Pioneering multimedia artist and musician Laurie Anderson has just released Homeland, her first studio album in a decade. She also played a concert specifically for dogs at the Sydney Opera house. Anderson was a guest on NPR's Weekend Edition and you can also listen to the entire album on their site. From NPR:
"['Homeland' is] not a word that Americans use," Anderson says. "No one would say 'my homeland' – it's just so sentimental. This record was started in the Bush era and went over the cusp into Obama, and I appreciated how story-savvy the Bush administration was to put a sentimental, gooey, homey word like 'homeland' next to 'bureau' and 'security.' "
In the atmospheric "Only an Expert," Anderson reflects on the culture of experts in America. She says she finds it irritating that people are infantilized by specialists who try to answer for them.
"I do think that we're living in this culture that assumes that something's wrong with you that has to be fixed," she says. "And, really, there's nothing wrong with you. It's hard to live; we have problems."
Laurie Anderson Returns With Atmospheric 'Homeland' (Thanks, Greg Benjamin!)
