Best Of 1965-1967: After The Lights Go Out [Best of]

While certainly a decent Walker Brother's collection, I'd have to say you'd be better off buying their "Images" and "Portrait" cds which contain generous bonus tracks and numerous excellent songs not found here (such as Scott's "Geneieve"). The Walker Brothers (incidently they aren't brothers nor are any of them named Walker) recorded legacy is not that large so I'm not so sure that a greatest hits package is really the right way to go. If you just want "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" you could probably find that on any one of numerous sixties compilations, if you want to dig deeper you should go to their albums.

I always like to think of the Walker Brothers as the Righteous Brothers meet Edgar A. Poe. They share that orchestrated white soulish type sound of the Righteous Brothers but with a darker more adventurish edge.

The best known Walker Brother songs are all here, along with some lesser known gems like "After the Lights Go Out" or "Mrs Murphy". There are also a few amazing Scott Walker compositions, most notably "Archangel" that equal the standard of his solo work.

Since the Walker Brothers are still pretty hazy to most people a more enlightening set of liner notes would probably have been helpful as well.

I can't say I know terribly much about the Walker Brothers, but a quick scan of their discography suggests there may not be all that much to know. An American vocal trio who enjoyed a string of British hits from 1965-67 and a brief comeback a decade later, they would seem the sort of act amply served by compilations. AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT must surely rank as a good one, at least as far as the Walkers' early work is concerned.
Merging - at times even overlapping - Motown and Phil Spector sensibilities with grand theatrical frills and heartrending delivery, the Walker Brothers crafted some of the sixties' most dramatic ballads, the best of which have lost nothing after forty years. Scott Engels/Walker's full, clear low tenor, a compellingly effective instrument even when interpreting outright schmaltz, generally takes the lead (with good reason), though the other "Walkers," John and Gary, provide more than worthy support and (in John's case) occasional solos. To be sure, not everything works: there's some truly over-the-top stuff here, with soap opera lyrics, swirling horror-movie organs, hair-curling violins and an ambience worthy of Broadway at its brightest. But when these guys are good, they're unbeatable. The Drifters-influenced title track, "Love Her," "Make It Easy on Yourself," "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" and "Don't Say Goodbye" are all masterpieces, big and brash with just enough weeping melodrama to stick them permanently into the listener's memory after one or two plays. A number of other winners are in here too, as well as a few fairly laughable tracks; all fit, nevertheless. This is superlative mid-sixties pop, and I doubt that anyone, of whatever age, couldn't find something to love on this disc.

If you were a fan of the Walkers Brothers before Scott took off for strange-land you'll enjoy this album. It's really the only one you need to buy. It has the three 60's mega hits-Sun Ain't, Make It Easy,and My Ship. It also contains some great little knowns and B sides like Another Tear Falls,Saddest Night In the World, and some other super tear in your beer entries. If you want to dig deeper into Scott's pre-Prozac world thanby all means spring for more lp's but this one does the job quite well.