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Oct 21, 2014Pairing the somber and overpowering baritone bravado of Walker—not to mention his mad-poet mystique—with the subterranean thunder and tumbling towers of holy-hell from the core duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson seemed like the perfect marriage. And it is.
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Oct 17, 2014This is Sunn O))) at their most playful, and Scott at his most enjoyable.
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Oct 16, 2014Soused is surprisingly melodic, Sunn O))) provide a menacing but rich backdrop to Walker’s distinctive baritone.
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Oct 20, 2014Although occasional representational sounds intrude on some tracks, it is Sunn O)))’s glacial, thundering voice that carries Walker’s conceptual project forward.
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Oct 20, 2014Haunting, jarring, and oddly beautiful, Soused defies the idea of “easy listening,” but its singular vision and harnessing of the avant-garde makes it one of the year’s most compelling artistic statements.
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Oct 15, 2014Out of all the stellar releases in 2014, this collaboration is the one which is most likely to stay with us all, and the one from which the most new conclusions will be made as years in the future, we’re still dissecting and seeking to understand the stories and emotions captured therein.
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Under The RadarOct 10, 2014This is more than an album--this is an exemplar of contemporary boundary-pushing art to be consumed slowly and patiently. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.80]
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MojoNov 6, 2014A powerful mix of dramatic, slow-moving sound and Walker melodies and narratives. [Nov 2014, p.99]
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Nov 6, 2014The combination of these two forces is both inspired and insane.
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Nov 4, 2014The songs are more cohesive now and Walker’s focus has narrowed, honed to a sharper edge on shorter time and the steel of SunnO)))’s contributions, but some of the posts, beams and plumbing still show through its exterior. Those little gaps in the facade help Soused sound more approachable.
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Oct 29, 2014Soused, with its impenetrable construct and heavy ambition, delivers on many fronts, most notable of which is in its thoughtfully composed immensity.
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Oct 21, 2014Soused is a powerful and arresting album that will appeal to fans of Scott Walker's later work.
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Oct 20, 2014As defined here, Soused accurately means "drenched" in sound. Walker's and Sunn 0)))'s individual identities, while always on full display, are brought jaggedly and thunderously together in an enthralling recording that equals the sum of its mighty parts.
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Oct 20, 2014Soused manages to feel understated and ripe for listeners to engage with entirely on their own terms.
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Oct 19, 2014It is a work that demonstrates how sheer and utter horror can be turned into music, and while that may not appeal to the majority, the fact that someone is brave enough to do it is really quite brilliant.
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Oct 19, 2014The resulting album is rich in imagination, and--at times, most notably on Bull and Brando--surprisingly accessible
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Oct 17, 2014Given how far out Scott Walker had stepped with 2012’s complex and challenging, allusive and abusive Bish Bosch, the five tracks which comprise Soused seem almost mainstream by comparison.
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Oct 16, 2014Soused may not be the best record either Sunn O))) or Walker have released in the last few years--those accolades go to Monoliths & Dimensions and The Drift, respectively--but it’s still an endlessly compelling work, the match between singular solo artist and the pivotal group every bit as thrilling as you’d expect.
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Oct 14, 2014There are numerous highlights to be found across these songs but Herod 2014 and Fetish stand out in particular.
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Q MagazineOct 10, 2014Soused remains a distinctly perverse pleasure. [Nov 2014, p.120]
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UncutOct 10, 2014The result is the most accessible Scott Walker album since Tilt, perhaps even longer. [Nov 2014, p.74]
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Oct 10, 2014Latin lamentations and oscillating interferences spin sinful tales of transgression and violation, with a flagellating undercurrent of austerity, to create an uneasy, intuitive, idiosyncratic masterpiece.
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Oct 22, 2014Soused is compelling, almost inherently so, but it’s not a classic.
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Classic Rock MagazineDec 17, 2014Dense and demanding, Soused will not be topping the album charts. But it is the kind of obliteratingly intense, glamorously weird avant-metal epic that Lou Reed and Metallica never made. [Nov 2014, p.94]
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The WireDec 2, 2014The result lack some of the swarming, piercing detail and vertiginous shifts that give so much drama to late Scott. At the same time, it mostly does away with that haunts latter-day songs. [Oct 2014, p.51]
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Oct 30, 2014This teaming of a gifted poet and bruising metalheads is like Lou Reed and Metallica's Lulu--but about half as long, and about twice as heavy.
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Oct 13, 2014Another album which, if not exactly pleasant to listen to, is at least experimentally interesting, continuing Walker's aggressive program of abrasive sonic assaults.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 35
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Mixed: 2 out of 35
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Negative: 5 out of 35
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Oct 26, 2014
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Aug 5, 2019
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Dec 31, 2015