Mister Heartbreak
Mister Heartbreak | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 14, 1984 | |||
Recorded | July–December 1983 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 40:16 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer | Laurie Anderson Bill Laswell Roma Baran Peter Gabriel | |||
Laurie Anderson chronology | ||||
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Singles from Mister Heartbreak | ||||
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Mister Heartbreak is the second studio album by avant-garde artist, singer and composer Laurie Anderson, released on February 14, 1984.
Like its predecessor, it contains reworked elements of Anderson's United States ("Langue d'Amour", "Kokuku", based on musical elements from "Rising Sun", and "Blue Lagoon"). However, Anderson also introduced new material ("Sharkey's Day"/"Sharkey's Night" and "Gravity's Angel"), while "Excellent Birds", written in collaboration with Peter Gabriel, was written for a 1984 project for video artist Nam June Paik called Good Morning, Mr. Orwell.
Background
"Gravity's Angel" borrows imagery from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Anderson had "wanted to make an opera of that book ... and asked him if that would be OK... He said, 'You can do it, but you can only use banjo.' And so I thought, 'Well, thanks. I don't know if I could do it like that." "Blue Lagoon" contains allusions to other tales of the sea: William Shakespeare's The Tempest (Ariel's song) and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.[citation needed]
The album's lead track, "Sharkey's Day", formed the basis of a popular music video. Author William S. Burroughs read the lyrics of the closing track, "Sharkey's Night", while Peter Gabriel provided vocals on "Excellent Birds", an alternate version of which, titled "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", also appeared on his album So (1986). According to Anderson, she and Gabriel "could never agree on what a bassline was. (I think I probably don't hear so well down there.) I wanted to learn from him, but it turned into a standoff and so we each put out our own version of the song." A third version of the song can be heard in the music video version, directed by Dean Winkler.
Most of the songs on the album were later performed in Anderson's 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. Burroughs appears in the film in two brief segments, reciting lines from "Sharkey's Night", although it is Anderson herself who performs a complete version of the song at the film's conclusion. "Sharkey's Night" featured in the Australian short documentary film Ladies Please! (1995).
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Rolling Stone | |
The Village Voice | A− |
Track listing
All songs written by Laurie Anderson, except where otherwise indicated.
Side one
- "Sharkey's Day" – 7:41
- "Langue d'Amour" – 6:12
- "Gravity's Angel" – 6:02
Side two
- "Kokoku" – 7:03
- "Excellent Birds" (Anderson, Peter Gabriel) – 3:12
- "Blue Lagoon" – 7:03
- "Sharkey's Night" (Anderson, William S. Burroughs) – 2:29
Personnel
- Laurie Anderson – vocals (tracks 1–6), Synclavier (track 1–6), violin (track 1), whistle (track 1), electronic conches (track 2), vocoder (track 2), bell (track 3), percussion (track 4)
- Adrian Belew – guitar (tracks 1, 3, 6, 7)
- Anton Fier – drums (track 1), toms (track 4), wood block (track 4)
- Bill Laswell – bass guitar (tracks 1, 3–6)
- Daniel Ponce – iya (tracks 1), ikonkolo (track 1), shekere (track 1), double bell from the Cameroons (track 1)
- November (Michelle Cobbs, Dolette McDonald, Brenda Nelson) – back-up vocals (track 1)
- Peter Gabriel – back-up vocals (tracks 2–3), vocals (track 5), Synclavier (track 5), LinnDrum (track 5)
- David Van Tieghem – plywood (track 3), bowls (track 3), Simmons drums (track 3), drums (track 3), steel drum (track 6), gato (track 6), bamboo (track 6)
- Sang-Won Park – kayagum (track 4)
- Phoebe Snow – back-up vocals (track 4)
- Atsuko Yuma – back-up vocals (track 4)
- Connie Harvey – Japanese chorus (track 4)
- Janet Wright – Japanese chorus (track 4)
- Nile Rodgers – guitar (track 5)
- Bill Blaber – soprano (track 6)
- William S. Burroughs – vocals (track 7)
- Technical
- Laurie Anderson – co-producer (tracks 1–2, 4–7), producer (track 3), art, graphics
- Bill Laswell – co-producer (tracks 1, 4, 7), mixing assistance (track 3)
- Roma Baron – co-producer (tracks 2, 6)
- Peter Gabriel – co-producer (track 5)
- Leanne Ungar – engineer
- Bob Bielecki – technical consultant, systems design, Synclavier spectral displays
- Mike Getlin – assistant engineer
- Joe Lopes – assistant engineer
- Pat Martin – assistant engineer
- Larry Franke – assistant engineer
- Tim Cox – assistant engineer
- Mike Krowiak – mixing assistant
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
- Bud Shark – printing
Charts
Album
Year | Chart | Position |
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1984 | The Billboard 200 | 60 |
1984 | Canada RPM | 41 |
1984 | Dutch Album Chart | 23 |
1984 | Swiss Album Chart | 19 |
1984 | New Zealand Album Chart | 12 |
1984 | Swedish Album Chart | 46 |
1984 | UK Album Chart | 93 |