Laurie Anderson – Big Science

In 1981 a little known Avante-Garde performance artist released an album ‘Big Science’, which featured highlights from her 10hour stage show of spoken word and occasional music.  Laurie played electric keyboards, violin and vocoder.  Most of the music is sparse with plenty of room for her vocals, often spoken, sometimes sung. It is startling in its simplicity and originality.  The success of the album was mostly the result of her 8minute single ‘O Superman’ which was championed by John Peel and reached #2 after a lot of radio play.  Her songs are simple but catchy and totally unique.  Best are ‘O Superman’, ‘From The Air’, ‘Walking and Falling’ and ‘Let X = X’.  A completely individual album from a complete individual.  Can’t imagine it happening today.