Climate of Hunter
By Scott Walker
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Track listing
Show track credits
- A1 Rawhide 3:50
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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- A2 Dealer 5:09
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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keyboards
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saxophone
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trumpet
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- A3 Track Three 3:42
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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keyboards
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trumpet
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backing vocals
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guitar
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guitar
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- A4 Sleepwalkers Woman 4:07
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composer
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- B1 Track Five 3:30
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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keyboards
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Gary Kettelpercussion
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- B2 Track Six 3:07
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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saxophone
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- B3 Track Seven 3:41
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composer
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bass guitar
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percussion
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Gary Kettelpercussion
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- B4 Blanket Roll Blues 3:07
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music
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lyrics
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guitar
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- Total length: 30:13
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
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6 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Climate of Hunter [p] 33 rpm
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Climate of Hunter 33 rpm
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Climate of Hunter Remastered
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Climate of Hunter 180 gram, 33 rpm, Digital Download
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35 Reviews
How to describe this? Imagine a mix of Simple Minds, Japan, Gary Numan, Roxy Music's Avalon and the Blade Runner soundtrack. Make it darker and slightly disjointed, dissonant, atonal and "off". The songs sound as if they were written by a deeply troubled or sick person. I sense tragedy here. Scott Walker's expression on the album cover says it all really.
Still can't decide whether it's great or not. Dealer is pure greatness though.
Still can't decide whether it's great or not. Dealer is pure greatness though.
Published
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Climate of Hunter (arty grammar, for sure!) is the only record that Scott Walker released in a span of something like twenty years. There's a big time cult built around him due to his unlikely re-emergence as a Gary Numanish-Lord- of-the-Dark-Places in the 'nineties. For newbies, I'd suggest first listening to a sample of his singing before investing in one of his records. As far as his discography goes - I'd recommend the late 'sixties work, as his histrionic moanings are best matched with the baroque arrangements and instrumentation of the time. On Climate of Hunter, our hero is aiming to land beside David Sylvain and the artsy David Bowie stuff on your shelf. Unfortunately, he's been out of the game awhile and is mostly crushed by the wheels of 'eighties production techniques. For Tilt fans this is likely of historical interest; for others it's likely to be an acquired taste.
Published
Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter finally appeared in 1984 and appropriately begins (considering his six years of silence) with Walker singing “This is how you disappear. . . “ The LP’s eight songs clock in at only a little over thirty minutes and explore similar techno-dance territory found on Nite Flights. Electric fretless bass slides mesh with electronic keyboards, synthesizer washes, tape loops and blazing guitar solos. Two exceptions to the prevailing style are the album’s side-closers. Side one ends with a beautiful orchestrated ballad titled “Sleepwalker’s Woman,” reminiscent of Scott’s earlier solo work, except it feels colder, more distant. Concluding the album is a cover of “Blanket Roll Blues” from the Marlon Brando movie The Fugitive Kind, featuring the only song lyrics ever written by author Tennessee Williams. Following Mark Knopfler’s extended bluesy acoustic guitar introduction, Walker slowly sings
When I crossed the river
With a heavy blanket roll
I took nobody with me
Not a soul.
I took a few provisions
Some for comfort, some for cold
But I took nobody with me
Not a soul.
The words are a prophetic send-off, since Scott is well aware that his artistic journey will be a lonely one from now on. Climate of Hunter sounds like a tentative beginning to his journey that draws upon Nite Flights without adding much of anything new. Since the album is so short, I burned it to disc and added the four Nite Flights songs, which fit well together stylistically. But the mix points out just how dated and sterile Hunter sounds in comparison to the fresh and exciting “The Electrician.” The album was one of the worst sellers in the Virgin Records catalog and the label dropped Scott Walker. It would be his only record release of the 1980s.
When I crossed the river
With a heavy blanket roll
I took nobody with me
Not a soul.
I took a few provisions
Some for comfort, some for cold
But I took nobody with me
Not a soul.
