Life On A String
- Laurie Anderson
- Band Name: Laurie Anderson
- Record Label: Nonesuch
- Release Date: Aug 21, 2001
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80The haunting melodies and string arrangements enhance the CD's contemplative mood, bringing us into the artist's reverie about emotional pain and art's dependence on such painful experiences.
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Laurie Anderson is a singer-songwriter of crushing poignance - a minimalist painter of melancholy moods who addresses universal themes in the vernacular of the commonplace.
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If the wordplay occasionally misses the mark, the music (which includes calypso, funk, '40s jazz, and chamber pop) invariably carries the day. [Aug 2001, p.76]
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70Life On A String also reveals the tedious aspects of Anderson's muse. [#51, p.82]
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70The perfect album for cool, sequestered evenings in scary cities. [Sep 2001, p.102]
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Anderson's best work has always been simultaneously opaque and pointed, suggestive, and even topical, without being didactic. Those qualities apply again here.
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Despite an occasional dip into buzzy techno waters, Life is more retread than reinvention. [Aug 24/31 2001, p.137]
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60Though the drones drift into Enya-like ambience on "Slip Away" more often, as on "Pieces and Parts" and the keening "Broken," Anderson dresses up her hard-won koans of personal wisdom just enough to make them alluring. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.120]
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60Despite its spacious and minimal approach, the album is -- in typical Anderson style -- a demanding piece of work. [Sep 2001, p.106]
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50She lets [the songs] drift off into the kind of embalmed chamber music respectability often synonymous with the Nonesuch label.
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50Fans of Anderson's trademark spoken word phrasing, with pregnant pauses, raised eyebrows and question mark endings, won't be disappointed. [#211, p.52]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 4
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Mixed: 0 out of 4
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Negative: 0 out of 4
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MikeW9Best since Big Science, still strong remnants of the old style in there, with some good rich mature sounds.
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SteveP9Almost back to her best!
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Ron8chamber music and L.A., not ready, unexpected, fragile, looking for new ways