Laurie Anderson - Big Science - C or D

Genius.

...but i love that record.

m.

I adore that album.

When I ran for vice president of my high school, I started off my speech (to the entire student body) by explaining what the Burroughs quote "Language is a virus from outer space" meant. Despite this, I still got elected! No lie. I also dressed up as Laurie on the Big Science cover for "Dress up as your favorite musician" day at school (liquid paper applied to sunglasses).

The 2-CD anthology looks like a rip. I think there's only one rarity on it ("Walk the Dog").

her tracks on 'you're the guy I want to spend my money with' (split with william burroughs and john giorno, both contributing spoken word) is even weirder than 'big science', worth hunting down for sure. the song 'dr. miller' is brilliant. I love the 'united states' box set but it's not something you throw on every day.

After that, things just get dull. 'Home of the Brave' is the soundtrack to a concert film, an okay film that compiles the previous 8 years but taken as an album it's sporadic at best. 'Strange Angels', way too overproduced, shame on Mike Thorne. Some nice songs but too much glossy discomfort. 'Bright Red', well as if anyone's expecting Brian Eno to do anything interesting ever again, but even the few things that seem like 'songs' come off a bit pointless. I heard the albums since then have continued the pattern.

btw i listened to strange angels a couple of days ago. it hasn't aged well. and i loved it so mucu in 89. but the benjamin song is still fucking awesome. especially for the lyrics.

the spoken word record is great afair.

Thanks, Alex....I guess. My fondness for Killing Joke is admittedly often over-emphasized for comedic effect here on ILM, but I do legitimately adore their music, and there are precious few artists whose music affects me in the same, visceral manner. Moreover, Killing Joke have indulged in more than a few styles along the way, so might I suggest giving them another shot. Just a thought.

Back on topic, Laurie's Ugly One album is not only great listening as a "spoken word" album, but it's also a compelling piece of ambient sound as well, beyond the narrative. Her very voice acts as an instrument. She tends to speak in a meter/timbre that is virtually hypnotic, I find.

the 'faraway, so close' soundtrack has two wonderful acoustic arrangements of 'tightrope' and 'speak my language', much better than the versions of 'bright red'.

'you're the guy' did make it to CD... if you're into 'big science' you'll really want a copy...

so many moons ago I was briefly a nanny for a 3 year old, Vivienne. Whenever I put on Big Science she would get up during x=x, walk over to the speakers and start dancing. (this is also a kid whose favorite song that she'd sing while playing with legos or crayons was "Jane Says")

I also dig Ugly One... and never get on a plane without it if for no other reason than the one about the woman who is flying for the first time and thinks the lights from the cities below are stars.

Was it The State or Kids in the Hall that had a skit about a cheerleader that made cheers Laurie Anderson-style? Also classic.

My girlfriend almost left me because I took her to the horrible cheesefest Moby Dick thing on the night she got laid off. Although i suspect that was LA's nadir.

Has anybody got the Big Science reissue? How does it sound?

What about the new recording of Big Science on the single with Lou?

In case nobody knows what I'm talking about:

PITCHFORK

Laurie Anderson's art-rock classic Big Science is 25, and to celebrate, Nonesuch are saving the candles and reissuing the thing instead. But that's not all: according to Uncut, Laurie, along with her pals Lou Reed and Antony Hegarty (of "and the Johnsons" fame), recorded a new version of the record's title track for a Big Science 2 EP. The EP also features a remastered version of "O Superman" from the Big Science LP. Both are due in the UK July 16. UPDATE: THEY WILL BE OUT JULY 17 IN THE U.S.

Laurie also has a few tour dates on the way in Spain and Portugal, which we'll get to after the tracklists.

Big Science 2:

01 Big Science [ft. Lou Reed and Anthony Hagerty]
02 O Superman

Big Science:

01 From the Air
02 Big Science
03 Sweaters
04 Walking and Falling
05 Born Never Asked
06 O Superman
07 Example #22
08 Let X = X
09 It Tango
10 Walk the Dog
11 O Superman

Small tour:

07-13 Braga, Portugal - Theatro Circo
07-15 Lisbon, Portugal - Culturgest
07-17 Madrid, Spain - Festival Veranos de la Villa

I don't like the idea of bonus tracks after "It Tango". Totally beside the point.

was not into Big Science the first few times I heard it, but it clicked with me big time recently ... suddenly what seemed like self conscious quirk turned into something beautiful and haunting. Not sure how it happened but it did. Curious to know what the context for this was -- did people see her as like, a female David Byrne? Kind of disappointed that this isn't a more expansive reissue -- aren't there a bunch of uncollected pre-BIg Science tunes out there?

I hadn't heard any news about the reissue, but that's exciting. I actually just heard this record for the first time a few weeks ago, after finding a used vinyl copy. The spoken word bits put me off at first, but by the end of the album I thought it was all pretty awesome. I had a similar feeling to: suddenly what seemed like self conscious quirk turned into something beautiful and haunting

yeah, it makes me think of the effect David Lynch's best stuff ... Laurie's aesthetic is different obviously, but there's a similar thing going on -- where weirdness is expected but actual emotion and truth isn't. So when that emotion comes through, it's the equivalent of a gut punch. If that makes sense.

