No one ever has or ever will do it quite like Scott Walker. ⁠ ⁠ “SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)” tells a fictional tale of the final minutes in the life of the historical figure Zercon, a diminutive jester in the court of Attila the Hun. Delivered mostly in the first person, the track begins with an atonal a capella full of profane insults. “If shit were music / La da da, la da da / You’d be a brass band,” Scott-as-Zercon sings. ⁠ ⁠ Then a doomsday guitar note sounds, and he begins to spout a mix of erudite mythological references and bathroom wall jokes, including phone numbers read in Roman numerals. He sings of a botched circumcision, a “wormy anus,” severed “reeking gonads” fed to a “shrunken face,” and a Roman “who’s proof that Greeks fucked bears.” We’re only halfway through. Later, Zercon climbs a pole, and the rest of the story is told from his rising perspective. When he reaches the top, lightyears from Earth, he realizes he’s a goner. “It’s so cold! Infrared!” he mo...