Album Reviews
American singer and songwriter Scott Walker found massive success in Europe in the late '60s as a kind of hybrid of Engelbert Humperdinck and Ingmar Bergman a golden baritone full of existential anxiety declaiming over lush orchestral arrangements. Along the way, his apocalypticcabaret approach became a template for "orch pop" proponents such as the Divine Comedy and Eric Matthews. Tilt, however, is eons removed from Walker's '60s work; the "orch" remains, but the "pop" has been replaced by obtuse, sepulchral music that believe it or not matches the ambient extremity of Aphex Twin and the queasy claustrophobia of Tricky. Once an expansive singer, Walker now sings with a mournful choke about millennial dread and horror at human brutality. From its grand church-organ-driven arias ("Manhattan") to its bleak, shifting soundscapes ("Bolivia '95"), Tilt is a chilling, often magnificent view into the abyss from a true iconoclast. (RS 771)
ROB KEMP
(Posted: Oct 16, 1997)
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