Big Science (Laurie Anderson album)


Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the single "O Superman", which unexpectedly reached No. 2 in the UK. The work is a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production, United States Live, which was itself released as a 5-LP box set and book in 1984. United States Live was originally a performance piece, in which music was only one element. After Big Science music played a larger role in Anderson's work.
Although considered her debut album, Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music.

Background

Track 8, without the tango or the horns, was released as a flexi disc in the February issue of Artforum earlier in 1982. A sleeve for the disc could be cut out from the magazine and assembled.
A newly remastered version of the album was released on 18 June 2007 by Nonesuch/Elektra Records with new liner notes, and, in the data portion of the CD, the bonus track "Walk the Dog" and the "O Superman" video.
Slant Magazine listed the album at #44 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s."
Laurie Anderson enjoyed a surprise popular hit in the United Kingdom with O, Superman, in 1981. Her subsequent albums Big Science and Mister Heartbreak each sold between 100,000 and 125,000 copies domestically, and even the five-record United States - Live sold 40,000, according to Elliot Abbott, Anderson's manager and the executive producer of Home of the Brave. As of 1983 the album has sold 150,000 copies worldwide. In 2018, Pitchfork named the album the 22nd best of the 1980s.

Track listing

All tracks by Laurie Anderson.
  1. "From the Air" – 4:29
  2. "Big Science" – 6:25
  3. "Sweaters" – 2:18
  4. "Walking & Falling" – 2:10
  5. "Born, Never Asked" – 4:56
  6. "O Superman " – 8:21
  7. "Example #22" – 2:59
  8. "Let X=X/It Tango" – 6:52

    Personnel

;Additional personnel
;Album
YearChartPosition
1982Pop Albums124
1982New Zealand Albums8
1982UK Albums29