Nothing Can Stop Us
Singles and B-sides from around 1980, almost all of them covers.
Robert Wyatt, 1982
- Released
- 1982
- Label
- Rough Trade
- Type
- compilation
Nothing Can Stop Us collects tracks that came out as singles and B-sides in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Only the opener, Born Again Cretin, is a Wyatt composition. The rest are covers, including songs by Ivor Cutler, Chic, Billie Holiday, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet and Violeta Parra, plus The Red Flag and Caimanera. It was the only full-length LP Wyatt released between Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975) and Old Rottenhat (1985).
Pitchfork's Douglas Wolk said most of it gathers four cover singles recorded in quick succession in early 1980, and that Wyatt turned At Last I Am Free into a prayerful drone. Trouser Press called it a cohesive and incredibly moving statement. The album did not appear on LP in the United States until 1986, from Gramavision, with a different running order. Shipbuilding was added to reissues after 1983. The sleeve art is by Alfreda Benge.
Track listing
- Born Again Cretin3:10
- At Last I Am Free4:17
- Caimanera5:18
- Grass2:39
- Stalin Wasn't Stallin'3:22
- Shipbuilding3:06
- Red Flag3:09
- Strange Fruit3:37
- Arauco4:35
- Trade Union3:44
- Stalingrad5:46
Personnel
- Robert Wyatt vocals
- Mogotsi Mothle double bass on At Last I Am Free and Strange Fruit
- Frank Roberts keyboards on At Last I Am Free and Strange Fruit
- Bill MacCormick bass on Caimanera and Arauco
- Harry Beckett flugelhorn on Caimanera
- Kadir Durvesh shehnai on Grass and Trade Union
- Esmail Shek tabla on Grass and Trade Union
More from Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom (1974), Old Rottenhat (1985), Shleep (1997), Cuckooland (2003), Comicopera (2007)
Sources
- Nothing Can Stop Us (album), Wikipedia
- Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, Wikipedia
- Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom / Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard / Nothing Can Stop Us / Old Rottenhat / Dondestan (Revisited), Pitchfork (2010)
- Robert Wyatt, Trouser Press