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Scott Walker: Not Easy on Himself

Robert Webb, The Independent, 5 May 2006

IN 1995, SCOTT Walker, the moody, boy-band pinup turned existential cult-figure, broke a 12-year silence with the album Tilt. Stark and uncompromising, as brittle as pencil lead, it confounded many listeners. Eleven years on, now signed to the independent 4AD label, Walker has finally completed the follow up, a 10-track, exquisitely-packaged work entitled The Drift, his third studio album in almost 30 years. No less dense than its predecessor, The Drift tips the scales as the most weighty album to be issued by a major artist this year, possibly this decade. That's "major" as in important, not mainstream. Walker, now 63 years old, hasn't been mainstream for almost four decades – not since he was chasing the Beatles up the hit parade, as one-third of the Walker Brothers.

Total word count of piece: 2016

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