I think the bonus tracks just play on computer or something like that.
Big Science songs are excerpts from a larger work called United States. This has only been released in a live version that is 4 CD's long. I've always assumed that because part of her job description is Performance Artist, that the live version of this is how it is meant to be heard.
I've never felt compelled to brave a 4 cd Laurie Anderson album.
― flamingrev, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 16:14 (5 years ago) Permalink
You guys are making a strong case for me to relisten to it. Since I don't own Home of the Brave, I gotta say that BS is my least favoritie eighties Anderson: lots of good ideas, fascinating synth textures, and such, but the music and spoken-word stuff rarely interfaces meaningfully. Like I said upthread, Strange Angels is her real masterwork.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 16:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
Oh man, I love this record. It's be nice if Laurie got all trendy or something.
― I know, right?, Friday, 27 July 2007 19:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
It's hard. It's just hard. It's just kinda hard to say.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:27 (5 years ago) Permalink
But isn't it?
― I know, right?, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:28 (5 years ago) Permalink
This record was a car staple of ours when I was 8 or 9. 'From The Air' and a couple of others are ingrained.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:29 (5 years ago) Permalink
Let X=X
― I know, right?, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:29 (5 years ago) Permalink
Thanks for puttin' on the feed bag
(p.s. the last 20 seconds of 'Let X=X' are phenomenal)
OMG XPOST
let xpost = xpost
― Just got offed, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:30 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm kind of frightened of hearing these songs in the United States context in case it changes them. I think I would like to be listening to "It Tango" when I die.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:30 (5 years ago) Permalink
The dodgy youtube clip of let x=x live is brilliant. The acoustics/dodgy mobile phone recording give it this really nice warmth.
― I know, right?, Sunday, 9 September 2007 13:31 (5 years ago) Permalink
my friend Jon went to a Laurie Anderson show a few years back and left halfway through -- apparently after he left, she played "O Superman" and people clapped along(!?)
― Curt1s is coming to Zwinktopia !, Monday, 10 September 2007 05:51 (5 years ago) Permalink
HOW DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT LAURIE ANDERSON THESE DAYS?
― Bimble, Monday, 10 September 2007 05:59 (5 years ago) Permalink
just bought it. xcited if trepidatious. she's always here where i work at our Galas and stuff, with lou reed. i wanna slip her a demo.
o superman is good but a little lazy, no?
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:31 (5 years ago) Permalink
Not really? I dunno: watch the video, and it feels like it's in the perfect spot, every element given just the right amount of weight and space.
― nabisco, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
i like the sparseness OK, but i could have done with a little more texture. also, the mother's voice is a cheap effect. not sure what it's supposed to mean, or why the effect wasn't more nuanced...
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
i've seen the video and loved it
I have a lot of love for this, i think it's crappiness adds to it (i mean the clip quality)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_VA3wuNNo0
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:38 (5 years ago) Permalink
Laurie is a one of the Golden Greats.
well i'm super psyched to check this album out
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:39 (5 years ago) Permalink
Wait, I'm not sure what you mean about the mother's voice -- the way she lapses a little further into Chicago-suburbs accent? (That's actually one of my favorite things about this, the really subtle Mom-ism of it!)
― nabisco, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:39 (5 years ago) Permalink
no no, just the way -- okay to put it literally, i feel like i clicked "Orion Voices" in GarageBand. it's just a cheap chorus/alien effect. coulda been more sutble?
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:41 (5 years ago) Permalink
the accent tho IS subtle, u r right. i like that.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:42 (5 years ago) Permalink
Ha, okay, I have zero idea what you're talking about, I guess -- I don't recall any additional effect beyond the vocoder.
― nabisco, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:44 (5 years ago) Permalink
I love love love vocoders, I will like pretty much anything that uses a vocoder just for the vocoders. I love how the vocoder comes in slowly on the "dear amigo, dear partner" line
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:46 (5 years ago) Permalink
i barely know what i'm talking about either but every time i hear it, it just sounds like a little weird-for weird's-sake-to-me, in a lazy way.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:47 (5 years ago) Permalink
someone at our radio station once got a request for "O Superman" so they just went on the air and started going "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha"
― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
i mean i love them too but sometimes i find them gratuitous.
i don't know, more listens will prolly change mind. i do very much enjoy listening to it.
haha @ ha ha ha
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
Best use of a bagpipe in pop ever.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
I was so amazed when I first heard O Superman, I was told I would love it, I didn't really know what to expect. I love it.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:49 (5 years ago) Permalink
oohhhh i dunno man Kate Bush has pipes kinda cornered no? tho i'm not exactly clear on pipe distinctions
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:49 (5 years ago) Permalink
Sweaters.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:50 (5 years ago) Permalink
I love the backwards voices on Example (why can't I ever find the hash key on mac keyboards?)22
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:51 (5 years ago) Permalink
To be perfectly honest I only know Hounds Of Love, and I love Running Up That Hill so much I usually end up putting it on repeat and never actually getting to the rest of the album.
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
ooooh boy you have some to LEARN buddy
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:56 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm normally not the biggest fan of minimalism or sparseness, but O Superman is a masterpiece. It's in the little details. Any minimalism that I love, really, still has great attention to detail (and a perverse sense of theatre).
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:57 (5 years ago) Permalink
putting it on
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:57 (5 years ago) Permalink
!!!
xpost to IKR
― impudent harlot, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:58 (5 years ago) Permalink
I know, I know...
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 17:59 (5 years ago) Permalink
no, you don't.
ya just don't.
=P go get the dreaming NOW.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:00 (5 years ago) Permalink
ok listening. i still think whatever effect she's using on her voice in this is overdone. it's not as effective when it's used in the whole song, IMO.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
Okay, but it's not an effect! It's a vocoder! Without it there would be about 98% less harmonic content (up until the counterpoint at the end, I guess)
― nabisco, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
yea but the vocoder produces an effect.
whatever you wanna call it -- the stuff happening on her voice, whether you wanna say vocoder or effect, is overdone. the harmonic becomes less interesting if it's used on nearly every phrase in the piece.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:24 (5 years ago) Permalink
i usually feel that strong harmonic content like that is most effective when you build up to it a bit.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:33 (5 years ago) Permalink
in this case it makes the piece a little too silly for me.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
Vocoder is an instrument more than an effect. I mean, I'm not arguing with your opinion here (that's fine), but you should be clear on what a vocoder does: it's taking the envelope of her voice and using it to shape chords played on a keyboard. There's no separate voice/keyboard tracks here -- just one "instrument" playing. Do it without the vocoder, and all the melodic/harmonic stuff pretty much disappears from the bulk of the song: it'd just be "ha ha ha ha" and Laurie Anderson, like, talking! So it's not some kind of vocal "effect" in an otherwise complete song; the whole thing is built on one "instrument," the vocoder line.
― nabisco, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:48 (5 years ago) Permalink
ok, thanks for clarification.
i think this is the problem, really -- that the whole thing is built on the one instrument. seems cheap.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:52 (5 years ago) Permalink
i guess maybe that was her point, which i get, but i would have appreciated a bit more variation in the implementation.
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
o_O
― Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 18:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
Mr. Heartbreak is mostly killer, a little filler.
Anyway, the O Superman video is sort of shockingly effective to me today given its age and the technology involved: http://vimeo.com/3610524
― Three Word Username, Monday, 23 April 2012 20:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
I haven't done an A/B comparison but my instinct was that all these tracks were better on the huge "United State Live" box.
in no case is this true
Well then, you've forced me to do said comparison!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 23 April 2012 22:12 (1 year ago) Permalink