Bish Bosch

Unlike his previous experimental albums, which were written over several years, Bish Bosch was written in just over a year. Walker had set aside a year to focus exclusively on writing, to speed up his process, and described it as "lightning speed". Even so, he still "had to wait and wait and wait almost every single day for the words to come".[4] The music was recorded over a period of two years, with lengthy gaps between sessions due to various problems: trouble booking studios, the death of producer Peter Walsh's father, and availability of musicians (including Walker himself, who scored a dance for the Royal Opera House).[5]

Walker got the idea for "SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)" while browsing a friend's library and learning of Zercon, the court jester of Attila; he considered Zercon a "fantastic character" and was surprised no one had used him. The song begins with Zercon performing for Attilla, then trying to escape and reach a "spiritual sovereignty", ultimately failing, and becoming a dwarf star and burning out.[6]

Walker explained the title:[4] (bracketed content quoted; linking added)

I knew I'd be playing with language more than I had on any of the previous albums. I wanted the title to introduce you to this kind of idea and reflect the feeling of the album, which was [claps hands briskly] bish bosh. And we know what bish bosh means here in this country – it means job done or sorted. In urban slang bish also [phonetically] means bitch, like "Dis is ma bitch". And then I wrote Bosch like the artist [Hieronymus]. I was then thinking in the terms of this giant universal female artist. And this idea continued to play through the record in certain spots.

The first music to appear from the album was heard in a promotional video released on October 11, 2012, which featured extracts from the songs "'See You Don't Bump His Head'", "Tar", "Dimple", "Corps De Blah", "Phrasing" and "Epizootics!" set to video clips of Walker and his team working on both the music and artwork.[7] This was followed on November 7 by the release of two full tracks, "Epizootics!" and "'See You Don't Bump His Head'",[8] which were made available on Spotify as a two track "Spotify Exclusive Preview" streaming single.[9] A video for "Epizootics!", directed by Olivier Groulx, followed a day later.[10] Clash Music called the song "a lengthy, often surreal rumination"[11] while NPR said that it was "weirdly funky" and recalled Nite Flights-era track "Fat Mama Kick" in its use of saxophone.[12]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	78/100[13]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[14]
Beats Per Minute	(89%) [15]
Consequence of Sound	[16]
The Guardian	[17]
The Independent	[18]
NME	3/10[19]
Pitchfork	(8.0/10) [20]
Slant Magazine	[21]
Sputnikmusic	(3.5/5)[22]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[23]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 78, based on 33 professional reviews.[13] The recording was selected as 'Album of the Week' in The Independent, The Guardian and The Sunday Times, 'Album of the Month' in Mojo magazine,[24] and 'Album of the Year' by Tiny Mix Tapes.[25] The album placed 11th in The Wire's annual critics' poll.[26]

All tracks composed by Scott Walker.[27]

• Official minisite