Twenty-nine years after her solitary hit, 'Oh Superman', the high priestess of performance art remains a compelling cult figure.
Anderson's first album in almost a decade, Homeland grew out of live performances over the past few years (including some Dublin shows) and is mainly inspired by recent events directly concerning the US including the Iraq war, financial chaos and climate change. In fact, it almost reads like a state-of-the-Union address where Anderson casts a cold eye over modern day America and its immediate future. The picture she paints is a desolate one.
The sonic backdrop is centred on a variety of electronics, her Middle Eastern-sounding violin playing and her main instrument, her voice which, more often than not, is spoken rather than sung. 'Another Day In America', the centrepiece here, is harrowing. Clocking in at just under 12 minutes her voice is lowered in pitch, so that her voice takes on a robotic pitch as she delivers a series of apocalyptic observations ("The reason I really love the stars is we cannot hurt them" ). Antony Hegarty makes an appearance in the final minutes; sadly, his sweet, soaring tones fail to rescue us from the prevailing gloom.
On 'Only An Expert', which rhythmically recalls Tom Tom Club's 'Wordy Rappinghood', she sings about bank bailouts, sub-prime mortgages global warming and Oprah while hubby Lou Reed adds crunchy guitar lines. 'Thinking of You' is the nearest thing to a song in the conventional sense here – to these ears it sounds like Ms Anderson has been listening to Julie Feeney of late!
To these ears, however, it's all a bit of an endurance test!