Robert Wyatt
Nothing Can Stop Us

"I am madly in love with pop music. Many great composers are inspired by folk, I am inspired by pop. I'm not saying I'm a great composer nor that pop is a form of folk. But for sure, pop has generated a never-ending flow. You can also build your little pond, but if the pond is not connected to the river, which in turn flows into the ocean, sooner or later it will dry up. It will become little more than a piss. And I have lived too long to be happy with a puddle" Robert Wyatt.

A simple collection of b-sides, unreleased tracks or covers, discarded from any official album, dusted off for the occasion to add more fuel to the fire to offer the followers of some great artist who's running out of ideas and forced to keep afloat? The answer is no! It is Wyatt. And when it comes to Wyatt, things get significantly more interesting.

It has been a full seven years since the masterpiece "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" (dated 1975) and it will take at least another three years to savor the release of "Old Rottenhat" (the other '80s album recognized in his official discography); in this not-so-short time interval lies "Nothing Can Stop Us" (1982), a bizarre puzzle with a provocative title that mixes in a single pot songs recorded mostly in the '70s-'80s, with Wyatt in splendid form, brilliantly taking on the role of arranger, singer, and partly producer. His voice, at times ironic, at times intimate, often frivolous and dancing, always cadenced and intense at the right point, leads us through the tortuous shores of a raw social examination, undertaken by gathering a handful of significant classics and traditional songs (including the Cuban song "Caimanera", also known as "Guantanamera", and the sweet "Red Flag").

This Wyatt who amazes for incredible naturalness and imagination, prefers a charming approach, stuffed with ideas ranging from pure jazz to a certain pop-rock with multiple nuances, spiced up with dissonant, colorful vocal harmonies, to the already blatant references that more properly probe the immensity of the pop ocean (of which he almost feels the necessity to be a part), not disregarding sporadic ethnic frescoes (a clear example being "Trade Union" and partly "Grass" by Ivor Cutler) or symbolic dives into South American music (see indeed "Caimanera" and "Arauco", both sung in splendid Spanish). The music, as always, exudes an engaging vigor, yet manages to impart a touch of almost measured relaxation, with a bittersweet flavor, at times joyful, throughout the album, filtering wisely the solemn, hegemonic tension that permeates the essence of the lyrics.

Despite its structurally scatterbrained nature (it is, after all, a craft patchwork) this work acquires, thanks to an excellent refinement, a certain homogeneity of intent, managing to propose in just under 40 minutes truly interesting moments that do not make you miss the best of Wyatt. The delicate introspective stride of "Strange Fruit" (actually brought to success by Billie Holiday, a kind of heartfelt song against the racist attitudes adopted by America towards people of color) is an example, while the classic Wyatt piece "Born Again Cretin" (his only original composition), a precious manifesto of the personal quest carried on by the ingenious English composer, along with the brilliant pop rendition of "At Last I Am Free" by Chic (considered among the pioneers of disco music), emerge as the two true successful peaks of this album. The giggling choirs of the patriotic "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'" (composed by Willie Johnson in 1943, written in memory of the alliance agreed upon between the United States and the Soviet Union to face Hitler's rise to power), a delightful retrieval alongside the poem "Stalingrad" (dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad) by Peter Blackman, deserve a mention. A small curiosity: in editions printed from 1983 onwards, the album also features the magnificent reinterpretation of the track "Shipbuilding" written by Elvis Costello. Unmissable!

However, I avoid delving into a specific analysis of the individual tracks (leaving this sweet chore to your ears) because in talking about them I strongly feel the desire to scrutinize the work in its entirety, in its unusual, light compactness. "Nothing Can Stop Us" can be considered a positive album, pleasantly listenable without overdoing it, but also without going unnoticed. It is the not banal offspring of an artist with a wide cultural background, eclectic and revolutionary in spirit; it deserves all the attention it can get.

"While we talk I'll hit your head with a nail to make you understand me.....I have something important to say" (from "Grass")