Additional information
Personnel includes: Robert Wyatt (vocals, trumpet, cornet, piano, keyboards, drums, percussion); Karen Mantler (vocals, harmonica, keyboards); Brian Eno, Jamie Johnson, Phil Manzanera (vocals); Jennifer Maidman (acoustic guitar, accordion); David Gilmour (guitar); Gilad Atzmon (soprano, alto & tenor saxophones, flute, clarinet); Annie Whitehead (trombone); Yaron Stavi (double bass). Recorded at Phil Manzanera's Gallery Studio, London, England. Robert Wyatt's first full-length of new material since 1997's Shleep is no less mischievous, witty, and poignant. As has become his custom, Wyatt offers a set of 16 new songs seemingly composed for a wide array of musicians including Annie Whitehead, Eno, David Gilmour, Tomo Hayakawa, Karen Mantler, Phil Manzanera, Paul Weller, and others he enlisted to record it. The album is divided into two halves. The first eight selections being 'neither here...' while the last eight are 'nor there...'. What divides the halves are in Wyatt's mind and aesthetics alone, as the disc feels like a seamless, unified whole. From the opener, "Just A Bit," a dastardly yet delightful bit of cynicism directed at organized religion and new age phoniness, the listener hears Wyatt in good humor with razor-sharp political sensibilities, and in fantastic musical form. The songs on Cuckooland are, in many ways, the most accessible he's written since Nothing Can Stop Us. Shleep had its moments in terms of this kind of "accessibility," but more often than not saturated itself in Wyatt's consummate and wonderfully listenable weirdness. Here, on cuts like "Old European," one of five collaborations with poet Alfreda Benge, Wyatt's wife, French salon music, smoky jazz from the cool jazz era, bossa rhythms, and Anglo melodies entwine in a bewitching nocturnal pop song. Others, such as "Beware," one of a pair of writing collaborations with Karen Mantler -- who contributed two more fine songs written for Wyatt'set -- feature the strident harmonics of post-millennial jazz as it intersects in dialogue with pop forms from the ancient to the future. Mantler's and Wyatt's voices sound lovely together in this tale of paranoia and woe, and Wyatt's trumpet solo is gorgeous. Wyatt's reading of Ms. Benge's "Lullaloop" is a gorgeous, wooly bit of swinging New Orleans jazz, shot through with Weller's bluesy, distorted, electric guitar solo and big, wondrous trombones by Whitehead. Wyatt covers, in his own fashion, the Boudleaux Bryant's classic "Raining In My Heart," accompanied only by his piano, and does a stellar, deeply emotional take of the Jobim & DeMoraes' classic "Insensataez." Wyatt's "Trickle Down"" is a knotty bit of loping post bop jazz interspersed with sax samples from "Old Europe," and killer double bass runs from Yaron Stavi. "Lullaby For Hamza," and the instrumental "La Anda Yalam" (the latter written by Nizar Zreik), portrayt two sides of the Gulf Wars, one dovetailing the other, bringing about with unnerving, poetically moving, and damni
Reviews
Q (11/03, p.124) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...It's Wyatt himself who dominates this warm-hearted, ambitious album....His frail, droning voice carries these tales of love and fear to an emotional wellspring rarely tapped in the realm of popular song..." Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #5 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003" Uncut (11/03, p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A quilted, intricate and absorbing collection of songs that moves SHLEEP's fluttering textures into darker territory..." The Wire (01/04, p.40) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year [2003]" - "[A] substantial and deeply personal work..." Mojo (Publisher) (01/01/04, p.59) - Ranked #8 in Mojo's "The Best of 2003" Mojo (Publisher) (10/03, p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...An album which ranks alongside his strongest work....Wyatt has assembled a cast of exceptional musicians here and directs them with a mercurial touch..." Record Collector (magazine) (p.85) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "It remains, in many ways, one of Wyatt's most ambitious records with some of his most striking songs."
