Climate of Hunter | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | March 1984 | |||
Recorded | October–December 1983 | |||
Studio | The Town House, EMI & Sarm West Studios, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 31:00 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | Peter Walsh, Scott Walker | |||
Scott Walker chronology | ||||
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Singles from Climate of Hunter | ||||
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Climate of Hunter is the eleventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Scott Walker. It was released in March 1984 and reached number 60 on the UK Albums Chart. [2] It was his only album of the 1980s.
The album was a comeback of sorts for Walker, following a decade and a half of commercial decline and artistic frustration, and coming off the heels of a renewed interest in his 1960s work from the UK post-punk and indie scene. Walker wrote the songs for the album between August and September 1983, and it was recorded between October and December 1983 in the UK at The Town House, EMI and Sarm West Studios. The album was released as an LP in March 1984, receiving positive reviews. It was released on CD in the mid-1980s, and reissued on CD in January 2006, with revised artwork and having been remastered. The original artwork for the album was designed by C.More.Tone, with photography by Bob Carlos Clarke.
Following the commercial failure of 1969's Scott 4 and 1970's 'Til the Band Comes In , Scott Walker spent the next few years releasing MOR albums consisting entirely of cover versions. After the last album of this period, 1974's We Had It All , Walker reformed The Walker Brothers and signed to GTO Records. The reunited group recorded three albums together, 1975's No Regrets , 1976's Lines and 1978's Nite Flights . No Regrets and Lines had continued the musical vein of Walker's recent solo work, with neither album including any original songs by him. The title track of the first album, "No Regrets", had become a hit single in early 1976, but critically and commercially both albums were unsuccessful.
The group began recording Nite Flights knowing that GTO was soon to collapse. The decision was made to produce an album of their own compositions without compromise. [3] The resulting album emphasised an art rock and disco sound utilising harder drum sounds, synthesizers and electric guitars. The three group members each wrote and sang their own compositions. Scott's four songs – "Shut Out", "Fat Mama Kick", "Nite Flights" and "The Electrician" – were his first original compositions since 'Til the Band Comes In. Walker's songwriting displayed remarkable growth from his 1960s work and had more in common with the music of David Bowie, Brian Eno and Lou Reed. The extremely dark and discomforting sound of Scott's songs, particularly "The Electrician", was to prove a forerunner to the direction of his future solo work.
Nite Flights was released in 1978 to poor sales figures but warm critical opinion, especially Scott's contributions. In the period after the album Walker was without a record deal, and remarked in an interview with the journalist Alan Bangs that he had lived on "not a lot" between Nite Flights and Climate of Hunter. [4] Walker compared himself to Orson Welles, a great man everyone wants to meet, but for whom nobody will finance their next project. In 1981, ardent fan Julian Cope assembled a collection of tracks from Walker's 1967 to 1970 albums titled Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker , focusing solely on original Walker compositions. Walker's old label Philips Records quickly followed with Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel , The Best of Scott Walker and The Walker Brothers Hits. Fire Escape in the Sky inspired a critical re-evaluation of Walker, and as a result Virgin Records signed him to a long-term deal (ultimately, Climate of Hunter would be the only album Walker recorded for Virgin). Walker was slow to begin writing his first album for the label, waiting for songs to come to him naturally rather than force them. [5] The seven original songs on the album were all written during August and September of 1983.
Although it took Walker a long time to write the songs, the recording of the album was relatively quick, taking two months from October to December 1983. The album was produced with Peter Walsh who had recently worked with Simple Minds on their break-through album, 1982's New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) . Together with Walsh, Walker assembled a band of seasoned session players such as free-improvising saxophone player Evan Parker, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler on guitar and the R&B singer Billy Ocean.
Discussing the recording of the album for the documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2006), Walsh explained that the musicians were expected to record their parts without knowing the melody to any of the songs, in part because Walker had not recorded any demos and also because the melody was "a closely guarded secret". Walker explained that if the others involved knew the melody, it would take the song away from the "concentrated place" he intended. The intention was to "keep everything a little disjointed" so there is "no chance of everyone swinging together".
The resulting songs are driven by and founded on Peter Van Hooke's drums, Mo Foster's bass and Walker's vocals. Guitars, synthesizers, brass and strings are each used sparingly with abstract results. An orchestra is prominent on "Rawhide" and is the lone accompaniment on "Sleepwalkers Woman", while guitars come to the fore on "Track Three", "Track Seven" and "Blanket Roll Blues".
