Scott Walker – Climate of Hunter

Scott Walker’s lone album from the 1980s, Climate of Hunter is an underrated gem highlighting a crucial transitionary period for the cult favorite artist as he moved from the crooning ballads of his Walker Brothers days into the avant-garde direction he would pursue in the following decade. The album was said to be recorded under a shroud of secrecy. “Scott didn’t tell any of the musicians the shape of the songs and he was loath to let people hear any of the melodies or the top lines.” Arranger Brian Gascoigne recalls, “Scott is trying to operate on another level. He’s constantly searching in his mind for a new vocabulary of songs and perhaps the reason he was so secretive was that he feared Virgin might sense the album’s lack of commerciality and pull the plug on the whole thing.” Climate of Hunter has a distinct ’80s sound compared to the timeless quality of his previous albums with fretless bass and gated drums featured across the tracks. If you can get with that, the album’s gorgeous songwriting and structure comes through along with the sheer beauty of Walker’s voice. Album favorite “Dealer” features a slow, trance-like groove with droning fretless bass from Mo Foster, a surprisingly jazzy saxophone solo from the great Evan Parker, and Mark Isham delivering a wonderfully unsettling looped trumpet motif that matches Scott’s line “the windows are ringing.”

Recommended – Full Listen