Album of the Week: Laurie Anderson - Homeland

Laurie Anderson's Homeland, a self-described "concert poem," was born as a collaboration with Lou Reed during her 2008 tour. As a complete album, its lushly orchestrated songs bleed into one another, making for a somewhat difficult first listen, but the pay-off is well worth it. From PopMatters:

"Considered to be a 21st century extension of her 1983 multimedia project United States I-IV, the concert poem offered a stinging, uncompromising look at post-9/11 America; a time when civil liberties were squashed like bugs in the name of security; cameras watched every move in public; the economy was played in a rich man’s game of craps; wars were waged on hunches and innuendos; and foreign policy was treated by the Bush administration like the proverbial redheaded stepchild. Thus inspired, it was a challenging, humorous, moving and confrontational piece of musical art that left audiences equally intrigued and angered."

Track Listing:

1. Transitory Life
2. My Right Eye
3. Thinking of You
4. Strange Perfumes
5. Only an Expert
6. Falling
7. Another Day in America
8. Bodies In Motion
9. Dark Time In The Revolution
10. The Lake
11. The Beginning of Memory
12. Flow