Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak

Today (February 14th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Mister Heartbreak, the second studio album from Laurie Anderson. The 1984 release charted at number 93 in the UK and number 60 on the US Billboard Album chart (nineteen weeks total on the chart).

Nona Hendryx - Nona

Before moving off to a solo career, Nona Hendryx was one third of the R&B girl-group Labelle. In the mid-1970’s she went solo and released a number of records. One of them, 1983’s Nona celebrated its thirtieth anniversary back in March of this year. Her second solo studio album, it climbed to number 83 on the US Billboard Album chart and number 25 on the US Billboard R&B chart.

DVD: Peter Gabriel - So (Classic Albums series)

2011 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release Peter Gabriel’s fifth album So and it was featured that year on the Classic Albums documentary series that ran at the time. In October of 2012, the episode was released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Eagle Rock Entertainment.

While I was very familiar with the album (click here for my review of the album), there was a lot I did not know about the behind the scenes of this landmark record. I had the opportunity to review this DVD this week and thought I would share a few of my thoughts on it.

Laurie Anderson - Big Science

Laurie Anderson has been a performance artist since her college days in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. While she has a master’s degree in sculpture, she is also an accomplished musician and composer; she plays the violin, keyboards and percussion as well as sings. She is also a pioneer in electronic music, having invented a number of devices that she has used in her recordings and live performances.

Anderson’s first studio album was 1982’s Big Science which happens to be celebrating its 30th anniversary this month. The album went to number 29 on the UK charts and number 124 on the US Billboard Hot 200 chart. The music here, very minimalist in sound and featuring mostly spoken word, is a subset of her eight-hour performance production United States Live.