SCOTT WALKER: "The Moviegoer"

Original released on LP Philips 6308 120

(UK, October 1972)

If you're looking for more Walker writing genius, this isn't the place. It's a selection of late 60s / early 70s film theme interpretations; some amazing (Ennio Morricone & Joan Baez' "Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti"); most are interesting. On an album that critics loudly declare as representative of his total decline and which Walker considered nothing more than a rent-paying exercise, his vocal genius is at its most dazzling. The baritone vibrato is deep, velvety and measured and on the mad jazz melodies of Michel Legrand ("A Face in the Crowd" / "The Summer Knows") and the sly beauty of Lalo Schifrin's "That Night" there is an inimitable, exquisite yearning. Like wistful slow-motion Super 8 film footage, the major seventh heaven of Dory Previn and Fred Karlin's "Come Saturday Morning" together with Walker's incredible timbre and interpretative command may just define the concept. His greatest vocal album. Your bohemian aunt has probably had it for years. 'Borrow' it. (in RateYourMusic)