FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Walker
who are more original and influential than the Reykjavík-born pioneer, Björk. Since her 1993 debut solo album, Debut (which was actually her second album: her eponymous debut was released in 1977), she has created masterful album after masterful album. Her ninth studio album, Utopia, was released in 2017, and it was another astonishing work from Björk. Whether solo or as a member of The Sugarcubes, there has been nobody in music like Björk! She is an amazing artist and, if you need some guidance regarding her best albums, I have collected together her four essential studio albums (solo); the one that I feel is underrated, and her most current release – in addition to a Björk book that is worth consideration. I am such a massive fan of Björk, so it is a pleasure to include her in…
A Buyer’s Guide.
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The Four Essential Albums
Debut
Release Date: 5th July, 1993
Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra
Producers: Nellee Hooper/Björk
Standout Tracks: Venus as a Boy/Big Time Sensuality/Violently Happy
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Debut/master/34486
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5BTTaN1CMOdiPtJHagNCes
Review:
“Freed from the Sugarcubes' confines, Björk takes her voice and creativity to new heights on Debut, her first work after the group's breakup. With producer Nellee Hooper's help, she moves in an elegantly playful, dance-inspired direction, crafting highly individual, emotional electronic pop songs like the shivery, idealistic "One Day" and the bittersweet "Violently Happy." Despite the album's swift stylistic shifts, each of Debut's tracks are distinctively Björk. "Human Behaviour"'s dramatic percussion provides a perfect showcase for her wide-ranging voice; "Aeroplane" casts her as a yearning lover against a lush, exotica-inspired backdrop; and the spare, poignant "Anchor Song" uses just her voice and a brass section to capture the loneliness of the sea. Though Debut is just as arty as anything she recorded with the Sugarcubes, the album's club-oriented tracks provide an exciting contrast to the rest of the album's delicate atmosphere. Björk's playful energy ignites the dance-pop-like "Big Time Sensuality" and turns the genre on its head with "There's More to Life Than This." Recorded live at the Milk Bar Toilets, it captures the dancefloor's sweaty, claustrophobic groove, but her impish voice gives it an almost alien feel. But the album's romantic moments may be its most striking; "Venus as a Boy" fairly swoons with twinkly vibes and lush strings, and Björk's vocals and lyrics -- "His wicked sense of humor/Suggests exciting sex" -- are sweet and just the slightest bit naughty. With harpist Corky Hale, she completely reinvents "Like Someone in Love," making it one of her own ballads. Possibly her prettiest work, Björk's horizons expanded on her other releases, but the album still sounds fresh, which is even more impressive considering electronic music's whiplash-speed innovations. Debut not only announced Björk's remarkable talent; it suggested she had even more to offer” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Human Behaviour
Post
Release Date: 13th June, 1995
Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra
Producers: Björk/Nellee Hooper/Graham Massey/Tricky/Howie B
Standout Tracks: It’s Oh So Quiet/Isobel/I Miss You
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Post/master/36251
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2Ul7B1LEHxXzYubtkTMENs
Review:
“It’s Oh So Quiet,” an instrumentally faithful cover of a 1940s Betty Hutton big band number, was Björk’s biggest crossover moment ever, and if it’s usually rejected by most Björkheads, well, then that’s another testament to the extent she implores people to open up their musical horizons. Each track on Post reveals another emotional extreme: “Possibly Maybe,” an almost masturbatory ode to the wax and wane of love affairs; “Enjoy,” a dark and dubby dalliance with the seedier side of sexuality; and “I Miss You,” which should resonate with anyone familiar with the “Amor Omnia” speech in Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud. And in case some odd ducks still hadn’t caught on to Björk’s lost-in-a-costume-shop approach to public guises, Post came fully equipped with another barrage of music videos (six of the little buggers!), many of which have gone on to become classics, most notably Michel Gondry’s industrial wasteland “Army of Me” and Spike Jonze’s clodhopping tribute to Busby Berkeley and Jacques Demy, “It’s Oh So Quiet.”
