Performance artist Laurie Anderson is best known for her United States Live, a staggeringly witty, epic-length (more than six hours spread over two days in its staged version) dissection of American politics and popular culture that established her as a major art-world figure who could operate successfully on the fringes of pop. She's still not making music that fits into any commercial radio format, but she does seem to be getting more comfortable manipulating traditional pop forms in her pieces. The music on this soundtrack is her loosest yet. It's as if her refusal to make Big Statements this time out – something that dragged down parts of United States – has liberated her. Sure, she can be self-referential, but usually it's to poke fun at herself and her image. For instance: a friend asks her, "Are you talking to me?/Or are you just practicing/For one of those performances of yours?"

Unfortunately, Anderson may have already said everything she has to say. Home of the Brave trades on the same issues that pervade the more ambitious (and coherent) United States, discussing American culture in the same terms and using the same illustrations to make her point. The new album even reprises one track from that epic. Anderson's remake of " 'Language Is a Virus from Outer Space' – William S. Burroughs" is the closest she comes to a straight pop song, and it could work on a slightly off-center dance floor. But even though it's the best and funniest song here, it's four years old. If Anderson can loosen up some more, as she did on her hilarious debut, Big Science, she might become a pop star with a difference; if she continues to cut the same issues long after her blade has become dulled, she'll be as vital as Falco. (RS 474)

JIMMY GUTERMAN