index page for Delicado Album Details
'til the band comes in  - Scott Walker - 1970
Label: BGO BGOCD320 (UK)
Format: CD
From: UK
My rating: 6/10

Entered: 06/22/2001
Last updated: 00/00/0000

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All in all, this is a very mixed record - there are some great moments, but it's lacking in focus. The overture at the beginning - a string variation of 'thanks for chicago' with sound fx (e.g. children's voices) thrown in - has the kind of dense arrangements that fans of the solo albums Scott 1-4 enjoy. The rest of the album is rather patchy to my ears, although nicely varied. Little things (that keep us together) is an anthemic, frantic song, but is followed by the relaxed crooning lounge jazz of 'Joe'. 'Thanks for chicago', although rather formulaic, is a stirring piece of classic Scott pop.
This album is often referred to as 'Scott 5', but it's not really of the same quality as Scott 1-4, in spite of similar arrangements from Wally Stott and Peter Knight. The songs were almost all cowritten with Ady Semel, Scott's then manager. I don't dislike any of the songs exactly (well, maybe 'jean the machine'), but they do sound slightly diluted, perhaps as a result of Semel's influence. Some of the cover versions are pretty good - it's corny, but I'm partial to the mournful 'the hills of yesterday' (another Henry Mancini composition, coming across here like a sequel to the excellent 'Wait until Dark' on Scott 2), and the early 70s easy-funk sound of 'Stormy' is very pleasant indeed. There are also some country-flavored songs, (e.g. 'Reuben James'), although not as many as on his later 70s albums. Oh, and the liner notes are dreadful - by the clunker Alan Clayson (who wrote that godawful Serge Gainsbourg biography).

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