A once celebrated teen heartthrob or not modern-day Scott Walker is no easy sell. In the wake of the critically adored but straight-up challenging The Drift (2006) and Bish Bosch (2012) the 71-year-old has made that strikingly clear past fan club members be damned. It’s hardly a surprise then that his latest effort with metal experimenters Sunn O))) keeps that tradition of challenge alive and well though not exactly in the same way.
Without a doubt Soused will appeal more to Scott fans than those of Sunn O))) with the LP immediately bringing to mind the avant-crooner’s recent solo albums. But it quickly becomes apparent that rather than help Walker branch out Sunn O))) have strangely tamed what once felt so alien and in turn captivating about his modern efforts. Sure there are whip cracks here free-jazz horn skronks there and general musical freakiness aplenty but it all feels like painfully familiar territory where Sunn O)))’s industrial drone soundscapes do little to push Walker forward in his creative renaissance.
The joke has been made that Scott Walker + Sunn O))) are essentially the hipster equivalent of Lou Reed and Metallica but that’s not far from the mark. Much like the latter’s wretched Lulu Soused feels like something that would have been better left as some music nerd’s unrealized fantasy than the disappointing reality it ultimately is.
