NOTHING CAN STOP US

"Nothing Can Stop Us" is a collection of songs released as singles (A-sides and B- sides in the late 70s and early 80s by UK progressive rock artist Robert Wyatt. The compilation was released through Rough Trade Records in March 1982. All tracks are covers of other artists except the opening track "Born Again Cretin" which is penned by Robert Wyatt himself.

Robert Wyatt became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1982 and his political beliefs are displayed in the choice of songs for the album. Song titles like "Stalin Wasn´t Stallin´", "Red Flag", "Stalingrad" and "Trade Union" say more than words. The latter is actually quite an oddity on the album as it features arabian ethnic singing and instrumentation by guest group Disharhi. Most tracks are performed solely by Robert Wyatt though and we get to hear quite a lot of his fragile and distinct sounding voice on "Nothing Can Stop Us" as well as his percussion skills and great ideas for keyboard playing. The music ranges from slightly experimental music to more simple pop/rock but all tracks are relatively interesting. The Spanish language "Caimanera" features a slightly silly holiday type mood, which isn´t that interesting though.

The sound production is a bit lo-fi and can´t match the excellent productions on his first three solo albums and to my ears it´s a minor issue, that the material isn´t packed in a well sounding production. "Nothing Can Stop Us" is a political protest album and some people will as a consequence of that probably find it offensive but it does feature a lot of intriguing moments for fans of experimental music. Fans of Robert Wyatt should definitely check it out even though it´s not his best release by any means. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.