Customer Reviews

Laurie Anderson: Home of the Brave [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD is the sole reason (well, I got Kate Bush's 'The Hounds of Love' the same day) I purchased my first CD player back in 1985. I actually bought the CDs before the player.

Sure, I had heard "O Superman" from 'Big Science' a few years prior, but it did not do enough for me to go out and get the album. Excerpts that I heard from 'United States Live I-IV' were great, but I was a poor college student and could never justify purchasing it.

A friend (thanks Jon) had turned me on to "Language is a Virus" and "Smoke Rings" and we went to go see the movie and I was majorily in awe. Some of the soundtrack items are more clear and concise than the movie ("Language is a Virus". Conversely, somethings worked better on film ("Radar", "White Lily").

But either by video or audio - Laurie Anderson never fails to keep me interested and/or entertained.

It is unfortunate that the movie is not out in DVD - because as companion pieces, they soundtrack and movie are phenomenal.

Mister Heartbreak is Laurie Anderson'e best release, closely followed by Home of the Brave , and then Big Science.On HOTB it is Late Show's blend of rhythm, synth and sax which really shines, though Language is a Virus is very good- with very funny poke at 'tv people'.

I have never seen the movie , and IT IS A CRYING SHAME THAT NO DVD OF HOME OF THE BRAVE IS AVAILABLE -SO COME ON WARNER BROTHERS! GET IT SORTED!

Some of the songs on this are better experienced in the film (the version of "Language is a Virus" in the film is some of Anderson's grittiest and best work - the version on this disc is over-produced and glossified), but many songs here stand perfectly on their own. "White Lily" and "Radar" cast beautifully haunting moods (each in less than three minutes!). And the ending of "Late Show" gives you chills after even a hundred plays. Not her best album, yet it contains some of her finest, simplest work.

Laurie Anderson's "Home of the Brave" is more experimental and less overtly musical than the more well-known, "Strange Angels" album. The artist blends her performance art presentation skills with a wildly experimental musical score to produce a unique landscape of sounds and lyrical images which some listeners will find challenging. However, if you are willing to let yourself go and enjoy it, you will find yourself well rewarded for your faith. There are plenty of funky, singable hooks in "Home of the Brave", such as the infectious chorus of "Language is a virus". However, this album is also chock full of unusual sounds and experimental instruments which may lead the timid, pop-oriented audience to squeal, "This is music?!" More adventerous spirits will gleefully respond in the afirmative. Laurie dons a suit of triggers and plays an electronic drum set by dancing and pounding on parts of her body. Guitarist Adrian Belew plays his guitar with various household items, and at one point creates a sound somewhat like an elephant's roar. The most unusual effect on the album is created using an electronic violin and bows strung with taped sound samples. Love it or hate it, the resulting sound is indescribable, and unforgetable. Few artists are capable of this level of experimentation, and even fewer are this successful. This album, as experimental as it is, is perhaps most impressive in it's consistency. Laurie Anderson fans will be hard-pressed to find a "dud" in the bunch. Considering the high-wire act that this album represents, that is no mean feat.

this is definitely my favorite Laurie album ever. It contains eight selections from her 1986 film "Home of the Brave" which i'm trying to get a copy of to no avail. laurie is at her most dynamic, kinetic, rhythmic, and colorful here. Highlights for me include Smoke Rings, White Lily, Language is a Virus, and most of all her live film rendition of Sharkey's Night which is much more cutting vibrant and altogether beautiful. :) you definitely want to pick this one up soon.

What an utterly charming and delightful film! This is Laurie Anderson at her peak. At this time, her emerging visions in her music, her performance art, and her perspective on pop culture all came together to form a Laurie-world that is engrossing, rich, quirky, and bound to make you smile. I think that OUR world has lost something since then. It is hard to imagine "Home of the Brave" being made in todays jaded, degraded, and "extreme" culture. I also love this film because it happened in an era when new musics were emerging from grass roots sources, and the record companies had to adapt themselves to these new movements. That may have been the last time that such a thing will happen in this manufactured-to-sell musical environment. This film NEEDS to go to DVD, as it is one of the five essential concert films of this wonderful time in music. The others are:
Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads
Big Time by Tom Waits
Judgement Day by Diamanda Galas
Blazing Away by Marianne Faithful

OK, I figure if you're looking at this CD, you're a Laurie Anderson fan and can recall at least twice you've seen her great concert movie, likely at a midnight showing back in the 80's. Well, if you're that person, avoid the utter heartbreak which is this CD. I counted 18 tracks from my old VHS copy of this concert, while only 8 made it to the CD. The banter between tracks is omitted entirely. The tracks are out of order (OK, small nitpick), and it's certainly not worth the effort. I'm sorry, Laurie, but Warner scr-wed you hard on this one.

