It's Raining Today: The Scott Walker Story (1967-70)

Ohio-born Noel Scott Engel gained pop stardom in mid-'60s Britain as Scott Walker, lead singer of the Walker Brothers, best known for their Righteous Brothers-like hit "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore". Then he went on to a solo career as a dark, brooding pop songster that cemented his legend in Europe while sealing his obscurity in his native U.S. It was very much the U.S.'s loss, as this compilation of songs from his first four solo albums shows.
Walker's idiosyncratic, decidedly non-rock compositions are ground zero for several generations of European pop music. Listening to these dark, poetic ruminations adorned by quirky, over-the-top orchestrations, it's easy to find in them the blueprints that would guide the likes of Nick Cave, John Cale, Roxy Music, David Bowie and Julian Cope in later years. Songs like "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" and "Joe" paint bleakly evocative portraits of broken lives and existential despair with a strange, beautiful lyricism that often recalls Jacques Brel (whose "Next" is a twisted highlight here). Walker delivers them in a rich, melodramatic baritone that owes more to cabaret and Tony Bennett than any of his pop contemporaries. IT'S RAINING TODAY brings his gorgeous, sardonic music back home for those who missed it the first time around.|