If Scott Walker's first solo album, 1967's Scott, had been about wilfully laying waste to the pretty-boy pop star image he had established with The Walker Brothers, Scott 2 found him relaxing into the role somewhat, and is probably the better record for it. The basic modus operandi remained the same--epic, string-drenched ballads, written by a combination of Walker and his heroes Jacques Brel and Tim Hardin--but a more playful spirit was directing matters. The difference is reflected in the choice of Brel songs alone. On Scott, Walker had picked such grim room clearers as "Mathilde" and "My Death". Here, he kicks off with an exuberant romp through "Jackie", Brel's sketch of a cheerfully dissolute rock & roll wastrel (Marc Almond released a barely distinguishable version a couple of decades later). Later, he camps up Brel's hilarious military reminiscence "Next", and contributes a composition of his own called "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"--it seems reasonable to suspect that Walker had been listening to a fair bit of Anthony Newley around this time. All this blithe good cheer can be taken so far, of course--the original sleeve notes, credited to "His friend Jonathan King", suggest that Walker could have been more cautious about the company he was keeping. --Andrew Mueller