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SCOTT WALKER
Bish Bosch
(4AD)
 "Phrasing"
"Tar"
The past half a decade has found this influential songwriter, composer and vocalist back with a public profile not seen since his days as a member of the chart-topping Walker Brothers. Undoubtedly much of this has been due to his well-received 2006 album, The Drift, and Stephen Kijak's acclaimed Scott Walker documentary, 30 Century Man. This enigmatic artist suddenly found himself with an entirely new audience demographic, both young and old, and while his contemporary output since 1985's underrated Climate of Hunter has been sporadic, it's safe to say that his "late period work" divides opinion rather sharply -- people tend to either wildly love or completely dismiss these albums, finding them to be either pure, undiluted genius or overblown rubbish. I fall into the former category, but am the first to admit that these records take work on the fan's part; Walker's lyrics are dense, multilayered affairs whose references may not be caught until numerous listens, yet they are delivered in a fashion that leaves them open enough to individual interpretation, as any good song should. These works tell stories with open-ended morals and sentiments, and it's an understatement to say that since the first announcements of Bish Bosch's release, which began to slowly eke out a few months earlier, the anticipation to discover what Walker had in store for us was thick enough to cut through with a chainsaw.
There were six years between the release of The Drift and Bish Bosch, actually a speed record in Scott Walker time, and one of the first things you notice about his latest is just how URGENT the whole thing sounds. It's foolish to compare this album to either The Drift or Tilt -- though Walker has stated that they are indeed a trilogy of sorts -- but it's difficult to ignore the way that Scott sounds as though he NEEDS to release these songs from his system with an almost brutal intensity and tension. Bish Bosch's material sounds more alive, closer to a thick, thorny, knotted jungle, than The Drift's more barren, shadowed, and dusty textures. There is an increased rhythmic element throughout these songs, employing a diverse percussive palette that utilizes jackhammering rock drums, the sounds of marbles spinning against tightened skins, the hypnotic clatter of four-foot machetes slicing against one another, and even a full-blown samba school. Perhaps the most surprising part of this is the way that many of these songs actually have a kinetic, hypnotic pattern that one can actually lock into; as much as Walker loves to state that he "doesn't make groove records," this album often moves with a heavy, lumbering swing that can be followed from beginning to end, even through rests and stops. This is most evident on "Epizootics!" which features a combination of lower-register brass jazz and twisted Hawaiian guitar lines; it's also one of the best examples of the amplified streak of black humor that has run throughout all of his records, yet which has been most heavily commented upon regarding this album.
The characters in Bish Bosch's songs range from his usual fallen dictators and men flailing against the tides of existential doubt, yet here he also casts himself in the mind of Attila the Hun's court jester on the 20-minute centerpiece "SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)," spewing mama jokes and barbed insults that will actually induce laughter. His lyrics this time out feature that same urgency displayed in the music, with more brutal descriptions of withering bodily functions, malformed sex organs, and an increased sense of confusion and despair, balanced and tempered with the aforementioned humor. Walker's increased usage of his impressive vocal range on this album is also to be recognized and commended; not simply utilizing the strained operatic tremble that made the last two records so gripping, he is here barking, bellowing, crooning, and even shrieking at times, showing sides of his vocal talents that had previously never been unleashed.
While other artists sonically utilize methods that are both informed by and equally inspire the work that Walker produces contemporaneously, he is still in a class of his own, framing his music in a vision no other artist of the modern age can touch. This record's immediacy will likely polarize listeners even further -- while rooting itself more in the vocabularies of rock than perhaps any album of his since Climate of Hunter, it is by no means more accessible -- and if you haven't been on board with Tilt or The Drift, it's doubtful that this record will sway your opinions. We're fortunate enough now, though, to have a cache of artists who have managed to provide more suitable context for Walker's unique creations, and those with ears adventurous enough and minds open enough will find much on which to chew with Bish Bosch. It's personally one of my favorite albums of 2012, and it's astonishing to think that at just a month shy of his 70th birthday, Scott Walker is still producing work that is more brutal, layered, and gripping than many peers a fraction of his age; that he sounds so revitalized on Bish Bosch, and ready for wherever his muse next leads him is simply a beautiful thing to behold. [IQ] |
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