend. Because, this album, is most definitely not a user-friendly album. Instrumentation is a combination of improvised sounds, mixed with traditional instruments, that clatter and bang relentlessly one minute, and then ebb and flow the next, without much consideration for structure or melody, and guitar/drums frequently burst in and out of songs, without much warning. It's jarring and occasionally insular and impenetrable, and yet frequently thrilling. Scott's vocals....still just as amazingly atmospheric and deep and cavernous at is has always been, is truly breathtaking in that it's still as potent and expansive after all these years. With Scott one minute singing in a slow register, at an almost funeral-paced dirge, and then just as capably bursting forth with a intense wailing, probably more suited to operatic stage performances, than on a album.

It's not easy listening that's for sure....and if you want an album, to clear everyone out of a party, this is probably the record to do it. Reviewing this album objectively...on one hand it's shamelessly overblown, and probably incredibly self-important and pretentious. With a manifesto to laugh-in-the-face, of anything approaching regular song structure, and performance. It's an album that revels in its nightmarish imagery, it's unrelenting indulgent, with a level of songwriting that on paper, is largely incompressible and impenetrable (I've still yet to truly understand the meaning behind the songs). And the jutting and jarring shifts in volume/mood/singing are complex, multilayered, densely plotted, wordy, and wholly inaccessible to all but the most adventurous or determined listeners. So why am I giving it 5 stars??.....well, on the flip side, it's frequently challenging listen, unquestionably unlike any similarly released album, uniquely different, and when was the last time you listened to an album that actually had you on the edge of your seat?? For all it's perceived pretensions, its still an album full of emotional power, that is a fractured collection of a labyrinth of sounds and imagery, that leaves an indelible impression whether you like it or not, and even those that cant get into this album, cannot deny that Scott's vocals are still a thing of wonder...powerfully booming one minute, and then as delicate and considered the next, it's his voice that is the central axis, on which this all balances, and without his exceptional ability to manipulate sounds and expression, this album would have fallen flat on it's face.

"The Drift" is an album, that you'll either Love or Hate....this seems to be one of those albums, where there is no middle-ground. For every person (such as myself), that is enthralled by it, they'll be two people that think it's the most shamelessly portentous piece of garbage, to have been released in recent years. If you have fond memories of Scott's adult-pop work in the 60's, and you thought you'd give this a try, then your in for a rude-awakening, (and a trip back to the record store, to get your money back) If you loved Scott's "Tilt" album, than this is whole-hearted recommend, as it takes the premise of Tilt, and darkens the moods, warps the arrangements every more, and feels a little more abstract, and leftfield than before. Although I personally think Tilt, just has the edge over this (Tilt felt more groundbreaking, and slightly more cohesive, overall)...this is easily one of the most memorable things I've had in the last year or so. And I'll admit that isn't an album that I regularly listen to....more, one of the albums to bring out every so often and get immersed in, but this is worth the extensive wait we've had to wait for new Scott Walker material, let's hope the wait for another album isn't quite so long.

Any piece deemed "disturbing" by Opeth's frontman Mikael Akerfeldt is worthy of a listen...and i'm none the worse for wear after relenting to this visceral barrage of the senses.

I can't speak for Tilt or any other of Walker's "works" but this "particular" construction of sound hits with the "subtlety" of a jackhammer. That a man of 63 years can harbor such cynical views of life "and" the ability to harness it in "said" manner is quite disturbing.

Ironically, nearly all reviews offer critical acclaim for this sinister segue into the mouth of madness. The "method" involves maniacal bass and string orchestrations alongside "certain" aural perversions of meat, wood, cinderblocks, (brayed) donkeys, and "other" matters of dissonance in sound.

Walker offers no apologies, compromises or comfort throughout this disparate, disjointed and claustrophobic soundscape. For sixty-eight minutes, the listener is pummeled black and blue with a relentless and palpable sense of danger. It seems the precise attempt of "The Drift" is to unearth the primordial terror lying just beneath the surface and to unhinge the listener with frightening theatrics amidst the apprehension of dead silence.

For this mental deconstruction to manifest itself, one must first be careful to set the appropriate listening level for this analog recording. You'll get the point rather quickly. And if you are feeling particularly bold, pass those sixty-eight minutes with a good pair of headphones after midnight in a dark room. This will be an experience you won't soon forget...if you make it through to the end that is.

In summary, "The Drift" is a shameless, avant-garde presentation of Walker's singular vision, delivered with a certain degree of malice and measured tenacity. And while this disc will certainly be an acquired taste, it is interesting enough to own and peruse on "fitting" occasions. In a word...a keeper.

Why would a serious musician like Walker make another Scott 4 (granted, an astonishing record, but move on,man!), when he's got "climates of hunter and tilts and drifts" in him?
At 63, Scott Walker is not afraid of upsetting a listener, not afraid of anything, really.Only great artists can achieve that kind of freedom in their work.God bless 4AD for letting the man make the kind of record he wanted to make.
The Drift is one beast of an album.It requires complete attention and if you dig it, it's yours.Think of it as a radio play from hell, a dream,a nightmare,a whole new world of sound and emotion.
I know lots of people will write it off as some kind of a freaky experimental ego trip and if you're looking for conventional music, DON'T BUY this cd.Just because it got some great reviews doesn't mean you should jump on "godlike genius" bandwagon.(Ok,If you need to impress people by pretending you actually sit around listening to this stuff, then buy it by all means).There's no point in theorising about Scott Walker.You either get it or you don't.
I can't remember the last time I actually CARED about a record so much.
Extraordinary.

Scott Walker continues his march into unchartered territory with his new release "The Drift." This is music that can't be defined in normal chromatic terms. It is beautiful, hideous, adventurous, glorious, demented; and all the while, just like a car wreck, you can't look away. After my first listen to this, it vaguely reminded me of "The World as it is Today" by the Art Bears from back in 1980. The harrowing opening of that record as Dagmar Krausse proclaims, "Out of Town, My Job Takes Me Out of Town" alerts you to the fact that you're in for an extraordinary ride. Walker, at this point in his career, has pretty much abandoned all conventional song form, certainly within the craft of popular songwriting. However, his poetry is what is at the central part of his work now. On "The Drift", as with "Tilt", Walker has ascended into the realm of great modern poets such as Frank Stanford and Cesare Pavese in creating unforgettable imagery. His beyond dark musical canvas is a perfect vehicle for carrying what he has to say lyrically. This is music that needs to be participated in. This is not music that you sit and wait for the hooks to. It is a difficult process to listen to music like this, because it is demanding of the listener. You have to be willing to go where Walker wants to take you, which is, ultimately, to a terrifying and very solitary place. However, if you can open your mind and get to where Walker is in his creative process, then you will find that this is a thrilling listening experience and quite unique in the world of musical art.

I've heard a lot of sinister music before, whether it be the sado-synth of Pig, the pure noise of Delta 9, or the shlock of most modern death metal. None of it has scared me. Enter this album. Though I've only known Walker's voice from his poppier stuff from decades ago, it seems to be the perfect vehicle to portray whatever horrific stories he's telling on this disc. The first time I listened to this album, I thought I'd downloaded some pompous, self-absorbed singer's lame attempt at over-emoting. But upon further listening, I realized that Walker expertly forces the listener to empathize and experience the unfortunate darkness that seems to be overtaking much of life in the modern world. If you're interested in a challenge, want to experience pain, suffering, regret, and longing through music, pick up this album. And please, PLEASE listen to it more than once. You won't regret it.