Collaboration has always been an important aspect of Björk’s work ethic. Testifying to this is the fact that she has had romantic affairs with a great many of her colleagues (Tricky, Stephane Sednaoui…though probably not Lars von Trier). She also suggested that the Post remix album, Telegram, is, if anything, even more true to her personal vision than the prototype, despite having an even wider range of styles and producers (a shrieking, classical Brodsky Quartet “Hyper-Ballad” mingles with a distorted, NIN-like “Possibly Maybe” and a ghetto-blasting hip-hop “I Miss You”).
For many, the delicate balance of Post represented the ultimate Björkian pop experience, and one that has yet to be topped. In fact, Björk’s next album, her 1997 glass-dragon Homogenic, indicated with one fell swoop that Björk had moved beyond pop into what one might call her own cloistered “genre of me.” The shimmering Vespertine, from 2001, suggested a move on Björk’s part to translate her own unique musical style back into the world of pop (with some fantastically emotional moments like “Undo” and “It’s Not Up to You”), but Post will likely always remain the Björk album that most successfully sustains her winning balance of experimental whimsy and solid pop magic” – SLANT
Choice Cut: Army of Me
Vespertine
Release Date: 27th August, 2001
Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra
Producers: Björk/Thomas Knak/Martin Gretschmann/Marius de Vries
Standout Tracks: Hidden Place/Pagan Poetry/Sun in My Mouth
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Vespertine/master/37082
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5vBpIxm8ws6pWyVmTWiGE1
Review:
“Vespertine ("occurring in the evening") is an apposite title for Björk's first studio album since 1997's Homogenic. Its stillness and space evoke the Arctic night - probably a fanciful impression now that Björk's corner of the Arctic has been overrun by British clubbers, but her music has always suspended reality. Her modish collaborators, including electro-duo Matmos and harpist Zeena Parkins, confect a world of crunches, crackles and celestial choirs, through which Björk flutters, unconstrained as ever by rhythm. Her least commercial effort yet, its impact derives from the enchanted union of that wild voice and intimate instrumentation. The odd lapse into tweeness (a tinkling instrumental called Frosti) aside, there's magic afoot: on the soaring Hidden Place, amid the whirrs of Undo, and near enough everywhere else” The Guardian
Choice Cut: Cocoon
Medúlla
Release Date: 30th August, 2004
Labels: One Little Indian/Elektra
Producers: Björk/Mark Bell
Standout Tracks: Where Is the Line/Vökuró/Oceania
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Med%C3%BAlla/master/39459
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6bjGw9Clp684XTRPBI0h6K
Review:
“The more atmospheric songs on Medulla are arguably its most evocative and powerful. "Vokuro" (or "Vigil") is one of two songs sung in Björk's native Icelandic, and is in fact an adaptation of a piano piece by Jorunn Vidar. Björk sings its plaintive strains accompanied by a solemn choir, and brings out its inherently hymn-like qualities. Wyatt overwhelms "Submarine" with his ghostly, striking vocals, thickly layered and overdubbed. Björk doesn't even enter with the melody for almost a minute-and-a-half, by which time Wyatt has already made his redoubtable mark. Not to be outdone, Björk's collage of sighs, whispers, cries and otherwise indescribable sounds on "Ancestors" might scare fans accustomed to a steady diet of actual songs. It reminds me of the work of American experimental vocalist and composer Meredith Monk (Björk has performed her "Gotham Lullaby" in concert several times), though some folks may just hear it as the "unlistenable" song on Medulla.
Medulla is an interesting record. It continues Björk's run of releases that sound nothing like their predecessors, yet is, as ever, particular to her. Furthermore, she's found a way to bathe her immediately distinctive melodies and vocal nuances in a solutions that cause me to reevaluate her voice and her craft. I shouldn't be surprised: She's made a career of making me interested in her world of sound. And that she doesn't appear to be short on ideas 25 years into her professional career should end all speculation” – Pitchfork
Choice Cut: Triumph of a Heart
The Underrated Gem
Volta
Release Date: 1st May, 2007
Labels: One Little Indian (U.K.)/Polydor (Europe)/Elektra/Atlantic (N.A.)
