Bish Bosch - Scott Walker
Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 33
  3. Negative: 2 out of 33
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  1. All Music Guide
    Dec 3, 2012
    90
    With Bish Bosch, Walker creates a kind of Möbius Strip: by virtue of creating a less physical sonic landscape, he provides a way into his great trilogy on his way out of it.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Nov 30, 2012
    91
    [Walker] is stronger and scarier than ever on his violently gorgeous 14th album. [7 Dec 2012, p.75]
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  3. Tiny Mix Tapes
    Nov 30, 2012
    100
    This very refusal to cohere, to make sense, to play the game of identity and otherness, of harmony and disharmony, makes Bish Bosch this year's only necessary work of art.
  4. Filter
    Nov 27, 2012
    82
    What's really amazing about Bish Bosch is that all of its myriad components are somehow pulled in to exist on the same insane planet.
  5. Beats Per Minute (formerly One Thirty BPM)
    Dec 3, 2012
    89
    The album is a widening and a deepening of the style we've come to expect of Walker – but it's also got elements of a brightening of that sound as well.
  6. The Quietus
    Dec 7, 2012
    90
    This is an album of a depth and ambition that should, frankly, set a standard for contemporary art music.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 3 out of 6
  1. Dikkus
    10
    An album that has made this year completely worth it in terms of music. It is an elegant painting, with Scott as the artist. Lyrically, the album is extremely comprehensive. Don't expect to understand these lyrics unless you're well read. Even if you aren't well read you can just as easily look up the various unfamiliar terms and references Scott makes throughout this masterpiece. The music, however, can easily be appreciated through analysis of it's complex composition and unique use of various instruments. The percussion is especially of high quality here, and while many people were worried with Scott's use of various synthesizers and heavy guitar riffs on this album, they work great. The strings, as usual, are fantastic. This album is worthy of carrying the name "Bosch" as it's title, it is a portrait in itself, various pictures and images of humanities tyrannies, sins, and addictions. Scott shows us how it really is, in a cynical manner to be expected of the man who once sung songs about Gonorrhea and Dictators. The images and pictures may seem disconnected at first, but much like Bosch's paintings they come together to form one beautiful piece.… Full Review »
  2. Lodz
    1
    Even if this record is a clever one, it is, first of all, a boring one. It is hardly possible to listen to it through at one occasion and, moreover, after one time I could not find any will to listen again. Critics have probably listened to another record. This one is really bad.… Full Review »
  3. Elasticman
    10
    He has broken the cycle. It is only 6 years since The Drift, 5 years earlier than expected. It is monumental, difficult, demanding, baffling, impossible and opaque everything to be expected from a Scott Walker record. It is also wondrous. The fact is exists and is released is incredible. I could give it 0 or 10, but it has to be a 10, because it must be heard at least once.… Full Review »
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