- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
More immediately accessible and warm than "Cuckooland," more ambitious than "Shleep," Comicopera, in three acts, is the end result of Robert Wyatt looking around and examining the craziness and wild unpredictability in real life in 2007.
-
Delineated acts aside, the disc maintains a certain sonic consistency, carefully balancing discord with grace; the structure does pay off, however--particularly the first two-thirds.
-
Each song works brilliantly in isolation, making this a treasure trove of Wyatt’s finest work ever.
-
MojoIt's hard to imagine a record more original or full of life, from any artist of any age, emerging this year. It's that damn good. [Nov 2007, p.91]
-
Q MagazineComicopera is a cornicopia. [Nov 2007, p.148]
-
This is an incredibly well fused and structured album that taps into a wide range of emotions.
-
Under The RadarIt makes perfect sense as a Robert Wyatt album, and few in his catalog are so perfectly paced and comprehensively designed. [Fall 2007, p.77]
-
If the album has a rough-around-the-edges, askew quality, that just makes it more fascinating: this isn't music that settles in the background.
-
There are few who could delve into such weighty issues without succumbing to empty rhetoric, but it's testament to Wyatt's unpretentious approach that he pulls off the trick while retaining a lightness of touch that makes Comicopera such a consistent pleasure to listen to.
-
Really, all of Comicopera rolls deliriously over pillowy layers of sound
-
SpinThe CD is like spending a cloudy afternoon on Jupiter with the old man, his quizzical sonic tricks at arms reach, his singing as ageless and haunting as the ammonia rain. [Dec 2007, p.128]
-
The WireA superb album, in which Wyatt gathers all of his strengths, with the personal and the political, the aesthetic and the ethical are brought together as only he can. [Nov 2007, p.64]
-
MagnetThe fact that Comicopera is a masterpiece proves it all right nicely. [Fall 2007, p.113]
-
However, like so many singular artists, Wyatt's presence spans the record and ultimately gives it its necessary gel. His multi-octave voice booms, croons, and cracks across the album with stunning clarity and consistency.
-
Comicopera, his 12th solo record since 1970, has indulgences and longueurs, as all his records do. But it also has some burstingly beautiful songwriting.
-
It's a portrait of an English radical at 62, but it's personal and emotional and neither strident nor stodgy.
-
The sweetest instrument, however, is Wyatt’s voice, whose fragile, high, quavering tone is honest to the core.
-
The quality veers wildly, but every so often he hits upon a great song. 'Just As You Are' in particular sets the smoothest of melodies and a haunting cornet solo from Wyatt against the most world-weary of lyrics.
-
It's definitely ambitious, and probably a little pretentious in places, but it works darn near all the time and is a downright joy in many places.
-
The songs on Comicopera rate amongst his very best--emotionally complex, politically charged but never short of beautiful.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 10 out of 12
-
Mixed: 2 out of 12
-
Negative: 0 out of 12
-
RaelT.Nov 5, 2007
-
JohnV.Oct 22, 2007the most disturbing, beautiful, awesome, breathtaking album of 2007!
-
J.K.Oct 22, 2007