On the up side, the sound quality is good, certainly better than my VHS. But hey, this is a concert film soundtrack, but apparently they forgot to include the second disk. Laurie fans will be livid. (Others merely confused! :)

This purports to be the 'soundtrack' from Laurie Anderson's "Home of the Brave". I somehow don't think so. Some versions of pieces on here, while they are part of the film of the same name, are in very different versions and arrangements than in the film. And there's a LOT of material that's absent here, most notably the "zero and one" thematic structure that's critical to the whole of that work. This release seems much better-described as 'hits from "Home of the Brave"' than the soundtrack; those doubting this are urged strongly to get a copy of the film and see for yourselves! This is a poor representation of what is, in fact, an amazing performance work that does exist in a visually _and_ aurally-recorded form...thankfully.

THE FIRST TIME THAT I HEARD A LAURIE,ANDERSON SONG WAS IN THE EARLY EIGTIES WHEN OH SUPERMAN WAS RELEASED IN THIS COUNTRY(UK)AND HER ORIGINALITY STOOD OUT FROM EVERYTHING ELSE AROUND AT THAT TIME I PARTICULARLEY LOVED- X = X, WHICH I RATE AS AN ALL TIME CLASSIC. ONE OF THE BIGGEST LOST OPORTUNITYS OF MY LIFE WAS TO MISS, THE NOW LEGENDERY GIG,THAT SHE DID IN LONDON, IN THE EARLY 80s, WHAT CAUSES HER TO STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD, IS THE EXTAORDINARY COMBINATION OF ABSTRACT,POETRY COMBINED WITH A CUTTING PERCEPTION WHICH GOES STRAIGHT TO THE CELEBRAL HEART OF THE MATTER, AND THE MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT TOTALLY SUBVERTS YOUR BRAIN INTO HAVING TO RESPOND EMOTIONALLY,SHE,IS IN ADVANCE OF HER TIME, SHE IS A FUTURE VOICE OF THE AMERICAN, PSYCHE, AND LIKE ALL GREAT ARTISTES, TOTALLY MISUNDERSTOOD I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO SEE HER IN THE FLESH,AT THE APPOLLO, IN MANCHESTER (UK), 1996, SHE STILL RETAINED,THAT SENSE OF OTHERNESS, THAT I LOVED, BUT I SENSED THAT SOMETHING HAD OCCURED IN HER LIFE,WHITCH HAD CAUSED HER GREAT PAIN, I SUSPECT THAT SHE HAD BEEN, GOT AT,IN SOME WAY, THERE WAS SOMETHING WEIGHING HER DOWN,AND HER INHERANT,HONESTY COULD,NOT HELP BUT TO ALLOW IT TO SHOW,I FELT FOR HER. LIFE DRIVES ART,AND THE BEST THING THAT CAN EMERGE FROM THE TRIALS THAT LIFE THROWS AT US IS AN INSPIRATION WHITCH ALLOWS US A NEW WAY TO UNIVERSALLY EXPRESS THE THINGS THAT TOUCH OUR HEART, AND I SUSPECT THAT, IF I AM RIGHT SHE HAS ALREADY CHANELLED IT AWAY AND REGAINED THAT,LIGHTNESS OF HEART THAT IS THE BADGE OF EVERY SOUL SURVIVER, LOVE,AND PEACE. PL. (23.9.98).

OK, maybe the soundtrack for Home of the Brave isn't the earth-shaking artistic statement that the movie was (if you haven't seen it, shame!). Nevertheless, it's Laurie's most accessible album to date; if it isn't the most shimmeringly beautiful, it's certainly the easiest to dance to. Smoke Rings is seven solid minutes of smart fun. Talk Normal is a dead-on parody of the intellectual type that infests our large cities. Sharkey's Night is the best song ever written about the Bomb, and Credit Racket is just flat out stomping. Yeah, Adrian Belew is amazing on guitar in his numbers, but nobody's mentioned David Van Tieghem's drumming - outstanding. This is the perfect introduction to Ms. Anderson's work. Grab it.