See Robert Wyatt's favourite albums in his Amazon.co.uk
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Track Listings
| 1. Sea Song |
| 2. A Last Straw |
| 3. Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road |
| 4. Alifib |
| 5. Alife |
| 6. Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Trying to explain what this remarkable album sounds like to someone who has never heard it before isn't easy. And I suppose that's unsurprising, as it's a record that demands more than a few casual listens before one can make sense of it. However, with patience and time, it seeps into the listener's brain as if by osmosis, and gradually reveals its condiderable beauty and charm.
More than anything, Rock Bottom is a record to be felt, and it feels like a dream. Swirling, drifting currents of sound wash out of the speakers, Wyatt's abstract lyrics coming accross like a poem that is difficult to understand in a literal sense, yet one instinctively knows exactly what is meant. It is remarkably visual music - it would be the perfect soundtrack to film of newly discovered creatures that live undisturbed on the ocean floor. Fittingly, as the sea and its inhabitants are recurring themes in the lyrics. I can think of few other albums (well, none) which namecheck brine, porpoises, baby sperm whales and starfish!
I won't dwell much on the merits of the individual tracks - the album is best appreciated as a whole in one sitting. However, my personal highlight is the exquisite Alife, Wyatt's deeply personal long song about his relationship with Alfreda Benge, who painted the beautiful album cover.
Love and hope abound on this album. Wyatt began writing the songs shortly before suffering the accident which left him confined to a wheelchair, and finished them during his long convalescence. Unsurprisingly, there is a palpable sense of uncertainty about the future in his fragile vocals, but ultimately the overwhelming feeling is one of positivity and acceptance. Maudlin self pity doesn't even appear on his emotional register.
Rock Bottom is one of the most thoughtful, beautiful and original albums of the 1970s. It is truly progressive music -groundbreaking and idiosyncratic - without any of the bombast that characterised so much of the musical output of his contemporaries. The only record I can think of comparing it to is Miles Davis' In A Silent Way, with which it shares a soothing, meditative quality. I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone wanting to have an unforgettable musical experience.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The best thing about Wyatt's albums is that it sounds very simple on the outside, but if you delve in deeper, it sounds very structured and complicated. His lyrics (and wonderful cracked voice) potray a sadness, but always however with a faint ray of hope.
The album never decides to stay on a particular vein for very long, as you least expect it an outburst of free jazzy trumpets come out, and Wyatt melancholicly fights his way through them.
The album never decides to stay on a particular vein for very long, as you least expect it an outburst of free jazzy trumpets come out, and Wyatt melancholicly fights his way through them.
I won't go into the history behind the album as you can most probably (such as him being on a wheelchair, and part of the album centred on Venice) find it on other more detailed or even better reviews!
I'm just giving a personal account on why Rock bottom has had such a great impact on me recently.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
This is one of those albums I daren't play too often, in case I lose the absolute sense of awe that it inspires on each playing. The fabulous piano, the clashing trumpet fanfares, Wyatt's unique voice, the lyrics, the whole melting pot....I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this and I hadn't heard anything quite like it before, having very much come from a punk/new wave background with all those 3 minute 1-2-3-4 thrash songs (which I still love too) but this is something else. And I never knew any of the background to this album until recently, it has always just provided one of those 'instant connection' moments because this album comes right from the heart of Wyatt there is no bowing to other people's taste or opinions. This is the one I play when I'm really depressed because it is so uplifting without being horribly jolly. Now I know the guy had just been paralysed it has taken on a new dimension - the sincerity and soul searching is just so intense and honest, without any hint of self-pity or wallowing in misery. This is the one I'll take with me to the desert island
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4.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Feels good
This is the best thing Robert ever did as a solo artist. It sounds good, feels wonderful, is touching and human. One cannot explain this, nor reason about it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Critical Reviewer
4.0 out of 5 stars
File Under 'Individual'.....
In troubled times like these, we could all do worse than follow the example set by Robert Wyatt in 1973/4. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2011 by Wakefield, 2011
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spinal Tap-esque in title alone
This reviewer has a confession to make. When he was about fourteen years old -in 1975 as it happens- this album was one of the most frightening things in his relatively limited... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2010 by N. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beauty personified
It is only within the last two decades that rock critics in the mainstream media have given anything like adequate recognition to one of rock music's all-time supreme works of... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2010 by Daniel Margrain
3.0 out of 5 stars
We know it's a classic album, but....
...a disappointing lack of bonus tracks.
Released almost simultaneously with the LP in 1974 were Wyatt's fantastic singles I'm A Believer and Yesterday Man,... Read more
Released almost simultaneously with the LP in 1974 were Wyatt's fantastic singles I'm A Believer and Yesterday Man,... Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2009 by C. Metcalfe
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic returns!
Simply this is one of my favourite records of all time. For me the first three tracks (the original LP side 1) are perfect. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by Dr. D. B. Sillars
5.0 out of 5 stars
35 years on ...
This is exquisite, beautiful, uncategorizable music, as fresh and original now as the day it was recorded, 35 or so years ago. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2008 by Berezan
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the albums I play most often....
As the liner-notes from Wyatt demonstrate, this album has a history- initially composed in Venice as his lover Alfie and "a bunch of friends" worked on the film 'Don't Look Now' on... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2005 by Jason Parkes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yet another praising review
OK, a handful of things that strike me about this album.
First of all, it took a fair number of listens to truly appreciate it fully. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2004 by Paul Ferguson
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very Odd. But Is It Art?
I am a fan of music. I like strange music, fast music, slow music, eerie music and practically any other sort of music you could name. Read more
Published on 3 April 2002 by "marauderite"
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