The fact that Laurie Anderson week has thus far consisted of two posts, alpha-and-omega-style, shd be held against me rather than her. Maybe a Laurie Anderson week, like a light year, is a distance (how far our hero travels in seven days?) That seems appropriately oblique.

Anyway, today I wanted to alert you to the three of her albums you shd hear first, thereby beginning to convert all yr own waking hours into Laurie Anderson weeks (…as a state of mind?) Whatever - investigate the following…

Easily her best known redord, due to the presence of perhaps the least likely chart hit in UK history, make sure you also hear ‘From The Air’ (the most conceptually satisfying song I know: “This is the time/And this is the record of the time.”) ‘Let X=X’ is another favourite, represented here by an Eighties student video (mindlessly over-literal, but a likable vintage).

Bright Red, a collaboration with Brian Eno, is perhaps the most rigorous and austere of her records - pushing the use of pitch-shifted (and so, notionally male/female) voices into solo cross-examination. It feels neither as playful or populist as other releases, and consequently there’s a depth and darkness which comes to feel autobiographical. For all that, though, there’s also some of her most enduringly beautiful numbers - ‘World Without End’ has an epic grace (plz ignore the fanvid), and ‘Same Time Tomorrow’s immense power comes from restraint. Note: this version comes from…

Her best live document, the first I ever heard of her, and easily one of my favourite five albums ever. Essentially a spoken word performance, with traces of music, and fragments from across her career scattered through casually-delivered anecdotes. It changed the way I write.

Posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008by kicking_k