Life on a String
A new Laurie Anderson album is usually a thing to welcome.  Often less a performance artist than point person for global-village  storytelling--as on 1995'sThe Ugly One with the  Jewels--she's also demonstrated a high level of musical savvy.Life on a String's meld of Biblical references, New York  wanderings, world rhythms, and chamber music doesn't cohere like it  should, though. Caught between bemusement and empathy, Anderson's knack  for nailing oddball details can lift her work beyond mere wit, but not  here. On "Dark Angel," she damns consumerism with lines that would've  been laughable even at the outset of her career in the '70s: "Look at  all the things I bought / I'm feeling kind of lost." Her quoting "I'm a  Little Teapot" on "One Beautiful Evening" sounds like self-parody, or  the result of a lost dare with another artsy type. And is the  observation that it's a small world but she wouldn't want to paint it  supposed to sound fresh? For true Anderson wigginess and smarts, tryUgly One, or for that matter, her classic debut,Big Science.--Rickey Wright