Laurie Anderson - Talk Normal: A Laurie Anderson Anthology

Laurie Anderson is something of a missionary. Having endured the scorn of some influential avant-garde peers for "selling out" (by signing to a major label and taking her live shows to a relatively large, mainstream audience), Anderson instead chose to challenge their assumptions, proving by default that they were as ossified as anything in the so-called mainstream. Anderson also chose not to define herself strictly as an artist, but as a storyteller and de facto humorist--and one that dared point out that her chosen venue of "performance art" wasn't particularly avant at all. Or that the dreaded cliché was often merely the most efficient way to make a story point. This generous double-disc anthology charts the arc of Anderson's adventurous "mainstream" recording career, from the minimalist, unlikely Euro-hit "O Superman" through 15 years of ever more ambitious studio recordings and live shows. Tellingly, as Anderson's ambitions and acceptance grew, so did her playful warmth and often self-deprecating humor. Indeed, much of this set is an implicit jab at the implicit elitism of the so-called avant-garde--or is it their jealousy? --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

This CD is okay if you like Laurie's poetry.

Disk one is more poetry than music. Disk two has more music, but many of the songs are off her "Strange Angels" CD. I bought the disk mainly for "Language is A Virus". In retrospect, I would have been better off buying the song from iTunes for $0.99. March 4, 2006

Difficult Music

"Difficult Music" is a track composed by Laurie Anderson to introduce one of her song / stories. It's also an excellent way to descibe a majority of her work. She has never been a pop artist. So it's misleading to think this collection is a "greatest hits" retrospective. Laurie Anderson, the performance artist from New York City, has very few tracks that received radio or video airplay. Even when singles were released like "O Superman" and "Sharkey's Day", they were hardly soaring up the charts. Yet she worthy of this release for changing the way we think of performance art today and music in general.

A better description is an anthology of Ms. Anderson's works from her Warner Bros. years from 1981 through 1995. In that respect, it covers most of the essential tracks that were not just popular amongst her fans but shows the diversity of her work. True, "O Superman" is a fantastic minimalist piece that hit the pop scene especially in Europe. But she can go the other way too, like the comedic and carribean influenced "Babydoll" about a conversation with her brain ("He says, take me to your leader". And I said, "Do you mean George"? He said "I just want to meet him". And I said "C'mon, like, I don't even know George"!). Most of her works deal with the battle of the sexes and inability to communicate ("It Tango", "Laguage d'Amour"), travel ("Big Science", "Lighting Out For The Territories"), and oddities of life. As her recordings progress, we get the increased sense of fear creeping into her work. Fear from society's woes like war ("Night In Baghdad"), AIDS ("Love Amongst The Sailors"), and jealousy ("Poison").

The collection ends appropraitely with selections from "The Ugly One With The Jewels", tracks that were recorded live on stage. Not songs, but spoken stories of her youth and from encounters from years of touring accompanied with minimal musical background. Ms. Anderson has always considered herself first and foremost a storyteller. Her stories are always given a slightly artistic tweak and become introspective searches of who we are as people and how we relate to others. "Talk Normal" is a quality look back at one of the more creative and interesting recording and performance artists today. September 25, 2005

A perfect overview of Laurie Anderson's career

New to Laurie Anderson? Then you must shell out 30 bucks to pick up her anthology Talk Normal. I'm glad i did. How can you resist such great songs such as O Superman, Sharkey's Day, Smoke Rings, and Language Is A Virus? Just buy this already, i also recommend United States Live. February 17, 2004

Laurie good..re-mixes Bad

I totally agree with Mark. Messing around with "Sharkeys Day" is a bad idea anyway you look at it. Otherwise its a nice trip down memory lane for a lot of us..and for the potential new fans, its a good start on their journey; (and believe me..being a LA fan Is a journey!)
Something else i would recommend is the recent "Laurie Anderson Live at town hall New York City September 19-20 2001" recorded just after the 9/11 mess in which she,on the fly, inserted some songs from Big Science. Not an easy task because she had to re-vamp her gizmos to sound sort of like her old analog stuff..and playing old "hits" usually isnt in her repertoire. September 24, 2002

Love Ms. Anderson, but still dislike re-mixes....

I had very high hopes for this anthology, but was indeed disappointed to discover that many of the cuts were re-mixed. Rarely, have I ever heard a re-mix that was superior in quality to the original release. This is especially so in Ms. Anderson's case, where the original material is always of such high and sublime quality. August 1, 2001

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