CD tip

Climate of Hunter

Scott Walker

Walker, who died Monday at the age of 76, was a remarkable and deliciously moody singer/songwriter with a voice and sprawling songs like a warm night-tide lapping at the shore of some secret, ominous island. You've heard him — at least tangentially — because on first listen, you'll see he was clearly a huge influence on David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Radiohead, Steven Wilson, Brian Eno, David Sylvian, and Talk Talk. Not a bad batch of acolytes. You've also heard Walker, literally, because he was briefly a pop star as a member of the Walker Brothers ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"). Things, ah, changed after that. "Climate of Hunter," which came out in 1984, is just one of his evocative and entrancing recordings and a good starting point, if you're inspired to go further, for the kaleidoscopic albums that followed.