FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Björk – Homogenic
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ALTHOUGH this album is not…
IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch
celebrating an anniversary, I think everyone should buy Björk’s Homogenic on vinyl if they can. I am a big Björk fan, and it is hard to rank her albums. Homogenic is her third album, and it was released on 22nd September, 1997. Whereas her first two albums – Debut and Post – were more energised and club-based, Homogenic is Björk returning to her native Iceland, in musical terms. There is a beautiful blend of electronics and strings to create an album that sounds gorgeous and stirring at the same time. At the time of making the album, Björk was based in London, and recording started there. The album was later recorded in Spain, and there was a little bit of movement and disruption before Homogenic was completed. Björk’s first couple of records were noted for their eclectic, multidimensional sounds; she explored genres and different worlds in these evocative and broad albums. Homogenic is a more stripped and simpler album in many ways, though it manages to arrest the senses like Björk always could! Maybe, because the album is a paen to Iceland, there is a chillier sound than previous Björk outings. I love the fact she could have repeated her first two albums but, as is common with all innovators and great artists, Björk keep moving, both sonically and geographically. I think there was some uncertainty from critics and fans in 1997, as Homogenic does not sound too like Debut and Post – it is an album harder to define than its predecessors.
Producer Markus Dravs recalled how Björk wanted to project the sound of rough volcanoes with soft moss growing. Homogenic is so hard to label, which is what you want from an album. I feel, in a year that saw Radiohead release OK Computer, Spirtualized put out Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, and the mighty Dig Your Own Hole from The Chemical Brothers hit the market, Homogenic sounded like a natural companion. There is a clash of the natural world and technological in Homogenic. In 1997, technology was on the rise, yet Björk was fascinated by the beauty of her homeland – both are contrasted against one another on the album. Even though Homogenic was released almost twenty-three years ago, it still sounds completely original and ripe for exploration. The reviews for Homogenic was hugely positive. In their assessment, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“By the late '90s, Björk's playful, unique world view and singular voice became as confining as they were defining. With its surprising starkness and darkness, 1997's Homogenic shatters her "Icelandic pixie" image. Possibly inspired by her failed relationship with drum'n'bass kingpin Goldie, Björk sheds her more precious aspects, displaying more emotional depth than even her best previous work indicated. Her collaborators -- LFO's Mark Bell, Mark "Spike" Stent, and Post contributor Howie B -- help make this album not only her emotionally bravest work, but her most sonically adventurous as well.
A seamless fusion of chilly strings (courtesy of the Icelandic String Octet), stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches like accordion and glass harmonica, Homogenic alternates between dark, uncompromising songs such as the icy opener, "Hunter," and more soothing fare like the gently percolating "All Neon Like." The noisy, four-on-the-floor catharsis of "Pluto" and the raw vocals and abstract beats of "5 Years" and "Immature" reveal surprising amounts of anger, pain, and strength in the face of heartache. "I dare you to take me on," Björk challenges her lover in "5 Years," and wonders on "Immature," "How could I be so immature/To think he would replace/The missing elements in me?" "Bachelorette," a sweeping, brooding cousin to Post's "Isobel," is possibly Homogenic's saddest, most beautiful moment, giving filmic grandeur to a stormy relationship. Björk lets a little hope shine through on "Jòga," a moving song dedicated to her homeland and her best friend, and the reassuring finale, "All Is Full of Love." "Alarm Call"'s uplifting dance-pop seems out of place with the rest of the album, but as its title implies, Homogenic is her most holistic work. While it might not represent every side of Björk's music, Homogenic displays some of her most impressive heights”.
Although Björk was only on her third album, she had been in the industry for many years – both as part of The Sugarcubes; her actual solo debut album was released when she was a child. Many people had watched this unique and highly captivating artist evolve and produce these incredible songs. I think Homogenic is one of Björk’s best works – in a career where she has barely put a foot wrong -, and I think it set a course for her.
She would revert back to some of Debut and Post’s tones for future albums, but Björk as this artist who mixed technology and nature together came to the fore on Homogenic. In this interesting review from Pitchfork, they talk about Björk’s evolution, and why the incredible Homogenic resonates:
“By 1997, when she released Homogenic, Björk had been a familiar face to pop fans for a decade. The Icelandic singer and composer had first appeared on many listeners’ radars in 1987, when the Sugarcubes’ surprise hit “Birthday” made actual stars out of a quintet whose entire raison d'être had been to lampoon pop. (Her countrymen, meanwhile, had been listening to her since 1977, when she recorded her debut album—a collection of covers translated into Icelandic along with a few original songs, including an instrumental written by Björk herself— at the tender age of 11.)
But the main theme running through the album is the wish to rush headlong into a life lived to the fullest—an unbridled yearning for the sublime. “State of emergency/Is where I want to be” she sings on “Jóga,” a song dedicated to her close friend and tour masseuse, in which churning breakbeats and slowly bowed strings mediate between lava flows and Björk’s own musculature—a kind of Rosetta Stone linking geology and the heart. “Alarm Call,” the closest thing on the album to a club hit (the Alan Braxe and Ben Diamond remix, in fact, is a storming breakbeat house anthem) shouts down doubt with the indomitable line, “You can’t say no to hope/Can’t say no to happiness,” as Björk professes her desire to climb a mountain “with a radio and good batteries” and “Free the human race/ From suffering.”
If you’re looking for catharsis, you won’t find better than the album’s final, three-song stretch: Following “Alarm Call” comes the incensed “Pluto”: “Excuse me/But I just have to/Explode/Explode this body off me,” she sings, launching into an ascending procession of wordless howls as buzzing synthesizers flash like emergency beacons. Finally, the quiet after the storm: The soft, beatless “All Is Full of Love,” a downy bed of harp and processed strings. The title is self-explanatory, the lyrics wide-eyed, nearly liturgical. It is a song about ecstasy, about oneness, about infinite possibility—and about letting go”.
If you are new to Björk, I would say Homogenic is as good a start as any! She is a terrific artist who, for decades, has startled and moved people. Her ninth studio album, Utopia, was released in 2017, so many people will ask whether we will see another album this year. Björk is always working, and you just know she is brewing something, somewhere. I would urge people to pick up a copy of Homogenic and…
EXPERIENCE the album on vinyl.