Word: heartbreaking
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...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...
...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...
...enough to offset the heartbreak of racial insults and random attacks from young white thugs. The Ullahs and their children-Daughters Sonia, 15, Shazia, 14, and Samia, 10, and Son Sohail, 6-believe they are living a life under siege, and they have had enough. This year they are returning to Pakistan. "This country is not my home," declares Ismat Ullah, "but I have learned something here I'll value as long as I live: to work hard, to be tolerant and to fight and not give...
...HEARTBREAK HOUSE...