Laurie Anderson and her 2010 album, Homeland

Laurie Anderson's new album Homeland is due out June 15 after a few years of false announcements that it would be available in a season or two. She reserved a lot of guest musician spots for hip downtown people and the Tuvan throat guys. Will that be good or bad? I don't know, but I want to. Three years ago I saw her perform a short set of two songs that included the lead single, Only An Expert, which blew me away. (Here's a nice rave review from around that time.) The song then sounded like the first 6+ minutes of this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvhfSH9CbCw

Killer song! But I'm less into the album version, which is not as stripped down; just heard it as part of a remix competition going on now. (One of you ambitious types should enter and win!) Still though, this is reason enough for me to get psyched about Laurie Anderson again.

I am sorry but the lyrics are simplistic. Her rejection of global warming is very reactionary.

I am sorry but that xpost was simplistic. His/Her rejection of Laurie Anderson is very reactionary.

Just ordered it from Nonesuch - first 250 orders get a signed 12-inch of the single...not sure if I was in the first 250 but let's hope!

micheline: I think the lyrics are brilliant and wonder if you may have read them too hastily. She's not "rejecting" global warning, if you mean she's somehow denying that it's happening. (If you mean, she isn't in support of global warming, I'd guess you'd be right, but even that's not the point of the song.) Here, take a look at this version of the lyrics, which pretty well match those in the youtube clip. (The clip is three years old so it still has the verse about "finding" WMDs, which has been replaced on the new record with a verse about the economic collapse and bailout.)

I don't see anything in there rejecting the idea that global warming exists (in fact, "everyone knows it's a problem"). It's not even making fun of Al Gore; it's pointing out the absurdity of mainstream debate on the subject being swayed by his Oscar win. Like a lot of her work, the song is caustic and focuses on authority and control; in this case, on how they're constructed and ceded to those in charge, those supposedly in the know, even when they're proved wrong - because who's to judge the experts, if not other experts? She's talking about how hierarchies are built and maintained; not what I'd call a simplistic topic or reactionary perspective. Of course, I'm no expert ...

kind of tempted to do a remix but I don't really like the song very much :/

All the more reason to rip it apart! If everyone else is reverential you'll stand out from the pack.

dad a,

I can see your interpretation but I believe that her lyrics can be misconstrued as making fun as Al Gore thus rejecting global warming.

Still waiting for the physical copy to arrive, but got the digital download last night and am enjoying it quite a lot. Need a few more listens to really let it sink in though.

Private Eye magazine do a regular slot laughing at companies called things like Pastry Case Solutions
Laurie is spot on

"The solution becomes the problem..." Like financial derivatives

listening to this now. I generally haven't enjoyed the Laurie Anderson albums I've heard other than Big Science, which is one of my all-time favorite albums. Her words are always interesting, but the albums live or die based on the music. I was a little worried about this album because I think "Only an Expert" is kind of embarrassing musically, but everything else sounds pretty good. The music is classy and unobtrusive, creates a mood I guess? I really like "My Right Eye," "Another Day in America," and "Bodies in Motion." The big reverby dog barks at the end of "Bodies in Motion" are delightful.

When I first heard "Only an Expert" I wasn't really all that into the music but it's certainly grown a lot on me - the album version really fills it out nicely from the live performance sketches we've seen from her shows...to the point where I actually like it quite a lot now. Plus finding out it was Lou Reed that did that squalling guitar was surprising!

I lost interest after Brigh Red - she seemed to lose that mysterious hypnotic transe thing she had after that. Is the bnew one more in that vein?

I definitely see it as a return to some of the style she had in the early days, while retaining some of the things (like a tendency to sing more of the material than she did at the beginning) from her more recent work. If that makes any sense.

Just got my autographed 12-inch single today...a bit after release date, but worth it!

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg145/scaled.php%3Ftn%3D0%26server%3D145%26filename%3Dlmx.jpg%26xsize%3D640%26ysize%3D640

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaUOdJBSvY

Wow. Bill Laswell!

ugh is it good? shd i bother clicking

Terrific.

with newly relevant lyrics too

I love this album, although I'm wondering if I should try listening to it without 'Only an Expert' and 'Another Day in America', since they sound like big heterogeneous intermissions in what's otherwise a pretty cohesive whole. But maybe that's a good thing? I dunno.

is the line "instead of a period at the end of each sentence there should be tiny clock that shows you how long it took you to write that sentence" a reference to something? I'm sure I've heard that idea before.

It doesn't hold up so close to the end of the year: too quiet, almost tentative. "Only An Expert" and "Bodies in Motion" are my favorites. The second half is actually stronger.

hmmm I love the quiet stuff especially the ones with Eyvind Kang... was really put off by "Only An Expert" at first but it grew on me.

any way you slice it this seems like her best since Bright Red.

her delivery on "dark time in the revolution" -- her maternal smirk on the line "no matter who you vote for", or the whisper finishing "and you thought there were things / that had disappeared forever / things from the middle ages / beheadings and hangings / and people locked in cages / and suddenly they were everywhere" -- is great agitprop.

I really need to spend some serious time with this album - only enjoyed it casually for the last year and I think it deserves better

And now the clock points histrionically to noon
Some new kind of north
And so
which way do we go