Life in Exile after Abdication is the second album by Moe Tucker, released in 1989.

Production

Rather than performing all of the instruments herself, as on her debut album, Tucker is accompanied by Lou Reed, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, and all four members of Sonic Youth.

Reception

Robert Christgau wrote that "'Work,' 'Spam Again,' and 'Hey Mersh!' are Amerindie knockouts, lived postpunk takes on the grind and release of lower-middle class adulthood, a subject rock and rollers usually leave to Nashville company men." Trouser Press wrote that "Tucker’s loose and unpredictable Life in Exile offers a little of everything, all performed and recorded with ramshackle casualness." The Chicago Reader called the album "a tour de force recording that wedded noisy indie guitar textures to songs of blue-collar rage, fueled by [Tucker's] years as a divorced mother of five trying to support her family on a Wal-Mart paycheck." The Washington Post wrote that "anyone who ever loved Maureen Tucker—and that surely includes all true Velvet fans—will find Life in Exile, motley as it is, irresistible." The Spin Alternative Record Guide deemed the album Tucker's "finest solo outing." The New Yorker thought that the album "demonstrated an abiding love for Bo Diddley rock and girl-group pop, played as if by dinosaurs and sung as if by a choirgirl." Reed selected the album as one of his "picks of 1989".

Track listing

All tracks written by Moe Tucker except where noted.

Personnel

Guest Musicians