The Walker Brothers "After The Lights Go Out" the best of 1965-1967" (Vinyl)

The roots of the avant-garde art pop songwriter Scott Walker.  And probably the greatest living figure in contemporary music.  A strong statement, but he's still a consistently remarkable figure who is still doing music.  But first let's go back a bit... into the Myst that's time.

A really good collection to get is "After The Lights Go Out" because it covers all the great Walker Brothers hits.  They came back in the 70's, but that's another narrative.  My favorite (among favorites) is "Deadlier Than The Male" which sounds so much like a James Bond song, but it belongs to another film with that title.   But its classy, and so classic and the orchestration just cuts with the silky melody.  And if you do close your eyes while listening to this song, one does see a Saul Bass title being projected in your brain.

Also I would argue that Walker Brothers clearly leads to the 'new' Scott.  This is pop that's majestic,  with overtures to the great Phil Spector (Jack Nitzsche arranged "Love Her") but there is a hint that The Walker Brothers will go beyond this type of music.  The great thing about Scott, John, and Gary is that they really didn't look back.  It is no coincidence that there is a song called "Orpheus" on this collection.  Don't look back and go ahead.  And basically Scott Walker just did that.