CUCKOOLAND

Cuckooland is as close to business as usual as you really get with Robert Wyatt; you have Alfreda Benge (spouse, collaborator, cover artist and inspiration for Rock Bottom) along for the ride, you have a combination of jazz artists and old pals from Wyatt's 1960s and 1970s glory days (usual suspects Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera are on board, of course, and they've brought David Gilmour with them), and the compositions are typically challenging.

This time around Wyatt steers the ship a bit closer to the more electronic or ambient side of his output, as expressed on parts of Rock Bottom, in contrast to the busier songs on Shleep or Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard - the presence of Eno no doubt helping Wyatt to incorporate more modern synth and ambient techniques into his repertoire. As always with his solo albums, it cries out for repeated listens to unpack its secrets, but I find it a bit more approachable than some of this more esoteric solo albums (like the highly impenetrable End of an Ear).