Customer Reviews

Shleep

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For an album that's as cerebral as it is emotional, Shleep is amazingly enjoyable the first time you hear it, unlike the brittle dreck of self-avowed alternative music that must be listened to countless times to be appreciated. Yet unlike pleasant pop, Shleep reveals new meanings and perspectives each time you listen to it.

Two examples of Wyatt's lyrical brilliance:
(1) In "Was a Friend," the speaker dreams about meeting a former friend. "I almost forgot where we buried the hatchet." As the meeting becomes increasingly uncomfortable, he wonders "Where WAS the hatchet?"
(2)The post-Cartesian musings of "Free Will and Testament," including "So when I say that I know me, how can I know that? / What kind of spider understands arachnophobia?" end not with self-congratulation at asking such questions but with the plea "Let me off please, I am so tired. Let me off please, I am so very tired."

Wyatt's always shone as a collaborative musician, bringing out the best on other brilliant players who in turn bring out the best in Wyatt. EVERYTHING works together here. And Wyatt even seems to bring out the best in reviewers, as the perceptive comments from Amazon and customers here attest. But you don't have to be a Soft Machine junkie or an old school proggie to be moved by Shleep.

Money where mouth is: If you buy Shleep based on anyone's comments here and don't like it after just one listening, e-mail me and I'll arrange to buy your copy for what you paid plus shipping. This offer limited to the first three takers (there are a lot of people who lack discernment).

Let's get Shleep out of the 5-digit Sales Rank.

`Shleep' has been compared to `Rock Bottom', Robert Wyatt's early masterpiece made after he was paralysed. It's his best since `Rock Bottom', but the comparison goes further than that. `Rock Bottom' seemed to yearn for bodilessness and mobility thro' submergence in moonlit water. But `Shleep''s gorgeous, moving central track, `Alien', longs for the opposite: ascent into the ether, effortlessly supported by air in sunblind instinctual motion. Elsewhere, the delicious `Maryan' is just skybound because of its gorgeous melody; and back on Earth, `Free Will and Testament' again finds Robert wondering what it would it be like `to be not me'. Very varied and - despite insomnia - extremely poised, `Shleep' is a beautiful record. I think it's the best in the progressive rock genre for the last 20 years.

How anyone can have been around as long as Robert Wyatt and end up putting out an album this good - easily the best of the best records he has ever made is completely beyond me. There could be no smoother blend of folk, pop, mingus style jazz meandering, and even at times almost a musique concrete feel. My hero!

It is hard to come up with words for "Shleep." It may be Wyatt's most accessible record, yet is dually unfamiliar and alien to my ears. "Maryan" is breathtaking, as is "September the Ninth." My favorite Wyatt album and is probably in my top ten of all time. Moving, cerebral, noisy at times, and gorgeous. Simply unreal and surreal.

Shleep is one of those mind altering albums that is so subtle, yet powerful, that it changes your entire mental/emotional/spiritual reality without the rational mind even being aware of what's happening. Listen to it straight, all the way through, and I can almost guarantee that by the end you will have entered into a state of very pleasant mind altered conciousness. Who needs drugs when you can listen to music like this?

"Shleep" is heaps of fun, especially if you've been following Mr. Wyatt's career through Soft Machine, Matching Mole, and his plethora of guest appearances with anybody and everybody. During the late 70's Robert was mostly silent, and in the 80's turned to some fairly heavy-going political content, so it's amazing in a way that "Shleep" picks up right where he left off 20 years ago. It's light and fun and funny and insightful, and could be "Rock Bottom II" except that it's a heck of a lot less depressing.

Highly recommended, even if you don't adore the man.

Kudos to the geniuses at Thirsty Ear for issuing this extraordinary '97 release and for reissuing so much of this amazing artist's previous work. A dreamy collection of Robert Wyatt and a lot of his friends ( Brian Eno, Evan Parker, Paul Weller and Phil Manzanera) making some of the most gloriously elevated pop/art music of his long and varied career. High helium filled vocals that float lighter than air with wise and surreal visions and revisions.

Fans of Wyatt's instrumental side will enjoy less comical, darkened jams in a highly pleasing album that consistently enforces adventure over prediction.

This is a solid buy. All the themes are there but it falls short of Rock Bottom and Ruth is Stranger. A bit too slick leaving little room for goofing, Wyatt style. Still, satisfying.