Scott Walker – Boy Child - The Best Of 1967 - 1970

I must have been one the lucky ones when buying this promising reissue. Only some slight crackle on Track One, record one, Side One and 10 seconds of distortion on the same Track Six. Otherwise almost dead silent vinyl, no crackle, no hissing and popping that other reviewers unfortunately have been plagued with. Not the most dynamic records (at least not compared to the Mercury 2013 Back to Black Scott 4 reissue), but still an enjoyable listen. I will try to give the records a proper rinse and update the review afterwards.

I read the reviews after my purchase and before my first listen.
I did not have very high expectations and to be quite honest, I was expecting a nightmare of an experience.
After verifying that both discs were pressed properly and an inspection of the overall quality I found myself fortunate to not have experienced any of the quality control issues aforementioned in most of the reviews of this record set.
I did notice that the discs were loaded with static and I believe that is what is introducing most of the surface noise experienced during playback. Nothing terrible and I believe that with a thorough cleaning and anti static treatment will get rid of the little bit of noise I experienced with my set.
Overall the sound and recording quality left a bit to be desired which is unfortunate.
Sound is lackluster and pretty flat. There seems to be little excitement or presence to the recording. Don’t get me wrong, it is not terrible, but nothing to write home about.
For a 30.00 purchase at my local record store, I was not terribly disappointed. In fact after reading all the reviews I feel fortunate to not have had the same experiences as many other reviewers.
I gave it a 4 out of five based upon the overall package. I would have probably given it a 3.5 based on the sound quality if I could.
In closing, I will enjoy this set more than once for sure.

Belated review here with a bit of a related rant about coloured vinyl and the cons of Record Store Day cos I'm in the mood:

I'd call the vinyl reissue 'passable' in general—a little noisy with clicks and 'static' sounds which could have been worse. So, faint praise really. His songs are so beautiful, his voice so compelling, that a pressing has to be truly awful to obscure that, but the faint praise becomes even fainter with time because these minor blemishes seem to have gotten worse, on my copy at least. The DEAL BREAKER though, which absolutely ruins this in the end, is the inner-groove distortion on 'The Girls From the Streets.' Such a great song and the outro is just unlistenable, as some early reviews seem to have noted. Not so bad on other sides but still a great shame when the presentation is so damn good. If you dodged that bullet count yourself lucky because there was clearly a very bad batch in there somewhere. I bought mine in New Zealand and have read identical complaints from people in England.

I would add that Walker seems a tough one to get right on vinyl. I often read complaints about sibilance, especially on Scott 4. Thing is his vocals, on that album at least, were recorded so damn hot and seemingly without a popper stopper to my ears. There is something harsh and treble heavy in how his voice got EQ'd on it too. A bit of a mystery to me. Imagine that album with a rich Sinatra-esque EQ instead of this grating sibilance. Go listen to Scott 4 in pristine digital and you'll hear the sibilance and sharpness is in the mix. Almost to distraction. It's just likely to be rendered even worse with the physicality of the vinyl format and needle on wax.

While the cover for 'Boy Child' is white, and is also a great cover, did we really need white vinyl? On a Scott Walker record? He who sang an ode to blackest DEATH? Ugh. It just doesn't fit his aesthetic IMO. There's something cheesy about it, maybe more by virtue of association and all the baggage that has built up around RSD and various other aspects of the vinyl renaissance, but I can't help but resent the choice. It's a classic comp. so go 'classic' black for the vinyl for god's sake. The recent re-press of Bill Fay's Time of the Last Persecution got that right, at least. A much better pressing too (though an absolute extortionist RSD price, leaving its own sour taste IMO).

I simply can't wrap my head around Record Store Day as a supposed 'celebration' of all things vinyl. I never did, but it seems like more of a con each year—a yearly cash-in which is now dominated by major labels and very opportunistic decision making, even if it is also helping keep small record stores alive with a yearly spike in huge turnovers for one weekend. Take the Bill Fay reissue. It's been crying out for a reissue for YEARS. Some 'canny' label waits until RSD to do what is nothing more than a straight repress and charges close to double the usual cost for a single disc with no insert. It's f###ing disgusting opportunism and I'd wager Bill doesn't see half that money! I bought mine very reluctantly having rushed to a small store in Dunedin, NZ to grab a copy. As someone on a low-ish wage I felt totally taken advantage of as a fan.

