Laurie Anderson
(Nonesuch)
Laurie Anderson is best when she's quietest and carrying a big stick. For her first new studio recorded work in nearly a decade, the dark humorist scales through the landscapes first familiar to fans of United States, Parts I - IV and renders them with a stark emotionalism rarely found in her work. And with greater spaciousness - perhaps, due in part to her co-production team of long-time recorder Roma Baran and longtime partner/guitarist Lou Reed.
There's outrage and discontent found through the crisply odd rhythms and electrofried melodies of "Thinking Of You" and "Only a Expert." While the former acts as a rumination on her town and the holes in its soul, the latter makes a mockery of America's fixation with fixes. Yet, its humbler messages ("My Right Eye") and softly-spun battle-scarred laments ("Strange Perfumes") and crinkling cut dirges ("Flow") that reveal a gorgeousness to Anderson; her voice; her lyrics even at their epically tortured or sullenly disappointed. Greek tragedy, John Zorn and Anderson's ages-old longtime male alter ego Fenway Bergamot also makes their diabolical selves heard throughout the wearily witty yet still effervescently affirming work. With Homeland she's become a modern day DosPassos with a hint of Roger Waters behind the curtain of her eerily atmospheric sound-bank. Welcome to the new machine.
DOWNLOAD: "Another Day In America" "The Beginning of Memory" "Bodies in Motion" A.D. AMOROSI
