Album Review – Scott 4 by Scott Walker
A Career Defining Album Signals the Beginning and the End for Walker
May 11, 2009
After leaving the Walker Brothers in the mid-1960s, Scott Walker began releasing solo albums of material similar to the classic Walker Brothers single “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore.” With Walker’s soaring voice at the forefront, his first albums built upon the highly orchestrated style laid down by the Walker Brothers. Songs like “Mathilda” and “Jackie” utilized full-band bombast, going over the top with layer-upon-layer of timpani, horns, and – of course – vocals.
The release of Scott 3 found a more pensive and tender Scott Walker. With a scant three cover songs on the album, Walker set himself up to release a groundbreaking album with no covers whatsoever. Released later the same year as Scott 3, 1969's Scott 4 sees Walker move into his first album of completely original material with both grace and beauty.
A Strong Start to a New Approach
Walker starts off strong with his new approach, with first track "The Seventh Seal" being a Mexican (not Swedish, oddly enough, as it shares its name with an Ingmar Bergman film) dance of death. The Spanish guitar that starts it slowly gives way to a nicely subdued background of violins and a driving bassline. Washes of male vocals cascade in and out of the background.
“On Your Own" flashes back to the last album with its length and sparse balladry. The break about halfway through lets the music pause to think before coming in with percussion and orchestration, opening up fully and coming around in a mere two minutes. "The World's Strongest Man" is epic in both arrangement and delivery, showing Walker push his lounge-singer tendencies as far as they can go without turning into schmaltz.
Building Off the Foundation Laid by Scott 3
Both “Ashes of Angels” and the following “Boy Child” are reminiscent of the balladry found on Scott 3. “Boy Child” is especially similar in tone and ambience to opening track “It’s Raining Today,” as strings and piano twinkle and break around the vocals.
In addition to previous war stories such as “Two Ragged Soldiers,” Walker delivers two new battle-cries: the swinging “Hero of the War” and the over-the-top "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime).”
Walker Hits his Artistic Stride
Though it almost sounds like a bad wedding song gone right, "Duchess" is one of Walker’s most delicate songs, a signaling of hitting his artistic stride. This song receives a lot of praise, including a stellar cover by Neko Case on her 1997 album The Virginian. This praise is odd, considering that it's usually the other things about Walker that get all the attention: his bombast, his reclusive habits, his arrangements, etc.
A finger-picked guitar builds Walker up to his classic traits in "Get Behind Me.” The verses have subdued violins just waiting for the big chorus, and the Fender Rhodes breaks through with a single note every now and then to remind the listener of the wavering qualities of everything Walker does. His scat outro fades in front of a wild bassline and troupe of background singers.
Closing track “Rhymes of Goodbye” is the perfection of all of Walker’s ideas: larger-than-the-universe pop music with poetic lyrics that aren't necessarily poetry and a voice that can crush and cuddle, usually opting for both. This artistically rich album failed to captivate the general record buying public, however, and what followed was 25 years of seclusion and mystery for Scott Walker.
“The rhyme of our passions, find beauty in loving love / The rhyme of our madness, burn cities and push'n'shoves / And roaring through darkness, the Night children fly / I still hear them singing the rhymes of goodbye.”
Related Article: Album Review -- Scott 3 by Scott Walker
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