4AD / RE 2012
Slow though his creative pace may be—or perhaps because of it—Scott Walker stands as one of rock music’s most enduringly influential figures. He is an icon, an artist who rejected the trappings of pop stardom in order to pursue music of extraordinary weight and depth. Any new release from him carries the air of an event, yet The Drift goes further still: it is a breathtaking achievement.
Although the writing began in the late 1990s, recording only commenced in late 2004, with longtime collaborator Peter Walsh (also co-producer of Climate of Hunter and Tilt) by his side. Together, they shaped a sound world both startling and expansive, drawing on instruments as unusual as the tubax, shawm, flugelhorn, a 36-piece string orchestra, and even a giant wooden box. The outcome is an album of staggering scope, brimming with emotional intensity.
Tracks such as “Cossacks” and “Hand Me Ups” pulse with a dark, unrelenting energy unlike anything else in Walker’s body of work, while pieces like “Clara,” “Jesse,” and “Cue” open vast sonic spaces where beauty and terror coexist. In essence, The Drift is utterly singular—a late-period masterpiece from an artist without parallel.