I Been Single All My Life...

Back in '05, I wrote: "Robert Alberg's sad life is detailed here, chronicling his battle with mental illness and depression. So despondent was he that he began creating deadly poisons, pondering the possibility of killing all life on earth. He was recently sentenced to five years probation."
I'm not one for lists, but this would be on my Top Ten Crucial Outsider Albums You Must Hear list, were I to make one. It makes Daniel Johnston sound like Rod Stewart. Accompanied by the most minimal acoustic guitar imaginable, Robert Alberg tunelessly "sings" variants of a phrase over and over in a warbly voice as he plunks one or two notes on his guitar. He's as obsessive/compulsive as Wesley Willis, with his use of repetition and half the songs being about sand and/or the ocean, but he doesn't have Willis' outrageous humor and high energy. It can be funny though, just because it's the most pathetic thing you've ever heard. I'm probably making this sound like it would be torture to listen to, but it's fascinating.

Someone started a MySpace page for him a couple of years ago, if you want to hear a couple of songs streaming. Can't find any info on what's happened to him since '04, but as his website no longer has a link to buy his album, here 'tis:

Robert Alberg

1. Walking Alone on the Sandy Beach
2. San [sic] Storms
3. I Been Single All My Life
4. I Want To Fly
5. Ocean of Darkness
6. Do You Really Want To Know
7. Snow Melting Away
8. Martian Sands
9. Water Wheel
10. I Been Looking For You