I've been listening to a fair bit of Scott Walker over the last week and it's really struck me how much he's changed as an artist from his early days in the Walker brothers and on his solo "Scott" albums to his last two albums "Tilt" and "The Drift" where he has become a highly experimental, darkly psychedelically ambient creator, particularly on The Drift.

Walker it seems is determined to push the boundaries of music.

While I can definitely find a place for his newer music in my collection, even if i dont listen to it regularly, it was refreshing to stumble upon a track from the 1999 Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough" called "Only Myself to Blame" written by Don Black and intended for the end credits (before, as you'd expect these days, being replaced by yet another techno remix...) which was a lounge jazz style ballad performed with a sense of longing and regret by an amazingly talented singer and something of a return to the Scott Walker many people know and love.

However, while the return is pleasant and all, Walker should be congratulated and respected much more than he is in the industry for continuing to challenge boundaries and not rest on his laurels and produce fascimiles of his former work in an industry where by many he is regarded as a cult figure... albeit a cult figure who has influenced many great artists as well as many artists today.

I look forward to what he comes up with in the future even if we have to wait a while.

W.