Scott Walker’s The Drift will get under your skin

In my mind, Spooky Season music comes in two distinct flavors. There are the fun, occasionally goofy songs like “The Monster Mash” and John Carpenter’s “Halloween Theme.” Then there is the genuinely terrifying: Throbbing Gristle, The Body, or Scott Walker’s The Drift.

This 2006 album from the singer-songwriter is truly upsetting. On it, Walker explores death, disease, and tragedy. But not just from some abstract perspective. There are visceral descriptions of the hanging of Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci. He sings about 9/11, his stillborn twin brother, and the Srebrenica genocide. Lyrically, it’s about as dark as an album gets.

But it’s the experimental backdrop that drives it all home.

At times, the record sounds more like the score to an Ari Aster film than anything that could be called pop music under even the most generous definitions. Seasick guitars in the verses of “Jesse” give way to dissonant strings that drone oppressively over the chorus. You can feel the low-bitrate MP3 noise that opens “Clara” in your jaw, which also allegedly features the sound of his percussionist punching a pig carcass as part of the rhythm track.

Songs stop on a dime, linger in uncomfortable silence, then erupt in bursts of mechanical noise. Animal bleating, foley work, and atonal orchestra sections grind against Walker’s warble. Nothing is ever quite in tune, and it can be challenging to get through the record in a single sitting if you’re not in a very particular mood. But sticking with it can be quite rewarding.

Some songs and performances are so beautiful they send shivers down your spine or give you goosebumps. Scott Walker’s The Drift is the opposite of that. You will still have an involuntary physical reaction, but it’s more shudders than shivers. It will make your skin crawl.