Strange Angels (Laurie Anderson album)

Strange Angels is the fifth album overall and fourth studio album by performance artist and singer Laurie Anderson, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1989.

Strange Angels
Studio album by Laurie Anderson
Released	October 24, 1989
Genre	Art pop
Length	46:04
Label	Warner Bros. (25900)
Producer	Laurie Anderson Roma Baran Mike Thorne Arto Lindsay and Peter Scherer Ian Ritchie Leon Pendarvis
Laurie Anderson chronology
Home of the Brave (1986) Strange Angels (1989) Bright Red (1994)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Christgau's Record Guide	A
Rolling Stone Album Guide

With this release, Anderson attempted to move away from her previous image as a performance artist into a more musical realm. Although music had always been part of her performance, it was never brought to the fore as much as it was on Strange Angels. Anderson did more singing on this album than she did on previous albums. As a result, completion of this album was delayed for nearly a year when Anderson decided that she needed to take singing lessons; in the process she discovered that she was a soprano.

The album includes contributions from vocal artist Bobby McFerrin. Its cover photo was shot by Robert Mapplethorpe, who died several months before the album's release. One of the songs on this album, "The Dream Before" (also known as "Hansel and Gretel Are Alive and Well") had been introduced several years earlier in her short film What You Mean We? while she had performed "Babydoll" and "The Day the Devil" years previously on Saturday Night Live.

Reaction to Anderson's new direction was mixed, with some critics praising her new style, while some accused her of abandoning her performance art roots, even though Anderson soon began work on a major piece titled The Nerve Bible. Her next album would not be released for five years.

Strange Angels received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

"Beautiful Red Dress" was covered in Portuguese by the Brazilian singer Marina Lima, on her 2006 album La nos Primordios, titled "Vestidinho Vermelho" ("Little Red Dress").

"The Dream Before" contains the iconic phrase "history is an angel being blown backwards into the future" and further references and quotes Walter Benjamin's musing on Paul Klee's painting Angelus Novus, the ninth of Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History.

Track listing

All lyrics and music composed by Laurie Anderson; except where indicated

1. "Strange Angels" – 3:51
2. "Monkey's Paw" – 4:33
3. "Coolsville" – 4:34
4. "Ramon" – 5:03
5. "Babydoll" – 3:38
6. "Beautiful Red Dress" – 4:43
7. "The Day the Devil" (Anderson, Peter Laurence Gordon) – 4:00
8. "The Dream Before" – 3:03
9. "My Eyes" – 5:29
10. "Hiawatha" – 6:53

Personnel

• Laurie Anderson – vocals, keyboards, percussion programming, drums on "Coolsville"
• Scott Johnson - guitar
• Arto Lindsay – guitar
• Ray Phiri – guitar
• John Selolwane – guitar
• Chris Spedding – guitar
• David Spinozza – guitar
• Jimi Tunnell – guitar
• Gib Wharton – pedal steel guitar
• Peter Scherer – bass, keyboards, drum programming
• Mark Dresser – bass
• Mark Egan – bass
• Bakithi Khumalo – fretless bass
• Tony Levin – Chapman stick
• Robbie Kilgore – keyboards
• David LeBolt – keyboards, synthesizers
• Mike Thorne – keyboards, percussion, drum programming
• "Blue" Gene Tyranny – keyboards
• Tom "T-Bone" Wolk – accordion
• Joey Baron – drums
• Anton Fier – drums
• Steve Gadd – drums
• Manolo Badrena – percussion
• Cyro Baptista – percussion
• Errol "Crusher" Bennett – percussion
• Bill Buchen – percussion
• Sue Hadjopoulos – percussion
• David Van Tieghem – percussion
• Naná Vasconcelos – percussion
• Jimmy Bralower – drum programming
• Leon Pendarvis – drum programming
• Ian Ritchie – drum programming
• Alex Foster – alto saxophone
• Lenny Pickett – tenor saxophone, horn arrangements
• Louis Del Gatto – baritone saxophone
• Laurie Frink – trumpet
• Earl Gardner – trumpet
• Steve Turre – trombone, conch shell
• Hugh McCracken – harmonica
• Bobby McFerrin – vocals
• Phillip Ballou – backing vocals
• Benny Diggs – backing vocals
• Lisa Fischer – backing vocals
• Yolanda Lee – backing vocals
• Meat Loaf – backing vocals, chant
• Paulette McWilliams – backing vocals
• B.J. Nelson – backing vocals
• Angela Clemmons-Patrick – backing vocals
• The Roches – backing vocals
• Darryl Tookes – backing vocals
• Diane Wilson – backing vocals

Technical

• Eric Liljestrand - recording engineer, Macintosh programming, drum programming, sampling
• Neil Dorfsman, Bob Clearmountain, Jay Healy, Josh Abbey - mixing
• Robert Mapplethorpe - cover photography

"Babydoll"

The lyrics to this song appeared on the liner for the vinyl recording, centered and formatted into the shape of a doll.

Music videos

In lieu of filming a standard music video to promote the album, Anderson instead taped a series of 60-second "Personal Service Announcements" in which she humorously discussed the economy and American culture. She later produced a music video for "Beautiful Red Dress".