Though not strictly professional, my first reaction to the news that a new Scott Walker album may well be around the corner (what with being a fairly massive Scott Walker fan) was “Holy shit!” Pitchfork have reported that a new song by the former Walker Brothers member was played at a 4AD event (Walker’s label) last night. The untitled track apparantly featured “pummeling drum rhythms [and] near-a cappella crooning” and was “unsettling, daunting, thrilling,” which sounds like another piece of haunted perfection by the man.
While it seems pointless to feed you such a rumour, the story is worth bringing to attention considering letting an audience hear a single song is very unlike Walker, who has spent the last decades working on albums in the strictest sense. Perhaps his approach will be different this time round, and we’ll get something that’s not an album. There’s no official word yet, but Pitchfork are suggesting that an album might be released come the autumn. If so, that’ll be a mere six years since 2006’s The Drift (or five years if you bring the instrumental four-track And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? into the equation), which is rather speedy in the world of Scott Walker. Stay tuned for any updates.
