Still under contract to Virgin as the '70s drew to a close, Robert Wyatt got special dispensation from Richard Branson to record a series of singles for upstart indie Rough Trade, the glorious results of which found their way onto this reissued 1982 compilation. Wyatt's melancholy choirboy voice and minimalist arrangements are astonishingly effective throughout a series of unlikely covers, including a liturgical rendition of Chic's "At Last I Am Free," the Golden Gate Quartet's "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'," the Billie Holiday-identified "Strange Fruit," and a suitably bizarre, tabla-driven take on Ivor Cutler's "Grass" (sample lyric: "While we talk I'll hit your head with a nail to make you understand me / I have something important to say"). --Billy Grenier
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