The Last Shadow Puppets: The Age of Understatement (Domino)

References in UK reviews to Scott Walker with regard to this album tweaked my interest -- more so when you look at who is behind it: Alex Turner from Actic Monkeys and Miles Kane of the UK indie-rockers Rascals, two least likely Walker aficionados I couldn't imagine.

And yet . . .

No there is no Amsterdam here, not even The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore (although they write a song entitled In My Room) -- but what there is possesses a similar sense of Walker's feel for the dramatic and literate, a surge of strings to propel the emotions (and horns coming in behind), and an overarching sense of romanticism and ennui (albeit given a rhythmic kick of the kind Walker has rarely approached in the past couple of decades).

So the Walker reference stands, and some material here you could imagine the young Scott sitting in his late 60s London bedroom listening to on the radiogram and considering whether to take it to the Walker Brothers -- or not bother and cover it himself.

Turner and Kane may never make another album together (they say they don't take this one seriously), but this one stands as a fine cult item. Much like Scott Walker albums, I guess.