Nothing Can Stop Us

After a period of quiet following the release of his brilliant mid-'70s albums, ROCK BOTTOM and RUTH IS STRANGER THAN RICHARD, Robert Wyatt reemerged at the end of the decade with a series of riveting and highly diverse singles for the British Rough Trade label. NOTHING CAN STOP US collects those 45s together. Far from coming across as a hobbled together assemblage, this set plays like a broad and healthy portrait of one man's musical and sociopolitical sensibilities. Opening with the album's only original ("Born Again Cretin"), Wyatt heads immediately into a mesmerizing reinterpretation of Chic's "At Last I Am Free." There are stops in Central America ("Caimanera") and the American south ("Strange Fruit") as well as a couple forays into Russian history ("Stalin Wasn't Stallin'" and a recitation of Peter Blackman's "Stalingrad" by the poet himself). All in all, NOTHING CAN STOP US is a kaleidoscopic grab-bag of songs representing Wyatt's unique and engaging musical personality.