MusicOMH spoke with Laurie Anderson about her new album, Homeland, and describes her point of view as "a refreshing one. She's playful, inquisitive, and sees far enough below the surface to know that glib solutions don't get us anywhere." Anderson also spoke with Filter, which concludes: "It’s almost impossible to fathom how many dull artistic clichés have been exploded in her path." Time Out says that "the riches of Homeland are manifold and durable, each phrase, texture and breathy pause a fresh example of the humane perspective facilitated by Anderson’s keen eye and sharp wit."
Laurie Anderson's new album, Homeland, was recently described by MusicOMH, in a five-star review, as "true to the popular/classical crossover spirit of Anderson's best work." MusicOMH reviewer Darren Harvey spoke with Anderson about the new album.
Harvey describes the track "Only an Expert," as "one of the highlights of Homeland, a playful yet scathing indictment of how Americans value the views of so-called experts over good old common sense; set to a driving techno beat." While the album track focuses on a certain set of issues in which such experts have had their hand of late, its message trenchant enough to apply anew. In the interview, Anderson discusses what updates she might inject into the song in upcoming live performances from Homeland in New York and Philadelphia, namely the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the inability of "experts" to do anything to stop it. (For more on those shows, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.)
Anderson goes on to address once again the idea that the album contains many questions about contemporary life without providing solutions. "I don't know what the answers are," she admits. "Even if I did I wouldn't put them on a record. That's one of the reasons this record is so full of questions and no answers. A theory can mostly be questions, that can still be a theory. Who knows what will happen? Who could say they have their finger on the pulse? I like to create things with no final meaning, because life is really messy."
Anderson's point of view, Harvey concludes, "is a refreshing one. She's playful, inquisitive, and sees far enough below the surface to know that glib solutions don't get us anywhere."
Read the interview at musicomh.com.
---
Anderson is also the subject of a fascinating Q&A in Filter magazine. In his introduction to the interview, Filter's Ken Scrudato describes Anderson as the consummate "Renaissance Woman," the creator of "some of the most poignant and visually arresting multimedia spectacles of our time, seamlessly combining cutting edge technology, futuristic mise-en-scenes, avant-garde theater, thought provoking politics (mostly about the U.S. of A.) and, of course, her wildly deconstructionist compositions." Scrudato suggest: "It’s almost impossible to fathom how many dull artistic clichés have been exploded in her path." Read what Anderson has to say at filtermagazine.com.
---
Time Out New York's Steve Smith, in his review of Homeland, says, "From her earliest days as a performance artist engaged with popular culture, Laurie Anderson has been a splendid observer of the everyday American condition." He cites the live-production roots of the album as a possible explanation for the album's success. "The album’s songs benefit from Anderson’s considered delivery," he writes; "likewise, she brings a quintessentially musical flow to its spoken tales."
Smith concludes that "the riches of Homeland are manifold and durable, each phrase, texture and breathy pause a fresh example of the humane perspective facilitated by Anderson’s keen eye and sharp wit."
Read the complete review at newyork.timeout.com.
- Log in to post comments
