Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Brainwashed	(favourable) 3 May 06
Telegraph	(favourable) 6 May 06
The Guardian	5 May 06
The Independent	5 May 06
Mojo	p.102, #151
musicOMH	May 2006
New York	(favourable) 8 May 06
The Observer	23 Apr 06
Pitchfork Media	(9.0/10) 9 May 06
PlayLouder	15 May 06
PopMatters	10 May 06
The Times	6 May 06
Uncut	(favourable) 10 May 06
Yahoo! Music	15 May 06

The Drift is the thirteenth studio album by the American solo artist Scott Walker. It was released on the 8 May 2006 and reached number 51 on the UK Albums Chart. No singles were released from the album. Apart from composing the soundtrack to the film Pola X, the album was Walker's first studio album in eleven years and only his third studio album since the final disbanding of The Walker Brothers in 1978.

Walker composed the songs for the album slowly over the decade after the release of 1995's Tilt, beginning with "Cue" (the longest song to complete), up until the album's recording. An early version of "Buzzers" was premièred at the Meltdown festival on 17 June 2000 under the title "Thimble Rigging". The album was recorded over a period of 17 months at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London, with orchestra recorded in one day at George Martin's AIR Studios in Hampstead, London. Receiving good reviews from critics, the album was released as an LP and CD in May 2006. The artwork for the album was designed by Vaughan Oliver at v23 with assistance from Chris Bigg and photography by Marc Atkins.

Walker's first album composed entirely of new material since 1995's Tilt, The Drift forms the second installment of the "trilogy" that concluded with 2012's Bish Bosch. In the years between Tilt and The Drift, Walker's released output comprised a few instrumental tracks on the soundtrack to the film Pola X, a cover of Bob Dylan's "I Threw It All Away" on the To Have and to Hold soundtrack, and "Only Myself to Blame" from The World Is Not Enough soundtrack, as well as a few compilations of previously released material, including the retrospective box set 5 Easy Pieces.

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Wikipedia