Search - Scott Walker :: Scott 2

Scott moves forward , but some mismatched songs

A C SHIELDS | melbourne , australia | 10/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of the strange things for the Scott Walker fan is that his records make you want to get a bigger sound system .

For me , at least .

You know how some people listen to opera at top volume ?

Scott's early albums can make you want to do that , as there is a similiar thing going on , intensity wise .



The music packs a punch , both sonically and often emotionally . This album has Scott branching out a bit with his own songs , covering Jacques Brel again to fine effect and doing some showbizzy numbers , which must have made some people think of giving him his own TV show , which he later did .



It's like he's fine tuning things and getting further out .

I can only imagine what his listeners thought .

A great album leading toward his later darker work .

Buy this if you want to be challenged and hear different musical possibilities ."

Not his best, but worth getting.

Auguste O. Meyrat | Dallas, TX United States | 08/09/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Scott 2 features some great songs, but as some other reviews have said, many tracks are mismatched. The cd will feature high moments of craft and lyricism, as in all the Brel covers (naturally), Windows of the World, and Plastic Palace Alice. The other songs are forgettable and just too soupy to get into. Personally, other than the songs listed, I can only recall Best of Both Worlds only for the fact that the opening notes match Dvorak's New World Symphony.



But, though forgettable, the other tracks aren't offensive or unlistenable. And the majority of other songs make up for them to keep you listening to the cd the whole way through. And all serves as a harbinger for great albums to come, namely Scott 4."

Art Redeeming Life

Harumi O. Moruzzi | Olympia, WA United States | 07/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Scott 2 is the second solo album of the legendary musician Scott Walker (a.k.a. Engel). In addition to rendering his sublime voice and impassioned interpretations to three Jacques Brel pieces and others, he also wrote four original pieces for this album: The Amorous Humphrey Plugg, The Girls from the Street, Plastic Palace People, and The Bridge. These songs suggest that Scott is gifted not only with a superb capacity to communicate complex emotions but also with a mind that can observe the social realities of human existence in a realistic manner. (His songs at times remind me of Sherwood Anderson's novel, Winesburg, Ohio.) Most of the selected songs here are not "pretty" in a conventional way (for instance, Come Next Spring, which can be sung in a straightforwardly romantic way, becomes a song of irredeemable loss due to the tragically nuanced delivery of Scott's singing voice); but they definitely engage the listeners' hearts and minds in a profound manner. To listen to Scott's singing voice is to be moved by it. I highly recommend this album to anybody who appreciates complexity and ambiguity of human emotional life."