Album Review: Laurie Anderson, Amelia

On July 2, 1937, renowned aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while she was attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe. Earhart has long been a subject of fascination to writers, artists and musicians. British singer Tom McRae’s ‘The Ballad Of Amelia Earhart’, Kinky Friedman’s ‘Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight’ and our own Bell X1’s ‘Amelia’, from 2009’s Blue Lights On The Runway, immediately spring to mind.

Seventy-seven year-old avant garde artist, film-maker and musician, Laurie Anderson’s first new album since her 2018’s Grammy-winning Landfall is all about Earhart’s tragic last flight. The album consists of Anderson’s speaking voice, often reading out Earhart’s aviation diaries, over a classical backdrop, with the majority of the 22 tracks clocking in between 29 seconds and two minutes. It’s only on the lovely ‘Flying At Night’ that we hear Anderson actually sing, over a bed of beautiful strings.

On the way, Anderson is joined by Czech orchestra, Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, along with a host of other guests, including singers Anohni and Gabriel Cabezas, multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose, violinists Martha Mooke and Nadia Sirota, guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Scherr, and percussionist Kenny Wolleson.

It’s a concept album, designed to be listened to in one sitting and as such, Amelia makes for an intriguing, sometimes whimsical (‘The Letter’, ‘Road To Mandalay’), occasionally dramatic (‘Radio’) and often beautiful (‘India And On Down To Australia’) listen, as Anderson continues to plough her own unique artistic furrow.

7/10

Out August 30