The words are a prophetic send-off, since Scott is well aware that his artistic journey will be a lonely one from now on. Climate of Hunter sounds like a tentative beginning to his journey that draws upon Nite Flights without adding much of anything new. Since the album is so short, I burned it to disc and added the four Nite Flights songs, which fit well together stylistically. But the mix points out just how dated and sterile Hunter sounds in comparison to the fresh and exciting “The Electrician.” The album was one of the worst sellers in the Virgin Records catalog and the label dropped Scott Walker. It would be his only record release of the 1980s.
Published
In the nether zone between the existential poetry of the Scott era and the full-bore nightmare music of Tilt onward. Unfortunately there's nothing here as good as his Nite Flights stuff; it has a particularly chilly, paranoid charm of its own, but it all feels too brittle. The fact that half the tracks suggests a lack of an overarching vision here relative to his other stuff.
Published
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A1
Rawhide
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A2
Dealer
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A3
Track Three
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A4
Sleepwalkers Woman
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B1
Track Five
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B2
Track Six
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B3
Track Seven
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B4
Blanket Roll Blues
Scott's first slice of true oddity is, like most of his career, a bit hit or miss with me. I love the synths and the almost Blade Runner aesthetic that this has going - you could even hear some influence on vaporwave if you squint hard enough. But this is early enough in Scott's career that he still has some semblance of pop in the songwriting, with some of it even being a little catchy. I don't think it's quite as immersive as Tilt, nor as beautiful as some of his 60's pop, but for a transitional album between baroque beauty and... whatever the fuck came after this, it's a pretty solid effort.
7.0 (4th listen)
Published
Questions, questions...
The intentional melodic ambiguity of the sound on this record makes it sound very hollow. Not in the "there's nothing there so it's boring" sort of way, but more in the "there's nothing there and I'm experiencing the call of the void" sort of way. Considering the emptyness, how the hell are the basslines so groovy and coherent?
The out-of-place 80s guitar solos would sound dated on any other record but here they just give this eyebrow-raising tingle of confusion. It's like every single song element on here is lost in different time periods.
The special guests of this record are peculiar too. Billy Ocean, Mark Knopfler and Evan Parker all make appearances here. Isn't it just bizarre?
What's up with these track titles too Scott? There are just so many questions on here with no necessity of answers. Every single track is wonderful but I am surprised how Sleepwalkers Woman has such a low rating. It is one of his best performances. Haunting, yet so beautiful.
Confusing oddity in Scott's discography. It's like a chrysalis before the full-fledged metamorphosis witnessed on Tilt and afterwards. It's brilliant....but confusing.
9+/10
The intentional melodic ambiguity of the sound on this record makes it sound very hollow. Not in the "there's nothing there so it's boring" sort of way, but more in the "there's nothing there and I'm experiencing the call of the void" sort of way. Considering the emptyness, how the hell are the basslines so groovy and coherent?
The out-of-place 80s guitar solos would sound dated on any other record but here they just give this eyebrow-raising tingle of confusion. It's like every single song element on here is lost in different time periods.
The special guests of this record are peculiar too. Billy Ocean, Mark Knopfler and Evan Parker all make appearances here. Isn't it just bizarre?
What's up with these track titles too Scott? There are just so many questions on here with no necessity of answers. Every single track is wonderful but I am surprised how Sleepwalkers Woman has such a low rating. It is one of his best performances. Haunting, yet so beautiful.
Confusing oddity in Scott's discography. It's like a chrysalis before the full-fledged metamorphosis witnessed on Tilt and afterwards. It's brilliant....but confusing.
9+/10
Published
Climate of Hunter is very much the transitional album from Walker's bipolar career, and being rooted in the world of pop, with one foot in the experimental future, and an arm in rock, leads to this album being particularly good at any of them. Rock didn't do Walker's style any favors. His operatic voice and cryptic lyrics don't work for the genre. Production sounds muddied and fairly uninteresting. Walker's voice drowns out most of the mix, which further pushes him away from grabbing at rock.
In my revisit of the wild and varied Walker catalog, Climate of Hunter stands out as the weakest as the bunch.
In my revisit of the wild and varied Walker catalog, Climate of Hunter stands out as the weakest as the bunch.
Published
The 80s wasn't an easy challenge for long established singers. For whatever its worth, I'd take this over Let's Dance or I'm your man.
Published
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Catalog
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