Old Rottenhat

This 1985 release was Robert Wyatt's first full-length album since the previous decade's double hitter of ROCK BOTTOM and RUTH IS STRANGER THAN RICHARD. The interim had found him making shorter statements on EP format, and a brilliant series of singles on Rough Trade which were subsequently assembled as NOTHING CAN STOP US.
This is an overtly political set of songs, though personalized by Wyatt's own sense of poetics. They present a quietly outraged voice suffused with the melancholy that accompanies observations of human struggles that sometimes come to naught. This is gorgeous and evocative music sung in Wyatt's fragile yet powerfully emotive voice. There's no flag waving here and the intimate accompaniment underscores the songwriter's intense feeling for realism.