LITTLE RED RECORD

Robert Wyatt's brief post-SOFT MACHINE project has never really drawn me in. I can appreciate some of the humour, political commentary, and certainly the musicianship, it just never feels like something that I want to come back to. I tire of his tongue-in-cheek approach to singing and of some of the obtuse challenges his music poses to the listener. It's as if he purposely wants to test his fans for their loyalty by, at times, producing grating or cerebral music.

1. "Starting in the Middle of the Day, We Can Drink Our Politics Away" (2:31) opens the album in a very positive, exciting fashion with 'operatic' vocals of M. Wyatt performing some awesome vocalese over Dave McRAE's pretty piano play backed by Brian ENO's synthesizers. (10/10)

2. "Marchides" (8:25) is a funky, fuzzy, fuguy feeling song of avant jazz leanings. The musicianship is excellent; the bass annoys. (10.5/15)

3. "Nan True's Hole" (3:36) psycho-sexual scene played out in the foreground that not even the presence of the guitar of Robert Fripp (7/10)

4. "Righteous Rhumba" (2:50) or the "King Crimson" sound can save these two songs. (8/10)

5. "Brandy as in Benj" (4:24) babeling Robert Wyatt over some solid, good instrumental music that gets better after the babeling stops. (9/10)

6. "Gloria Gloom" (8:06) more psycho-sexuality issues on full display while the music loses its lustre and momentum a bit. (10.5/15)

7. "God Song" (2:59) acoustic guitar and electric bass play behind Robert's plaintive voice. The three sound a bit out of sync and uninspired. (6/10)

8. "Flora Fidgit" (3:26) sounds like a demo or outtake of some excercise that was decided to be used at the last minute to fill space on the final album. The keyboard work in the second minute is nice. I don't like the bass mimicking the lead melodies from guitar and keys. (6/10)

9. "Smoke Signal" (6:37) the album's excellent finale does it's best to save the otherwise mono-focused album. Nice percussion play in the first two minutes, great keyboard-led dreamscape in the middle three, and nice chord base for the finale. (9/10)

Three stars.