For her first studio album in nine years, performance art's greatest star combines personal acoustic songs with the synth-powered social commentary of her 1980s heyday. Laurie Anderson summons chamber music on "Thinking of You" and echoes classic Motown on the lyrics to "Strange Perfumes." The meat of the album, however, is explicitly political, and its showstopper is "Only an Expert," which melds global warming, bank bailouts, Oprah Winfrey and roaring guitar feedback from Anderson's hubby, Lou Reed. Hilarious and horrifying, it's the harsh 21st-century flip side to her unnervingly gentle hit "O Superman."

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”