Strange Angels (Laurie Anderson album)
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| Strange Angels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 24, 1989 | |||
| Genre | Art pop | |||
| Length | 46:04 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. (25900) | |||
| Producer |
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| Laurie Anderson chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Strange Angels | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | A[2] |
| Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [3] |
Strange Angels is the fifth album overall and fourth studio album by American performance artist and singer Laurie Anderson, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1989.
With this release, Anderson attempted to move away from her previous image as a performance artist into a more musical realm. At one point, she considered the idea of compiling film soundtracks around her house into an album. She reckoned that this process would take a few weeks to complete, but ultimately decided to move in a different direction that relied more on melodies. Anderson took singing lessons after realizing that one of the songs required it. "I was working on a song and it was turning out kind of slick. It was something I never released. The back-up singers did their part and I stepped up to the mic and realized that the song should be sung. It was a little late to have the realization that I had no idea how to sing."[4]
The album includes contributions from vocal artist Bobby McFerrin. Its cover photo was shot by Robert Mapplethorpe, who died several months before the album's release. One of the songs on this album, "The Dream Before" (also known as "Hansel and Gretel Are Alive and Well") had been introduced several years earlier in her short film What You Mean We? while she had performed "Babydoll" and "The Day the Devil" years previously on Saturday Night Live.
"The Dream Before" contains the phrase "history is an angel being blown backwards into the future" and further references and quotes Walter Benjamin's musing on Paul Klee's painting Angelus Novus, the ninth of Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History.
Reaction to Anderson's new direction was mostly positive. Publications such as the Rolling Stone Album Guide noted Anderson's pivot to a more "musical approach" that relied more on singing than talking.[3] Robert Christgau of the Village Voice gave Strange Angels an A rating and said that the album contained her most "mellifluous music she's ever recorded."[2] Her next album would not be released for five years.
Strange Angels received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.[5][6]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Laurie Anderson, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Strange Angels" | 3:51 | |
| 2. | "Monkey's Paw" | 4:33 | |
| 3. | "Coolsville" | 4:34 | |
| 4. | "Ramon" | 5:03 | |
| 5. | "Babydoll" | 3:38 | |
| 6. | "Beautiful Red Dress" | 4:43 | |
| 7. | "The Day the Devil" |
| 4:00 |
| 8. | "The Dream Before" | 3:03 | |
| 9. | "My Eyes" | 5:29 | |
| 10. | "Hiawatha" | 6:53 | |
| Total length: | 46:04 | ||
