Hitting A New Note

AT FIRST GLANCE. Laune Anderson's second album, Mister Heartbreak, seems like a copout. After all, what does an sustere musician like Anderson, who relies on the simple, minimalistic beauty of her melodies, need with such dense trendy musicians like Adrian Belew (who has worked with the Talking Heads ) and Nile Rodgers (who has worked with David Bowie)? And way is an overblown, self-conscious "artist" like Peter Gabriel collaborating and singing backup vocals on some of the songs?

In a way. Mister Heartbreak is much more commercially accessible than Anderson's previous album. Big Science. Her collaboration with Peter Gabriel. "Excellent Birds" will probably and unfortunately become a hit single. And much of the album utilizes the African polyrhythm and synthesizer effects that made Talking Heads' Remain in Light such an influential album. Nevertheless, this album is not a sellout; nor is it a rehash of the African-funk sound which Brian Eno and David Byrne pioneered in the early 1980's.

Rather, Anderson has managed to maintain her knack for writing clear, simple melodies which retain a haunting resonance. And the African instrumentation, rather than detracting from these melodies, heightens them; Anderson doesn't merely colour the songs with African instruments in order to give them an exotic tinge, rather she blends her elements of rock-influenced minimalism and Third World ethnic music so well that she succeeds in creating what avant-garde trumpet player Jon Hassell dubbed "Fourth World Music" "a primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques."

Not only does Anderson--like the Byrne -Eno and the Eno-Hassell efforts-succeed in bridging Eastern (Third World) music and Western music, but she also manages to bridge the classical/ambsent and rock influences together. There has always been a kind of dichotomy in approaches to this "Fourth World" music; the Talking Heads' Remain in Light despite its intricate synthesiser treatments, was essentially a rock album, while Hassell/Eno's "Fourth World" albums were basically ambient music. Laurie Anderson's Mister heartbreak (like her Big Science) confounds these categories. Although the music is very avantgarde, it refuses to fade away into the background.

ROCK, HOWEVER, PLAYS a much larger role in this album than in her previous Big Science. "Sharkey's Day", for example, is probably the closest Anderson has come to making a song that really rocks. With Belew's sawing, distorted guitar and a dense, varied percussion section firmly driving the melody forward, Anderson delivers the vocals in her haunting, deadpan style, halfway between speaking and singing.

Anderson's sing-song vocals surprisingly not only fit in which the exotic settings of the sings, but are also integral to the album, especially the slow moody songs like "League of Amour", "Gravity's Angel", and "Blue Lagoon." As usual, Anderson has her eccentric, funny phrasing. But much more importantly she fuses normal speech and her sexytiful singing voice together. As a result, many of the songs become ritualized, electronic storytelling, as if the world of "big science" and an African tribal society have collided. In "Langued' Amour." Anderson (using both her normal voice and vocoder) retells the Adam and Eve story over a haunting background of electronic conches, finally breaking into vocoder love song. Anderson directly addresses the listener-"What did the snake say? Yes! What was she saying? OK. I will tell you."-in order to give this storytelling impression.

Similarly, "Gravity's Angel" and "Blue Lagoon" are quiet, meditative pieces in which Anderson's soft strange voice lulls the listener over calm, lush synthesiser settings. On "Gravity's Angel", she alternates her voice between a high whisper and an unexpressive monotone while the music (like "Born Never Asked" and "Let X=Y" on Big Science) breaks in and out of slow, staccato climaxes. "Blue Lagoon" is a static, serene number, which contains one of Anderson's funniest vocal effects since "Walk the Dog."

Although these songs are slow and evocative, they never wander or get lost in the background. In fact, only at the end with "Ko Ko Ku" does the music fail to capture and hold the listener's attention. This minor flaw occurs because the ambient music takes over and Anderson's voice becomes lost in the mix.

ALTHOUGH THE MUSICAL achievements of this album come as quite a surprise, the lyrics are as eccentric and clever as always. Anderson's surrealistic imagery- "he told her about the time there was a big typhoon on the island, and all the sharks came out of the water and they walked right into your house with their big white teeth,"--and her short, suggestive sentences--"You always know what to say. And when to go But I've got one thing. You can see in the dark"-combine to create a strange, dreamlike atmosphere. And of course, she still retains her knack for turning banal statements into bizarre, funny catchphrase like "Thank you lucky stars", "Deep in the heart of darkest America," or "I'd rather see this on TV. Tone it down."

On Big Science, Anderson altered the usual visions of technology into a mysterious, and chillingly beautiful vision of "Golden cities. Golden towns. And long cars in long lines and great big signs", Mister Heartbreak takes this eerie vision of the modern scientific world further by contrasting and mixing it with the exotic, tropical settings. Look for instance at the contract between Third and First Worlds in Blue Lagoon: "Days, I remember cities, Nights, I dream of a perfect place. Days, I dive by the wrock, Nights, I swim in the blue lagoon." Or the mixture of the two worlds in "Langue d' Amour": "And this is not a story my people tell. It is something I know myself. And when I do my job. I am thinking about these things."

The Gabriel/Anderson collaboration, "Excellent Birds," is the only major mistake on this album. With its obvious, snappy chord changes, its overwrought vocals, its melody which sounds like something off of Security, and its pointless lyrics fashioned in the David Byrre made, this song indicates what could have happened in the whole album had Anderson limited her African influences to very surface surface level.

Thus, with only one real flow, this album points Anderson in a new musical direction. She has adopted the basic techniques already developed by Byrne and Eno, yet she has altered them to suit her personal style and her vision. So even if the album does win her commercial acceptance. Anderson has proves that her music can adopt different styles while retaining its own distinctive character.