Walker made the unusual choice of giving half of the tracks on Climate of Hunter numerical titles. He explained in a TV interview on music programme The Tube that the songs were complete and that titles might "lopside" or "overload" them, presumably giving undue weight to one line of the lyric over the others. [6] The songs have since been attributed the informal titles "Delayed" ("Track Three"), "It's a Starving" ("Track Five"), "Say It" ("Track Six"), and "Stump of a Drowner" ("Track Seven"), because the lyrics sheet bolds each of those starting lines instead of denoting the songs by their "Track" titles.
The last track on the album, "Blanket Roll Blues", is the only song written by Tennessee Williams, providing lyrics for the song originally featured in the 1959 film The Fugitive Kind sung by Marlon Brando.
Climate of Hunter was first released in March 1984 as an LP in the UK by Virgin Records. The album was re-released on LP and CD as part of Virgin Records' Compact price range in the mid-1980s. A remastered edition of the album was released in the UK by Virgin and EMI on January 30, 2006. It included revised artwork and new liner notes by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
The Guardian | [8] |
Climate of Hunter received mixed to positive reviews by the majority of critics. It was ranked number 5 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1984 by NME . [9] Its reputation has risen steadily in the decades since. The Guardian wrote in 2006, "Climate of Hunter remains an enigmatic and frequently magical record; something both to puzzle and marvel at." [10] A 2002 review in Unsung agreed: "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." [11]
All tracks composed by Scott Walker, August–September 1983, except "Blanket Roll Blues" (words by Tennessee Williams, music by Kenyon Hopkins). Orchestral arrangements by Brian Gascoigne.
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Rawhide" | 3:55 |
2. | "Dealer" | 5:12 |
3. | "Track Three" (Informal title: "Delayed") | 3:50 |
4. | "Sleepwalkers Woman" | 4:11 |
No. | Title | Length |
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5. | "Track Five" (Informal title: "It's a Starving") | 3:35 |
6. | "Track Six" (Informal title: "Say It") | 3:12 |
7. | "Track Seven" (Informal title: "Stump of a Drowner") | 3:46 |
8. | "Blanket Roll Blues" | 3:16 |
Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
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United Kingdom | March 1984 [12] | Virgin | LP | V 2303 |
UK | Virgin | CD (part of Virgin's Compact Price series) | CDV 2303 | |
UK | January 30, 2006 [12] | Virgin | CD | CDVR 2303 |
Chart | Position |
---|---|
UK Albums Chart [2] | 60 |
Noel Scott Engel, better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was an American-British singer-songwriter and record producer who resided in England. Walker was known for his emotive voice and his unorthodox stylistic path which took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1980s to his death. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where he achieved fame as a member of pop trio the Walker Brothers, who scored several hit singles, including two number ones, during the mid-1960s, while his first four solo albums reached the top ten during the later part of the decade, with the second, Scott 2, reaching number one in 1968. He lived in the UK from 1965 onward and became a UK citizen in 1970.
The Walker Brothers were an American pop group formed in Los Angeles in 1964 by John Walker and Scott Walker, with Gary Walker joining shortly after. They adopted the 'Walker Brothers' name as a show business touch even though none of the members were related. After moving to Britain in 1965, they had several Top 10 albums and singles there, including the No. 1 hits "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", both of which also made the US Top 20 and Canadian Top 2. Between them was the UK No. 3 hit "My Ship is Coming In". They provided a unique counterpoint to the British Invasion by achieving much more success in the UK than in their home country, a period when the popularity of British bands such as The Beatles dominated the U.S. charts.
Tilt is the twelfth solo studio album by the American/English singer-songwriter Scott Walker. It was released on 8 May 1995. It was Walker's first studio album in eleven years.
"Arnold Layne" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd. Released on 10 March 1967, it was the band's first single and was written by Syd Barrett.
The Drift is the thirteenth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker, released on 8 May 2006 on 4AD. Apart from composing the soundtrack to the film Pola X, the album was Walker's first studio album in eleven years and only his third studio album since the final disbanding of The Walker Brothers in 1978. Walker composed the songs for the album slowly over the decade after the release of 1995's Tilt, beginning with "Cue", up until the album's recording. An early version of "Psoriatic" was premiered at the Meltdown festival on 17 June 2000 under the title "Thimble Rigging".
Scott 2 is the second solo album by Scott Walker, released in 1968 by Philips Records in the UK and Smash Records in the US. Featuring the minor hit "Jackie", it arrived at the height of Walker's commercial success as a solo artist, topping the UK Albums Chart.
