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Mister Heartbreak is the second studio album by avant-garde artist, singer and composer Laurie Anderson, released on February 14, 1984.

Mister Heartbreak
Studio album by Laurie Anderson
Released	February 14, 1984
Recorded	July–December 1983
Studio	The Lobby (New York City) RCA (New York City) A & R (New York City) 39th Street Music (New York City)
Genre	Art pop[1] art rock[2]
Length	40:16
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Laurie Anderson Bill Laswell Roma Baran Peter Gabriel
Laurie Anderson chronology
Big Science (1982) Mister Heartbreak (1984) United States Live (1984)
Singles from Mister Heartbreak
"Sharkey's Day" Released: 1984

Like its predecessor, it contains reworked elements of Anderson's United States ("Langue d'Amour", "Kokuku", based on musical elements from "Rising Sun", and "Blue Lagoon"). However, Anderson also introduced new material ("Sharkey's Day"/"Sharkey's Night" and "Gravity's Angel"), while "Excellent Birds", written in collaboration with Peter Gabriel, was written for a 1984 project for video artist Nam June Paik called Good Morning, Mr. Orwell.

Background

"Gravity's Angel" borrows imagery from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Anderson had "wanted to make an opera of that book ... and asked him if that would be OK... He said, 'You can do it, but you can only use banjo.' And so I thought, 'Well, thanks. I don't know if I could do it like that."[3] "Blue Lagoon" contains allusions to other tales of the sea: William Shakespeare's The Tempest (Ariel's song) and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.^{[citation needed]}

The album's lead track, "Sharkey's Day", formed the basis of a popular music video. Author William S. Burroughs read the lyrics of the closing track, "Sharkey's Night", while Peter Gabriel provided vocals on "Excellent Birds", an alternate version of which, titled "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", also appeared on his album So (1986).[4] According to Anderson, she and Gabriel "could never agree on what a bassline was. (I think I probably don't hear so well down there.) I wanted to learn from him, but it turned into a standoff and so we each put out our own version of the song."[5] A third version of the song can be heard in the music video version, directed by Dean Winkler.

Most of the songs on the album were later performed in Anderson's 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. Burroughs appears in the film in two brief segments, reciting lines from "Sharkey's Night", although it is Anderson herself who performs a complete version of the song at the film's conclusion. "Sharkey's Night" featured in the Australian short documentary film Ladies Please! (1995).

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
The Village Voice	A−[2]

Track listing

All songs written by Laurie Anderson, except where otherwise indicated.

Side one

1. "Sharkey's Day" – 7:41
2. "Langue d'Amour" – 6:12
3. "Gravity's Angel" – 6:02

Side two

1. "Kokoku" – 7:03
2. "Excellent Birds" (Anderson, Peter Gabriel) – 3:12
3. "Blue Lagoon" – 7:03
4. "Sharkey's Night" (Anderson, William S. Burroughs) – 2:29

Personnel

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1984	The Billboard 200	60[8]
1984	Canada RPM	41[9]
1984	Dutch Album Chart	23[10]
1984	Swiss Album Chart	19
1984	New Zealand Album Chart	12
1984	Swedish Album Chart	46
1984	UK Album Chart	93[11]

References

External links

• Mister Heartbreak at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)

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