Tilt

Nothing in Scott Walker’s catalog prepared anyone for Tilt. Released eleven years after his last solo album, Climate of Hunter, it uses that album’s arranger, Brian  Gascoigne, and turns popular music on its head. These are songs based on textures and tonal chunks that play like art songs where nothing you know about Scott Walker is of use. Sure, the voice has always been a peculiar instrument, but here it sounds strangulated. “Farmer In the City (Remember Pasolini)” is based on a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini and then taken into a swamp where the softly sawing strings attempt to bring the listener to shore. “Face On Breast” is thoroughly impressive. It ticks away like a bomb threatening to blow the tension wide open. Yet, Walker keeps things moving with uneasy whistling. “Bolivia ‘95” begins close to a standard tune with its turtle-pace landing on the beat before turning to mania. This is not easy-listening music. It takes a serious reorganizing of listening habits to train one’s ear. After that, the reward is immense. Hard to imagine, but his next album, 2006’s The Drift, would take things even further.