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.

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.

Oh man, I love this record. It's be nice if Laurie got all trendy or something.

It's hard. It's just hard. It's just kinda hard to say.

But isn't it?

This record was a car staple of ours when I was 8 or 9. 'From The Air' and a couple of others are ingrained.

Let X=X

Thanks for puttin' on the feed bag

(p.s. the last 20 seconds of 'Let X=X' are phenomenal)

OMG XPOST

let xpost = xpost

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.

The dodgy youtube clip of let x=x live is brilliant. The acoustics/dodgy mobile phone recording give it this really nice warmth.

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(!?)

HOW DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT LAURIE ANDERSON THESE DAYS?

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?

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.

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...

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

Laurie is a one of the Golden Greats.

well i'm super psyched to check this album out

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!)

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?

the accent tho IS subtle, u r right. i like that.

Ha, okay, I have zero idea what you're talking about, I guess -- I don't recall any additional effect beyond the vocoder.

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 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.

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"

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

Best use of a bagpipe in pop ever.

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.

oohhhh i dunno man Kate Bush has pipes kinda cornered no? tho i'm not exactly clear on pipe distinctions

Sweaters.

I love the backwards voices on Example (why can't I ever find the hash key on mac keyboards?)22

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.

ooooh boy you have some to LEARN buddy

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).

putting it on

!!!

xpost to IKR

I know, I know...

no, you don't.

ya just don't.

=P go get the dreaming NOW.

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.

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)

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.

i usually feel that strong harmonic content like that is most effective when you build up to it a bit.

in this case it makes the piece a little too silly for me.

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.

ok, thanks for clarification.

i think this is the problem, really -- that the whole thing is built on the one instrument. seems cheap.

i guess maybe that was her point, which i get, but i would have appreciated a bit more variation in the implementation.

o_O

*_O

i rly wouldn't mind laurie anderson just talking. obv, not for the whole thing, but in contrast with the layered vocoder sound, it would have been kind of refreshing to have just her speaking voice interjected.

"layered" being, one hopes, a METAPHOR

hmm wha? i just mean you know, the vocoder bit sounds textural and layered, which is great but i need some contrast.

i like the sparseness OK, but i could have done with a little more texture.

-- Surmounter, Wednesday, December 26, 2007 5:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

haha you're takin it to me huh?

i could have done with more texture in the backdrop -- the ha ha ha's -- only does she thicken those up near the end. amirite?

but the vox, they sound too samey and layered throughout.

Ha, dude, don't worry about it, I'm just being picky. Your opinion itself makes sense, I guess -- sounds like you just think it's too static, and want more variation.

I don't recall the repeating syllable "thickening" anywhere (though there are a couple moments where it gets put on a short on-beat delay, so that the rhythm skips forward a bit) -- what happens at the end is that a big dark synth line starts playing counterpoint on bass! During the "your ____ arms" part. That's kind of the "payoff," I suppose.

If you ever get sucked into real close listening to this, you may (or may not) find that the minor embellishments throughout wind up providing the variation you're looking for -- or anyway, for me, it's stuff like that moment of delay, or the dollop or birdsong, or the weird asymmetry of the little synth arpeggio that comes ... those are the things that provide constant change and interest, to me.

yes that's what i meant - the synth at the end thickens up the syllable.

and i completely agree, i think in a slightly more meditative listen, i would totally be enraptured with the minor variations. i mean even now they're interesting. guess i'm being kinda picky too!

although actually i think there are some parts where the repeated syllable is layered with some harmony no? ha's of different notes? i might be wrong.

right yes -- sometimes the vocoder comes in over the syllable, doing it as well. around :30

this album is hilarious

i love her little high voice

Example #22!!

given what I know of your tastes you should also check out Mr. Heartbreak.

merci

you'd like that more (at least at first).

iiinteresting

i rly have a lot to learn from this woman. this album is very good... and i'm into the meditative quality about it a lot.

wait till you hear Strange Angels.

no, that album sucks.

yes that album is terrible

http://www.oddjokes.com/images/Deaf%20Child.jpg

why is it so terrible??

i'm sorry you have lost your hearing.

but really, I don't know what it is about that album that anyone likes. it's a pop move by her, and a really hamfisted one at that. the subtleties that made big science compelling (and which surmounter is responding to) are absent. and as a pop move, the songs should be better. but laurie can't really "sing", and the tunes aren't very good. the best thing about the whole record is the very opening of the title track, and it goes downhill from there. when this record was released i was very excited to hear it, and it was maybe the most disappointing album experience I've ever had.

i suspected that's what you meant. that is disappointing, b/c i hear slight pop moves on this album that could potentially become something bigger.

intrigued to hear it. maybe i'll get that next and get it out of the way.

context is key -- I bought it the day it came out and expectations were too high, first studio album of all new songs in four years (Home of the Brave only half counts). dozens of guest musicians on almost every track, really ornate 80's production, and she'd been taking voice lessons to tackle some more traditional approaches to singing. some beautiful melodies & lyrics but its pop aim is very wide & all my favorite moments on the record are the few seconds where she lets herself fall back into her speaking tone, that voice. I like the title track & "Ramon", so I shouldn't say terrible as much as 'not my favorite' which would be Mister Heartbreak

"Blue" Gene Tyranny plays on a few tracks of Strange Angels though, can't be all bad

I don't know what it is about that album that anyone likes.