A little more on 'coloured vinyl' (kind of a misnomer, because of course 'black' is also a colour, as one grumpy record store manager once reminded me): I don't think there's any convincing science about 'coloured' vinyl being worse, but it seems to me they are always far more likely to be riddled with flaws because they will inevitably be getting rushed out with less QC to meet such events as RSD. Another factor is smaller indie bands ONLY managing to sell coloured vinyl limited editions of their albums. Black pressings stay stuck on the shelves. It's so bizarre. A whole new generation who seem reluctant to buy a record unless it's a 'limited edition' with a new 'colour.' Thus young, fledgling indies doing pressings on a new gimmicky colour, and being encouraged to CONTRIVE scarcity (just as REcord Store Day does with almost everything) to try and sell it, instead of scarcity being a factor of circumstance. These same indies will inevitably have less leverage to say 'No, not up to our standards' to a test pressing. Therefore, more likely that the pressing is flawed. It's not the 'colour' per se, but the conditions around what dictates choosing 'jelly bean orange' (argh, kill me now) or 'coca cola brown' over black. The costs of doing a small, indie pressing are so hard to justify as it is, and every extra delay takes up more precious time (and thus money) in the fragile eco-system of their careers, so to send back a test pressing is to kind of crucify yourself for six more months (AND, this should be obvious but audiophiles seem to not realise this: most musicians who are not super-rich spend all their money on music gear for PERFORMANCE and they are more than likely to have no extra income for a decent record player, so they'll rarely even have the gear to test a pressing properly anyway, and the labels don't care because the fans want the 'colour' more than the damn pressing) .

You don't see Joni Mitchell, Neil Young or, say, the highly regarded Acoustic Sounds jazz reissues relying on, e.g, a 'blue vinyl' for Joni's Blue in order to sell it. (though I saw exactly that as a a shitty exclusive at the chain store JB Hifi - argh) They all go legacy artist 'classic' black vinyl, they all have access to the absolute mastering pros, they are the few who can still afford to cut laquers, and they all have the time, privilege and leverage to send back test pressings until they're as close to perfect as possible. Thus, by default, 'coloured vinyl' still sucks in 75% of cases in my experience. And RSD is perpetuating all these trends (and potentially locking indie bands into having to follow suit.) End of review and rant.

Bought it twice, and had both times two times record one in there, I have no words left…

An outstanding compilation. This was put together by Cally Callomon and released in 1990 - the first time any solo work by Scott from the 1967 to 1970 period was released on cd, with truly insightful sleeve notes by the equally legendary Marc Almond. This was rereleased 10 years later with slightly different artwork, and in my opinion, slightly inferior track listing with different sleeve notes by Neil Hannon (which were slightly inferior sleeve notes in my view to the original 1990 release), and rereleased again for Record Store Day a couple of years ago with extra tracks which had both previous sleeve notes and also included wonderfully heartfelt extra sleeve notes by Scott’s good friend Jarvis Cocker. This compilation proved to be as influential as the comp that was released by Julian Cope almost 10 years before. If you are new to Scott’s ‘60’s solo work then start here with the 1990 edition of this compilation. The music and track order is perfect and the sleeve notes by Marc Almond (which are relatively short) are sublime. Also worth looking for is the 2 part article written by the journalist Joe Jackson for Hot Press Magazine from 1990 which is available for free on their website last time I looked and also available on Amazon on two E-Books published by Jackson. The legend that is Scott Walker is built on his first 6 solo albums - the fact that he went even further out into space from his 1984 album “Climate of Hunter” onwards is simply jaw-dropping.
This compilation is highly recommended.

My copy is pretty good. A few pops and clicks but none of the other issues mentioned by others.

One of the nicest editions I've ever seen. Lyrics for all songs, three heartfelt essays, awesome pictures... the additional tracks really make a difference and they've been perfectly sequenced. Sound quality is good too.

The reports of crackling and non-fill are accurate. My copy is mostly free of defects, but when they crop up, it's noticeable - this music has lots of dynamic shifts, and to hear a sudden occurrence of non-fill in a quiet section is particularly distracting. I think this kind of thing is only going to become more common as a still-tiny number of worldwide pressing plants remain slammed with orders.

...around 1987 marc almond gave me with his brilliant coverversions the key
to understand jacques brel & scott walker. i already knew the 60's teenage
band walker brothers, but was not aware that scott walker developed from
1967-1970 such visionary beautiful ballads, which fulminated in his
avantgarde-masterpiece "tilt" in 1994...

This is not a matter of good or bad pressings it a sloppy pressing using an old remaster. The vinyl will clean up, it took three times in my ultrasonic cleaner to get it all out. Hiding behind it though is the masters used for the 1990 CD release, the compression is awful it takes all the character and warmth out the music. It’s pressed in France and most likely a gzmedia pressing who are quickly becoming the “Supercuts” that pops up in every shopping mall USA. The 1990 pressing is better slightly but neither are worth chasing down, buy Scott 1- 4 and if your feeling adventurous ‘til the band comes in’ instead.