I must admit I didn't like that! Interesting to hear tho', thanks.

If that's a Scott Walker track, anyone who's aware or my opinions on the WLL sound won't be surprised: I obviously have very different ears to him!

Sorta sounds like Freaks/MOTU era Pulp, but not in the good way I normally mean when I reference that era.

Actually, this could be an interesting discussion. Who else has controversial opinions on so-called greats, & vice-versa?

I can come clean now and confess that I don't much care for the Scott Walker sound either. I gave it a go when I first got really inot Pulp, but just found him a bit dull and whingey. Sorry - just the way it is with me.

I think Susan Boyle is crap too - there - someone had to say it.

"Cossacks Are" is the first (and most accessible) track on Scott Walker's "The Drift" album.

Walker, hmmm, he definitely has a varied back catalogue, put it that way...

The early stuff with The Walker Brothers is mostly average 60's pop and ballads, the occasional great song pops up here and there. "Scott 1", "2" and "3" are a mixture of covers, English translations of Jacques Brel songs and original material; the original material sticks out as the best by a long shot. Jarvis once chose "Plastic Palace People" from "Scott 2" to go on an NME compilation CD.

The next album, "Scott 4" consists of all original material which is better than before. Despite the album not doing well commercially, it does contain some of his greatest moments and a couple of Pulp links, "On Your Own Again" was covered live by Jarvis and the intro to "The Seventh Seal" is not a million miles away from "Rattlesnakes".

Next came that record we've all heard of "'Til The Band Comes In". The first 10 tracks are very good, most are as good as, if not better than "Scott 4", others are a little too short (i.e. "Cowbell Shakin'", "Thanks for Chicago Mr. James"). Track 10 is a song called "The War is Over" which would have made a logical closing track...

...except it doesn't! Tacked onto the end are five cover versions that feel more like bonus tracks as opposed to being part of an album. At best, "It's Over" is pretty average. All in all, everything up to track 10 is good but as soon as that track is finished, hit the stop button.

Unfortunately, Walker would spend the next 4 years releasing albums full of cover versions: "The Moviegoer" (1972), "Any Day Now" (1973), "Stretch" (1973) and "We Had It All" (1974). Most of these are country/MOR, the occasional good song sticks out. "We Had It All" (the song) is pretty good, as is "Sundown", "The Me I Never Knew" is pretty good too.

Next thing, the Walker Brothers reunited and released a couple of country/MOR cover albums but the most interesting thing they ever did was release an album called "Nite Flights" in 1978. Rather than being a collaboration, each of the three brothers provides their own (original) tracks and many people will tell you Scott's are by far the best. "Shutout", "Fat Mama Kick" and "Nite Flights" are fast songs with dark, complicated lyrics and "The Electrician" is breathtaking (the end of this is very similar to the end of "Wickerman"), it starts off slow then goes into a string section. Definitely worth a listen!

Next came "Climate of Hunter" in 1984, despite being a bit short, is, musically, very in keeping with its time (I'm probably alone here but I think it's on a line between Roxy Music and Ultravox). It is pretty dark lyrically. You'd probably need to read the lyrics many times to make sense of them.

11 years later came "Tilt" which was the darkest, bleakest piece of work you had ever heard in your life. "Farmer in the City" is a pretty ballad with strings but it gets darker and darker, "The Cockfigher" has quiet and loud sections featuring lyrics from a trial. "Bouncer See Bouncer" sounds like a 3 minute pop song slowed and stripped down (it lasts 9 minutes), "Manhattan" features pretty loud organ sections. "Face on Breast" and "Tilt" are probably the only SLIGHTLY accessible tracks on this album, "Bolivia 95" is pretty random, "Patriot (A single)" (it wasn't, Walker said "Single" meant detached from the rest of the album) features some nice strings and clocks in around the 9 minute mark whilst "Rosary" is a simple guitar track about cocaine. Suddenly "Freaks" and "Masters of the Universe" sound about as dark as S Club 7.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any darker, it does! "The Drift" makes "Tilt" sound like a 90's boyband album. "Clara" moves from one extreme to the other whilst "Jesse" is about Elvis' stillborn twin and the twin towers. "Cue" is extremely bleak then next thing you know he's doing Donald Duck impressions (I'm not joking) and chanting "I'll punch a donkey on the streets of Galway". Ah, just buy it, you'll like it!

Wow! What a long post!