I tend to think that if Steve Reich were Plato, then Philip Glass would be Aristotle. As I'm probably misremembering what I learnt about Plato and Aristotle, that may not be either insightful or helpful. What I think I mean, though, is that Reich's music has a formal elegence that suggests universality and a certain kind of idealism. Glass's is more particular, more pragmatic. You could also say it's less fussy and precious about its principals; more ready toc compromise.
I've made it pretty clear before that I think Reich is the real deal. The stuff I prefer of Glass's is that which sounds closest to Reich, the more abstract, formalist pieces like Music in Twelve Parts and Einstein on the Beach.
At the other end of the spectrum, I thought the idea of Glass's Low and Heroes Symphonies was pretty lazy and cynical, the very opposite of elegant. And Songs from Liquid Days was a first step in that direction, in the sense that it seemed calculated to broaded Glass's appeal by drawing in fans of David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon and Suzanne Vega, who wrote the words to these songs.
Even though I smelled a rat, I liked Anderson and Byrne so much at the time (1986) that I was bound to buy the record. The Byrne songs were, and remain, the standouts — DB's muse never deserted him for a moment in the mid-eighties. There's a term — isn't there? — for taking an abstract idea and personifying it, as in the title track (where Byrne's are sung by our friends The Roches):
Love likes me
Love takes it shoes off and sits on the couch
Love has an answer for everything
Love smiles gently…and crosses its legs
We are old Friends
I offer Love a Beer
Love watches Television
Love needs a bath
Love could use a shave
I put this song on the mix-tape I did for Jeremy that summer (along with pieces from this, this, this, this, and a second or two of this). There was a loose, and pretentious, concept of a journey "from eros to thanatos" that ran through some of the pieces on the tape. So Liquid Days was near the beginning of the tape, and it finished off with Allen Ginsberg's Father Death Blues.
On Spotify I found a new recording of Songs from Liquid Days. No star performers, but mostly I liked it more.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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