Probably the most pop-accessible of Laurie Anderson's recorded work, Mister Heartbreak features a number of stunning luminaries on the cutting edge of popular music at the time.
Striking guitar work by King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew permeates this disc -- notably on "Sharkey's Day" -- punchy and angular.
The production and bass work from Bill Laswell is superb.
Peter Gabriel -- at the time still coming off the buzz of his departure from Genesis -- is featured in a duet with Anderson on "Excellent Birds." There is a heavy reliance on early-'80s synthesizers which would normally be very off-putting, but here they are executed well.
Nowhere does the music slip into irreparable '80s cliché; it is still an entertaining listen.
Lyrics are typical of Anderson' work -- complex, literate, provocative, difficult to fully comprehend.
Haunting "Gravity's Angel" borrows imagery from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.
Spoken word delivery on "Sharkey's Night" is given by the legendary William S.
Burroughs.
This is a very satisfying listen and a great intro for those unfamiliar with Anderson's work.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sharkey's DayLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 07:47 | 17 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Langue d'AmourLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 06:18 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Gravity's AngelLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 06:06 | 13 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | KokokuLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 07:08 | 16 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Excellent BirdsLaurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel | Laurie Anderson | Play | 03:17 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Blue LagoonLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 07:08 | 16 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Sharkey's NightLaurie Anderson | Laurie Anderson | Play | 02:29 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 40 mins | 92 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laurie Anderson | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 2 | Adrian Belew | Guest Artist |
| 3 | William S. Burroughs | Guest Artist |
| 4 | Peter Gabriel | Composer, Guest Artist |
| 5 | Phoebe Snow | Guest Artist |
| 6 | Leanne Ungar | Engineer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |