Tilt

AMG Review of Tilt

Roch Parisien
All Music Guide

Scott Walker's wondrous resurrection, Tilt, weaves a spell that defines mournful sadness. The aptly-titled Tilt is a recording unlike anything Walker has ever produced and, for that matter, unlike anything else even contemplated on the contemporary music spectrum. The disc is a must-find for the adventurous seeking new musical horizons. Tilt often eschews the standard framework and trappings of rock and pop. The work is almost classical and operatic in scope, in an avant-garde way that should neither sound formal and stuffy to those weaned on popular music, or invoke some gunky, half-baked "fusion" fashion. From the wide palette of string and woodwind sections, church celeste and organs, concertinas and flutes, burst startling explosions of industrial, electronic mayhem. "Bouncer See Bouncer" builds anxious paranoia with ominous heartbeat percussion and eerie phased tinkling that keeps you looking over your shoulder. Tilt's lyrics are often first person stream-of-consciousness, an engrossing marriage of abstract imagery and compelling stories. "Farmer in the City," for instance, makes its tragic point much more effectively via a haunting, chanting chorus than it could through more conventional narrative. On most tracks, Walker sings in an other-worldly quasi-falsetto that seems to serve as the disc's thematic linkage. One would have loved to hear him unleash his legendary basso profundo more frequently...perhaps those skills are behind him, although you do get a taste of it on the shifting, multi-hued "Bolivia." Despite its inherent darkness, there is a zest, a gleam in the eye, a vibrant defiance of conventionality expressed here.