Dear sir,

You are a dick, and your ear is of tin.

Sincerely,

Bakithi Kumalo

Also, there is "Ramon".

and "Babydoll"! and "My Eyes," which is the most gorgeous song she's ever written and talk-sung!

Milton Parker comes closest to nailing the circumstances under which the album was recorded; but where he's closest to the non-pop moments I find its movements towards a wider word at once thrilling and fragile. I'm possibly tainted by having heard Strange Angels before the others, so that Big Science and even Mister Heartbreak seemed stilted and arch. The title track and "The Dream Before" encapsulate everything worth preserving about her after "O Superman" -- intelligent, buoyant, and moving.

*a wider world

I'm still in the

Laurie Anderson songs < Laurie Anderson spoken word performance

camp.

But as far as Strange Angels go, "The Dream Before" is pretty nice.

Alfred, I'd heard Big Science and Mister Heartbreak prior and I love Strange Angels. I don't know who these crazy people are!

For a grander Big Science-era fix, you should really get United States Live next (Strange Angels is also great, but entirely different). Avoid Mr. Heartbreak unless you're a devoted Gabriel/Bush nut.

i do feel the possibility of Bush here. and of course, i am a Bush not. As for GAbriel, not so much yet.

i don't know, it doesn't register with me at all. i'd say go for Bright Red before that, it works better on the whole. not that I listen to it that much either (I do like the duet with Lou Reed)

oops *Bush nut =)

I wish I had been here for more Laurie Talk. Did anyone mention Bright Red? I stick by Big Science, but that's got some great bits on it. "Did she fall or was she pushed"

dicks don't have ears

although I suppose you could hook a little tin one on there

Why do people always get so abusive on this board. It's not fox hunting y'know. That's right nabisco, turn the other cheek!

i don't even know what just happened

I never know what just happened. How're you doin' on the album now?

this album? it's very good! i'm totally into it. i think my fav song is Ex. 22, not necessarily b/c it's the poppiest, just cuz it's nice and cohesive.

Mine is Let X=X. This always reminds me of the room I lived in in first year in College, I listened to this and Matmos every time I was going out. Seems a bit weird now.

love this album. i've been listening to it for like a year now and still am not sick of it, which is pretty rare for me

so weird but still catchy and fun

Lord, but "Let X=X / It Tango" is gorgeous.

Your Captain says: Put your head on your knees.
Your Captain says: Put your head on your hands.
Captain says: Put your hands on your head.
Put your hands on your hips.

let x=x is still the sound of the first room i lived in when i went to college

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.

been listening to this alot lately myself for some reason, it seems to always be relevant, somehow

30 y/o today

"Gee you look terrible for your age." -- Rose Nylund

your mouth
your eyes
the way
you hold
your pens
and pen
cils

i no longer love it

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

probably one of my favorite albums of all time, have yet to hear another laurie anderson album that i really like :/

o superman came on from some old mix CD this weekend while i was driving around with my 2 1/2 year old.
"what is she saying?!" "what is that sound!?"

neither snow nor rain
nor gloom of night
shall stay these couriers
from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds

have yet to hear another laurie anderson album that i really like :/

^^^ what I think about Strange Angels although I like lots of her other albums.

The Ugly One with the Jewels appeals to the kid in me who still loves storytime.

haven't heard it, but You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With is a great title

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

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!

'o superman' is wonderful. but not enough is said about the title track. sometimes certain parts will hit me out of nowhere - "Every man for himself.
Golden cities. Golden towns."

"Thanks for the ride. Big Science. Hallelujah. Big Science. Yodellayheehoo

It's the best, along with "Let X=X / It Tango"

Here's a man who lives a life of danger.
Everywhere he goes he stays -
a stranger.
Howdy stranger. Mind if I smoke?

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

love

Well that’s a nice discovery — the album gets a rerelease on Bandcamp tomorrow:

https://laurieanderson.bandcamp.com/

Was United States Live ever filmed or videotaped? I wish that could be released, but I guess that's rarely the case with performance pieces like it.

I have memories of PBS airplay.

I assumed the revive was for this good appreciation of it by Margaret Atwood https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/08/margaret-atwood-laurie-anderson-big-science-o-superman-prophetic-80s-america-pertinent

I have memories of PBS airplay.

Aw nice! There must be a broadcast master somewhere.

Oddly enough my own first encounter of her wasn't a broadcast of a full piece straight up but a separate appearance in a PBS documentary series...and I almost want to say it was The Story of English?

I've never seen any footage of it. You're not getting confused with Alive from Off Center, are you?