Scott is the debut solo album by Scott Walker, originally released in the United Kingdom on Philips Records in 1967. The album received both strong commercial success as well as critical praise, hitting No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was produced by John Franz, who had previously worked with Walker's group the Walker Brothers, while its instrumental accompaniments were arranged and conducted by Angela Morley, Reg Guest and Peter Knight.
The Moviegoer is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer Scott Walker. It was released in October 1972 but failed to chart. No singles were released from the album, though "This Way Mary" was later released as a b-side to Walker's 1973 single "The Me I Never Knew". The album consists solely of renditions of film theme songs originally performed by other artists.
Any Day Now is the eighth solo studio album by the American singer Scott Walker. It was released in May 1973 but failed to chart. "The Me I Never Knew" was released as the album's sole single backed with the opening track of The Moviegoer; "This Way Mary". The album was also the final Walker studio album from Philips Records and he later signed with CBS Records.
Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from his T.V. Series is the fourth solo album by American artist Scott Walker. It was released in June 1969 and reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart, his last album to make the top 10. No singles were released from the album, though some editions include Walker's top-twenty single; "Lights of Cincinnati". The album does not include original compositions by Walker and consists of performances of ballads and big band standards. The album has since been deleted and has not been reissued.
"No Regrets" is a song by folk and blues singer/songwriter Tom Rush. It is the final song on his 1968 album The Circle Game and was released as a single in the UK in January 1968 and in the US in April. It peaked at number 57 on the UK BMRB Breakers, an official extension of the UK Singles Chart.
Nite Flights is the sixth and final studio album by American pop group the Walker Brothers, released in July 1978 by GTO Records. In contrast to their previous two albums, which were made up almost entirely of cover versions, Nite Flights is the group's only album to feature entirely original songs; Gary Walker contributed two while Scott Walker and John Walker each contributed four. In addition to containing all original material, the album was a radical departure from the group's usual mainstream sound, displaying elements of art rock, new wave and experimental music. It is generally considered an artistic breakthrough for Scott Walker, presaging his later re-emergence as an avant-garde artist.
No Regrets is the fourth album by the American pop group The Walker Brothers. The album was released in 1975 and was the group's first together since 1967. It reached number forty-nine on the UK Albums Chart and includes the single "No Regrets". The single backed with the non-album B-side "Remember Me" became the group's final significant hit single, reaching #7 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1976.
Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel is a compilation of Jacques Brel compositions recorded by Scott Walker during the period of 1967 to 1969. The compilation brings together all the Brel material that Walker covered on record. Walker additionally performed five Brel songs on his television series including "Alone"; another Brel/Shuman composition. None of these live recordings were released on the accompanying soundtrack.
"Jacky" (La chanson de Jacky) is a song written by the Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel and Gérard Jouannest. Brel recorded the song on 2 November 1965, and it was released on his 1966 album Ces gens-là. The song was translated from French into English and retitled "Jackie".
"Joanna" is a song written by the English husband and wife song-writing team Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent which was first a song for the American singer-songwriter Scott Walker in 1968. The song was Walker's second solo single in the United Kingdom. The accompaniment was directed by Peter Knight.
"(Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me" is a song by New York songwriter Pete Antell and first recorded by singer Bobby Coleman. The obscure song was later recorded and released by the American pop group the Walker Brothers as their sixth single in 1966. The accompaniment was directed by Reg Guest.
"Deadlier Than the Male" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker under his real name of Scott Engel with UK record producer Johnny Franz. The song was first recorded and released by Walker's pop group The Walker Brothers as their eighth single in 1966. The accompaniment was directed by Reg Guest. The song was the title track for the 1967 British action film Deadlier Than the Male which featured the character of Bulldog Drummond.
"Track Three" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker in 1983. This was Walker's eighth solo single in the UK and was released in March 1984 to promote his 'comeback' solo album Climate of Hunter. A stylised black and white music video was produced for the single. The single however did not chart. It was also to be his only single of the 1980s and his last released in the UK.
"Man from Reno" is a song written by musician and composer Goran Bregović with lyrics by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker in 1993. The song was recorded and released by Bregović and Walker for the 1993 French comedy film Toxic Affair, directed by Philoméne Esposito. Bregović composed the rest of the film's score. A stylised sepia-toned music video was produced for the single. The single was Walker's seventh and last solo single.
...a lifelong piece urging his career as a renegade pop star into increasingly thorny terrain. 1995's Tilt was especially jagged; 11 years after releasing the orchestral Climate of Hunter...