Music to Build Buildings By

Fear of modernization characterized the late 70s and early 80s. It is written all over ever sort of western-based cultural output from the time period. 28 years later, these albums are a still musically-relevant window into how we arrived where we did, and therefore a great opportunity for some cultural introspection. Therefore....

Stop with the bullshit about this album being for the post-9/11 world. Laurie Anderson is not Nostradamus (although she is the first musician in residence at NASA). This album was released in 1982, and epitomizes exactly what is described above, and it is damn good. Perhaps folks wanted to revive the album circa 2001 exactly because we were questioning the true benefit of modernization. Listen to the album, and be real.

Big Science

Flex represents much of the same fears - buildings shielding us from the sun, the destruction of the human race via atomic energy, but in a fun way! Lene Lovich was born in Detroit, but grew up in England, and therefore got the best of both modern worlds. Lovich is much more influenced by funk, and in some ways, you may hear a resemblance to Lora Logic's vocal style. Check out the album, and note the rising tensions of 1979.

Flex