130. Scott Walker — Scott 2 (1968)

1. I thought we’d gone and left Jacques Brel back in 1964. Much to my surprise — Scott Walker is here to bring the melodrama BACK. Opening track “Jackie,” a cover of a Brel tune translated into English, brings that melodrama into overdrive, with swirling strings, pounding drums, horns, the whole she-bang — it sounds like an Ennio Morricone soundstrack, a Sinatra tune on drugs, with Walker wailing over the whole thing. It’s a fantastic song opening a fantastic album. It’s also maybe the first time anyone wrote or spoke the phrase “stupid-ass.”
2. Only three of the songs here are Brel covers, but all aim for that same level of overwhelming emotion. They also typically use that beautiful, orchestral backing and Walker’s smooth voice to mask some borderline Lou Reed-esque lyrics. On “The Amorous Humphrey Pugg,” Walker sings beautifully about a husband broken down from domestic life, wandering the red light district, finding solace in Ann, Mary, Celina, and others.
3. On that and other tracks, the orchestration calls to mind an idealized view of the post-war 60s while the lyrics highlight the seedy underbelly and simmering suffocation captured by shows like Mad Men. On “Plastic Palace People,” Walker juxtaposes the joy of a boy and his balloons hovering over the buildings as his mom tries to get him to come home with the horror of that life on earth: “Listen, they’re laughing in the halls / They rip your face with lies / To buzzing eyes you cry for help / Like gods they bark replies”. Later, “The Girls and the Dogs” opens with buzzy accordion notes, and uses this utterly delightful, bright, buzzy music to cover a sea of resentment toward women — to hear Scott put it, girls “drive you to drink,” “leave you to cry,” “tear you apart,” “treat you like trash,” and — well, there are 16 entire stanzas about how shitty women are to men, as opposed to how dogs ask nothing, give everything, and are man’s best friend. But still, the kicker of the tune is brutal: “And yet it’s because of the girls / When they’ve knocked us about / And our tears want to shout / That we kick the dogs out.”
4. Fuck it, nothing matters and everything is awful, according to Walker’s lyrics. But you might as well wrap it up in bubble gum and put on a happy face while eating shit.

Up next: The Zombies re-animate us with their upbeat 60s pop rock.

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