Climate of Hunter
This massively maligned album was Scott Walker's only album of the 1980's and the only fruits of a lucrative contract with Virgin Records that promised much and delivered so little. It seemed inconceivable that a stellar and legendary talent like his own could fall so dramatically from both critical and public grace, but that is what occurred with 'Climate Of Hunter'. 'Tilt', ten years later, did nothing to redress the matter. A great shame, because both albums, especially this one, took a hell of a lot of balls to make. And I believe the time is right for a reassessment of an album that, unlike so many released in the 1980's, has dated very little and, weird as it is, actually seems to make sounder sense now than it ever did.
To those who've never heard 'Climate', it's not an easy record to describe. It's a short album of seven highly original songs and one blues cover, only half of which bear proper titles, set in a wash of dischordant, jarring keyboards and rippling bass lines. Lyrically it makes very little sense, not that it matters when a top-form Engel is caressing his patent tones into the very depths of your willing soul. And, whatever else may strike you about this very left-field record, you can't fail to melt to THAT VOICE which, mixed right into your face, dominates 'Climate' so wonderfully. Backing the man is the most esoterically-assembled posse of international talent it's possible to imagine - there can't be many single-artist albums that feature artists as disperate as Mark Knopfler, Evan Parker and Billy Ocean for example - but they bring to the album a stratospheric range of sounds and influences that help make the overall result so damn strange and unique. But, make no mistake, this is Scott's baby. Period.
'Climate Of Hunter' is probably the worst-selling record Scott Walker ever made. It didn't stay in Virgin's full priced range for long and even at mid-price was deleted by the turn of the nineties, hardly helped by the universal tide of lousy reviews it garnered on first release. In a sense, I can understand that - after over a decade of waiting, something as unusual and unexpected as this hardly immediate collection of largely untitled and unconventional songs was well hard to take. But an album as adventurous and brave as 'Climate' can't be cast aside forever. Over the years I've played it rarely, then occasionally, then regularly, to the point where I simply could not be without a copy. Pick up a second hand copy somewhere - probably very cheaply - and bear with it. I think you're going to like it, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
- review by Fitter Stoke (09/2002)
