Unrest (Henry Cow album)

Reviewing the album in Melody Maker in June 1974, Steve Lake called it "a great record" and "more unified and coherent" than Legend.[19] He described Unrest as "a kind of mood cycle" that starts with "optimism, working through arid wastes that suggest hopelessness and dejection ... and ending on a note of hope with the sound of an orchestra tuning up".[19] Lake said the LP's second side is "neither spontaneous improvisation nor 'straight' music" and "defies classification". He saw Henry Cow's "unsuppressable ... humour" on "Linguaphonie" as "cock[ing] a snook at Stockhausen".[19] Lake stated that Unrest is "a unique statement" that "owes allegiance to nobody", and concluded: "I love this music. Approach it open-minded and you can too".[19] Robert Christgau, who was notoriously unfavorable to most progressive rock, gave the album a very positive review, writing: "this demanding music shows up such superstar "progressives" as Yes for the weak-minded reactionaries they are." He noted that on "Bittern Storm Over Ulm", which was based on the Yardbirds' "Got to Hurry", "they break the piece down, almost like beboppers" instead of "quoting sixteen bars with two or three instruments, thus insuring their listeners another lazy identification". Despite criticizing the "second-rate" saxophone and the "cheap swing" of their lyrics, he concludes that the band "is worthy of its classical correlatives—Bartok, Stockhausen, and Varese rather than Tchaikovsky and predigested Bach."[13]

In a review for AllMusic, Rick Anderson described Unrest as "one of Henry Cow's better efforts".[12] He called "Bittern Storm Over Ulm" a "brilliant demolition" of "Got to Hurry" by the Yardbirds, and liked the "stately" "Solemn Music" with its "atonal but pretty counterpoint between Frith and Cooper".[12] Anderson felt that the improvised material is "more spotty", but was impressed by "Deluge" and the way it demonstrated how well the group could negotiate the "fine ... line ... between bracing free atonality and mindless cacophony".[12] A staff reviewer on Sputnikmusic gave the album a perfect score, writing that it "consistently progresses through unexpected levels of musicianship and creativity but never gets lost in its own mire. It's one of those albums that'll start off a track with a jazz ballad, then take five or so minutes to transform it into some sort of warped rock tune (think '60s and '70s rock music, deconstructed then thrown together so the pieces don't quite fit snugly) then, by the end, will make you wonder not only where you are but also how you got there." "Overall," he concludes, "Unrest is a hidden gem, one that transcends and earns all its grating moments because they're all in service of bizarrely beautiful ones."[17]

American critic Glenn Kenny wrote in Trouser Press that side one of Unrest comprises "some of the most full-bodied music Cow ever put on record."[1] He added, that "while not entirely worthless", the group's experiments in musique concrète on the album's second side are not "nearly as compelling as the three superior compositions" on the first side.[1]

In 1996, Rolling Stone critic Neil Strauss included the album on his list of the "100 Most Influential Alternative Albums" of all time.[20] In 2014, FACT Magazine ranked it the 15th best album of the 1970s, writing:[21]

Unrest's compositions are knotty, labyrinthine and sometimes extremely noisy. But Unrest's magic lies in its grace and softness. These are tricksy compositions painted in soft autumnal shades – dancing oboes on 'Half Asleep / Half Awake', lowing horns on 'Ruins (Part 2)’, Fred Frith’s birdsong impressions on 'Torch Fire'. With some seriously top-drawer players (Tim Hodgkinson, Chris Cutler, the unimpeachable Fred Frith), it’s a pamphlet’s width away from muso territory, but always stays just on the right side of indulgent. Not the most immediate album here, for sure, but let Unrest work on you, and you’ll be rewarded many times over.