If not, then Soused will stand as one hell of a final chapter in a solo career of two wonderful phases: first, four albums of exquisite, highly literate chamber-pop that got more perfect with each volume. Then second, a leap into the otherwordly unknown that took a first step on Nite Flights, another tentative one on Climate Of Hunter, then four giant steps that none of his peers, not even Bowie, came close to in their avant-garde immersion. As much as Bowie left us on a fresh, experimental high, can you imagine him working with Seattle's dark lords of drone metal?
Sunn O))) somehow seemed a perfect fit for Walker, particularly after The Drift, and Soused is a quintessential example of two unique acts coming up with a synergistic collaboration where neither sacrifices any of their identity. The stunning opener Brando makes this clear right away, as Walker's crooning of BDSM desire (seen through the prism of movies where the title actor gets beaten up) and attendant whip-cracks float over a river of molten drone lava.
Elsewhere, Scott's latter-day lyrical obsessions of human atrocity, disease and decay continue to ensure that the darkness in the scattered fragmentary words matched that of the music. The human cost of oppression is laid bare in the plaintive "She's hidden her babies away"'s throughout Herod 2014, and the much more surreal Bull was described as "a crusade against existence itself" by Walker. The grotesques of Bish Bosch continue in Fetish, but the finale of Lullaby proves a stunning finish. The song, obliquely about assisted dying, was originally recorded by Ute Lemper and released on the Japanese version of her 2000 album. It loses none of its power on Walker's own version with Sunn O))), and serves as a truly memorable closer to the final album of his lifetime.
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Previously posted at SGTG: Tilt