Album review: SCOTT WALKER + SUNN O))) - Soused

Highlights: Brando, Bull, Lullaby

8/10

For the record: Scott Walker's "Duchess" (1969)

Pointless statement #1: I don’t know just how soused you should be to appreciate everything you might or might not hear on this album, but Soused is more accessible than Bish Bosch. Impossible but true. Back in 2012, most of my teeth were broken and my knife got blunt from trying, but this time Scott threw a few bones to us brainless puppies.

Pointless statement #2: Soused sounds like the work of a mental maniac, formerly a thespian with a great voice, who buried himself in a cave-cum-studio and then died of dementia and this is what was found. This is genuinely bizarre.

Pointless statement #3: There are parts here that a casual listener could almost survive. The very beginning of “Brando”, those beautifully operatic 30 seconds, cherish them. They will come back, but only briefly. They may be your only chance. Also, “Bull” threatens to be ‘straightforward’ and ‘catchy’ on occasion, but this could well be down to all the brutal mindfuck going on around.

Pointless statement #4: “Lullaby” has to be the most misleading title in human history. If this is indeed a lullaby, I don’t want to imagine the baby. Or the nightmares.

Pointless statement #5: This was a collaboration with a drone-metal band called Sunn O))) who seem to be decent enough (you can spend years digging up things) but can only ever hope to be but a foil to Scott Walker’s grandiose, ruthless, inexplicable musical excesses. 

Pointless statement #6: 8/10.