“Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard” by Robert Wyatt - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1975Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s

TJR says

Robert plays keyboards and sings on this one, backed by a core group of Bill MacCormick (bass), Laurie Allan (drums), George Khan (sax), Gary Windo (sax) and Brian Eno (guitar, synth, direct inject anti-jazz ray gun). It starts quite well with “Soup Song”, a chipper pub-rock number of all things, before continuing the surprise with the reggae-styled “Sonia”. Immediately, the saxophone boys are earning their corn, and the guesting South African trumpeter, Mongezi Feza, contributes greatly. Robert had recently lent his vocals to Phil Manzanera for his “Frontera” track, and the favour is returned here as they reinterpret the piece as “Team Spirit”, a somewhat progressive piece in which Eno's direct inject anti-jazz ray gun fails to load. I was expecting much more of this LP after the brilliance of the preceding “Rock Bottom”, but it proves to be somewhat anti-climactic for me, especially on side two which harks back to projects previous, primarily his short soundtrack for the 1973 film “Solar Flares” by Arthur Johns. In that context, I guess side two makes some degree of sense, but by and large it fails to stimulate my senses, drifting away unremarkably.

The Jukebox Rebel
16–Sep–2010

Tracklist
A1 [04:03] 5.6.png Robert Wyatt - Soup Song (Brian Hopper, Robert Wyatt) Cerebral Pop
A2 [04:18] 6.0.png Robert Wyatt - Sonia (Mongezi Feza) Reggae
A3 [08:33] 5.5.png Robert Wyatt - Team Spirit (Bill MacCormick, Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt) Jazz
A4 [03:42] 5.0.png Robert Wyatt - Song For Che (Charlie Haden) Latin
B1 [00:49] 4.6.png Robert Wyatt - Muddy Mouse (a) (Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt) Songwriter
B2 [05:36] 5.1.png Robert Wyatt - Solar Flares (Robert Wyatt) Prog
B3 [00:50] 4.8.png Robert Wyatt - Muddy Mouse (b) (Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt) Songwriter
B4 [05:00] 4.9.png Robert Wyatt - 5 Black Notes And 1 White Note (Jacques Offenbach, Robert Wyatt) Prog
B5 [06:15] 4.8.png Robert Wyatt - Muddy Mouse (c) (Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt) Songwriter

© The Jukebox Rebel 2005-2020 All Rights Reserved