Strange Angelsrelease date: Oct. 13, 1989
format: cd (1998 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Laurie Anderson and Roma Baran
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Strange Angels" - 2. "Monkey's Paw" - 4. "Ramon" - 5. "Babydoll" (4 / 5) - 7. "The Day the Devil" - 9. "My Eyes"
4th studio album release by Laurie Anderson follows 3½ years after Home of the Brave and primarily sees Anderson take a further step into more traditional mainstream music, although still founded on experimental soil, she makes use of art pop melody structure and blend it with her take on art rock and bits from pop / rock. It's not bad, not at all, but it's not really great either. As much as I like her most experimental avantgarde music, "Babydoll", being the boldest pop track on the album, it's still my favourite track here. It seems Anderson is sort of caught by her own artistic desire to just create music and wishes expressed by the "money men", who sees a potential of turning her into something with a stronger mainstream appeal. And here, tracks point in all directions. Some are pop-founded with traditional melody structure with choruses, verses and backing musicians, whereas other songs point more to her will to create something original confronting boundaries of modern classical and art rock. The sound production reeks of late 80s with a sound mix focusing on heavy arrangements with bass and drums up front that doesn't fall far from the works by Tina Turner, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush etc.
I've always found this album too incoherent and without much new from one of the most talented American artists of the 20th century. And in that regard, Strange Angels simply doesn't provide us with what she's capable of.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
