Scott 4

Performer: Scott Walker
Distributor: Fontana Distribution

Notes: This Scott Walker release from 1969 includes the songs "Seventh Seal," "World's Strongest Man," and "Rhymes of Goodbye," with Walker's inimitable singing style front and center throughout. This German issue has remastered sound and original artwork. Released in 1969, SCOTT 4 caps off a remarkable quartet of records (all issued in the span of less than three years), and arguably stands as Scott Walker's most accomplished album. On this 10-track set, the British-based singer-songwriter unveiled his first collection of entirely original numbers, marking a notable departure from the earlier precedent of having three Jacques Brel tunes per studio outing. Here Walker's utterly distinctive chamber-pop aesthetic appears in more restrained and refined form, as revealed on the urgent-yet-graceful "The Seventh Seal" (based on the revered Ingmar Bergman film of the same name) and the gentle, meditative "Boy Child." Those looking for the pomp-and-circumstance of earlier Walker material will find hints of it on "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)," but the predominant mood of SCOTT 4 is set by lush and layered, though relatively subtle, string arrangements that perfectly complement his deep, expressive voice. While Walker would issue other important and intriguing recordings in the decades that followed, this album marks the end of his highly influential late-'60s heyday.

Noel Scott Engel, better known as Scott Walker, was born in the US, but found fame in the UK as a member of the Walker Brothers, who became teen pop idols in England in the 1960s. After the group's demise, Walker's darker, artier side eventually came to the fore, and he began a quirky solo career that encompassed Jacques Brel covers, moody, saloon-singer crooning, and avant-garde tendencies. He became the quintessential cult figure, inscrutable and highly influential, though after the '70s his works were few and far between.

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