Robert Wyatt - Comicopera (Domino)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Listening to old men is often nice in that they have very soothing voices. But they're often telling you things that aren't particularly interesting at all. Listening to Robert Wyatt is different. Not different in that he doesn't have a soothing voice - he does, and hearing so much of it is one of the best things about Comicopera. But when you hear other old men talking about, say, the war, they're talking about ones which you have no real conception of - despite their still being of extreme importance to our history, and in many cases our present. But Robert Wyatt seems unconcerned about the past, and totally taken up with the horrors of the present, and what might befall an Earth he thinks contains extreme beauty as it stares in to the future. When he talks of the war, he's talking of the war going on at the minute, the war you may (sod it, should) have marched against, voted against, and been as appalled by as he was. He's telling you horrible truths in a soothing voice - it's your choice whether to be angered by the words, or placated by their plaintive, beautiful delivery.
The music on Comicopera also walks this tightrope between comfort and discomfort rather brilliantly. Robert Wyatt isn't a noisy musician, but he is a discordant one, in a similar way to how Tom Waits learnt the same craft on records like Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs. These are highly melodic instruments playing notes that are a little too close together to be called melodious. But there's melody to be found in it, all over the place in fact, and it's this that makes Comicopera such a compelling listen - the scope there is to discover whatever the hell you want from it.
Talking of his previous solo record, Cuckooland, in an interview for the Mercury Music Prize television programme, it'll always stick with me how Wyatt described his music making as a deeply personal thing. To paraphrase, he spoke something along the lines of "when I make a record, I'm inviting someone in to my house - and I'm very picky about who I invite in to my house. The record has to attract the right kind of person - I don't want some twat in my house..." Comicopera is another one of these invites, and it does feel like an insight, perhaps one that's far too vivid at times, in to the man Wyatt's life. He talks of things you'd never dare ask him about - his frank opinions on politics, human relationships, even his love life is dealt with in terms that are far from fey.
He's having fun with it though, playing with some guest musicians you get the feeling he values perhaps even more highly for their ability to be his close friend rather than sonic colleague, messing around with words (he's said to be delighted with combining the words 'comic' and 'opera' - and I like the thought of him giggling whilst looking at his own record cover) and, like a proper opera, splitting the record in to three acts, each dealing with their own theme (relationships, ones surroundings, the war...). Yet crucially, you don't really need to know any of this to enjoy just how luscious and brilliantly thought out 'Comicopera' actually sounds. It requires no prior knowledge, no higher mindset. Just that you accept, and more importantly respect, Wyatt's invitation to a few hours round his place.
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