BRIGHT RED

I have been a hold out on checking out the music of LAURIE ANDERSON simply because I am not a huge fan of spoken word vocals in lyrics and the few YouTube clips I checked out of tracks from her most highly rated album "Big Science" failed to get my tail wagging so when I found a good deal on her album BRIGHT RED I thought i'd give her a listen and see if she's really as boring as I remembered from those samples. Well, the answer is.... hell NO! I am quite impressed with this album. First of all, LAURIE ANDERSON occupies a musical niche like no other i've heard. For many of the tracks on this album she neither quite sings nor quite speaks. At times she is more speaking with slight musical intonations, while at other times she's not quite speaking but not fully singing. At other times she sings like an angel.

I suspect the reason I may like this album a lot is because it is a marriage of the profound thought provoking poetry of LAURIE and her brilliant delivery of it and the excellent production of Brian Eno who helps out in the songwriting department and with some additional help on some instruments and arrangements. The music that accompanies the precisely timed lyrics is impeccable and the decision to use which instrument when and where is equally impressive. It really doesn't matter if LAURIE is half reciting like on "Speak My Language" or trading off words with her backup singer as on the title track or fully singing as on the dual vocal song "Muddy River" with only an accompanying drumbeat. The songs are harmonically and melodically interesting making LAURIE ANDERSON a true master of her unique brand of experimental art pop.

Now that i've seen the BRIGHT RED light I need to revisit her discography to hear if i've been missing out on more gems like this or if this is a unique concoction that has enough Eno influence to spice up LAURIE's bizarre take on her poetic take on music. I find this album very diverse up to the last few tracks and then it kind of runs its course. Of the two parts of the album that are titled BRIGHT RED and TIGHTROPE I find the first side to be utterly brilliant with the second starting out strong and slowly fading into the less so.