Til the Band Comes In

AMG Review of Til the Band Comes In

Dave Thompson
All Music Guide

Never regarded among Scott Walker's finest efforts, and a resounding flop when it first appeared in 1971, Til the Band Comes In is, retrospectively, the most shocking of all the singer's early albums. His first four, after all, are dramatic slabs of MOR noir, crucial experiences for anybody anxious to discover Brel, Bergman, and a taste for truly surreal pop tones; by their standards alone, shouldn't album number five surely have traveled even further astray? It doesn't. Two tracks culled for the It's Raining Today compilation, "Thanks for Chicago Mr James" and "Joe," are this album's sole concessions to such matters as reputation. A year earlier, the BBC gave Walker his own TV series, with the assurance that he would concentrate his tonsils on allads and standards. He fulfilled the brief admirably, and released a soundtrack album to prove it. Unfortunately, Til the Band Comes In suggests he never got the saccharine out of his system. He even brings TV guest Esther O'Farim back into the action, but morbid curiosity and an incomprehensible fondness for "Cinderella Rockefeller" are surely the only reasons anyone could want to check out her solo contribution to the set. There is a reasonable rendering of Roy Orbison's "It's Over," aptly closing the album on a merciful note, but while Walker's first four albums remain essential listening, and the TV LP at least has its moments, Til the Band Comes In is best left waiting at the stage door. Some "lost classics" were lost with good reason.