Producers: Björk/Timbaland/Danja/Mark Bell/Damian Taylor
Standout Tracks: The Dull Flame of Desire/Innocence/Declare Independence
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Volta/master/5500
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/71wEGvzOfEbIAtNnRIh9IK
Review:
“Wanderlust" follows and provides the yin to "Earth Intruders"' yang, its horns and brooding melody giving it the feel of a moodier, more contemplative version of "The Anchor Song." These two songs set the tone for the rest of Volta's pendulum-like swings between sounds and moods, all of which are tied together by found-sound and brass-driven interludes that give the impression that the album was recorded in a harbor -- an apt metaphor for how ideas and collaborators come and go on this album. Timbaland's beats resurface on "Innocence," another of Volta's most potent moments; a sample of what sounds like a man getting punched in the gut underscores Björk's viewpoint that purity is something powerful, not gentle. Antony and the Johnsons' Antony Hegarty lends his velvety voice to two outstanding but very different love songs: "The Dull Flame of Desire" captures swooning romance by pairing Björk and Hegarty's voices with a slowly building tattoo courtesy of Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale; "My Juvenile," which is dedicated to Björk's son Sindri, closes Volta with a much gentler duet. Considering how much sonic and emotional territory the album spans -- from the brash, anthemic "Declare Independence," which sounds a bit like Homogenic's "Pluto," to "Pneumonia" and "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," which are as elliptical and gentle as anything on Vespertine or Drawing Restraint 9 -- Volta could very easily sound scattered, but this isn't the case. Instead, it finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Earth Intruders
The Latest/Final Album
Utopia
Release Date: 24th November, 2017
Labels: One Little Independent Records/Caroline International/Universal Music Group/The Orchard Enterprises
Producers: Björk/Arca/Rabit
Standout Tracks: Arisen My Senses/utopia/Tabla Rasa
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Utopia/master/1270127
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/037hz3oZyrgcJOheyhPMnC
Review:
“Earlier this year Björk smirkingly described her ninth record as her “Tinder album”, dealing with the process of falling in love again after experiencing monumental heartbreak. This is most evident on the twinkling harp-swathed ‘Blissing Me’, where she dreamily sings of “two music nerds, obsessing” and “sending each other MP3s, falling in love to a song”. In keeping with the ‘Utopia’ of its title, Björk has created a paradise-like world here, with birdsong dotted throughout the album, transporting the listener to a magical sonic rainforest, with tracks like ‘Saint’ having more in common with a David Attenborough nature documentary soundtrack than a pop song. Most evocative of all though, is the sound produced by a 12-piece Icelandic female flute orchestra, the lushness of which lifts every track with a lightness that is at once hopeful but haunting.
‘Sue Me’ gets more murky however, as crunchy electronics and scattershot beats gallop under her cooing lyrics about the “sins of the father”, likely a reference to her ex – the artist Matthew Barney – suing for custody of their daughter after their split. ‘Utopia’ is where art, real life and deep experimentation intersects, and it’s utterly compelling” – NME
Choice Cut: The Gate
The Björk Book
Björk: Archives
Authors: Alex Ross/Nicola Dibben/Timothy Morton
Publication Date: 2nd March, 2015
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
Synopsis:
“Bjoerk is a contemporary icon whose contributions to music, video, film, fashion and art have influenced a generation worldwide. Here, now, is the ultimate celebration of this multimillion-selling superstar. Designed by top design studio M/M (Paris) as a slipcased world of wonders, this publication - which accompanies spring's exhibition on Bjoerk at The Museum of Modern Art - is composed of six parts: four booklets, a paperback and a poster. Each booklet contains illustrated texts by, respectively, Klaus Biesenbach, Alex Ross, Nicola Dibben and Timothy Morton, while the poster features artwork of Bjoerk's albums and singles. The main book focuses on her seven major albums - Debut, Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medulla, Volta and Biophilia - and the personas created for each one. Poetic texts by longtime collaborator, Icelandic poet Sjon, are accompanied by shots of Bjoerk performing live; multiple stills from music videos made by directors including Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze; images of Bjoerk in breathtaking costumes by designers such as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan; and shots by star photographers such as Nan Goldin, Juergen Teller, Stephane Sednaoui, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, and Araki. All combine to form an extraordinary visual masterpiece, celebrating the magical world of Bjoerk” – Waterstone
Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/bjork/klaus-biesenbach/alex-ross/9780500291948