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Part 2


I thought it was very interesting that Bjork considers her albums to be self-contained universes waiting to be formed by intuition and instinct.
When I see her discography, it makes me think of a collection of paintings or gemstones, each one very different from the other, with its own special place in time. Here are my favorite cuts from each of her most well-known microcosms, pieced together in something of a timeline of Bjork’s evolution. Doing this has given me a chance to actually understand her discography as a whole (I even looked up the albums not listed here), and it might even have started a personal paradigm shift toward listening to music album by album as opposed to track by track, since I really like having a bigger picture perspective on artists. So, here it goes...

1-DEBUT (1993)



A charismatic introduction before her move to England, Debut is named, obviously, because it’s essentially her first album as an independent artist, after her breakup with the Sugarcubes.

Bjork provided a splash of magic and intriguing, playful arrangements for the music scene of the early 1990s, and Debut has deservedly become a truly iconic pop album, launching Bjork to fame early in her independent career. After several years of listening, I’m still taken in by ‘Human Behaviour.’ It still manages to romp in with all the shadowy danger of a giant teddy bear at bedtime. The song has so much quirky character, and is as childlike as it is sophisticated. Bjork’s distinctive vocals are always fun to follow all over the map. I also like the eclectic use of instruments; they provide a kind of thrifty-sounding, low-key sort of atmosphere that compliments her well, and it avoids sounding overly dusty and cobwebbed, even after almost 20 years.

Spoiler for My pick from Debut:

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2-POST (1995)



This album is a colorful and vivacious "posting" of Bjork's thoughts and feelings prior to her move to England. She did a lot of collaborating on this one, and the album seems to embody the various ideals of electronic music at the time, which was in the process of evolving and refining new kinds of electronic music, most notably the trip-hop movement, which is hinted at here. As usual, she would end up infusing her signature stand-bys here and there; heavy beats, glittery accents, and orchestrated backdrops. In sharp contrast to Debut, which was more shabby and low-lit; Post is vibrant, polished and exciting; and even more aggressive, but it maintains that kind of youthful quality. The energy from this album seems to have carried over to the decidedly climactic album Homogenic, the first of the archetypal "twin sisters" Bjork mentions in the interview.

With Post, people often talk about how Bjork managed to exceed the success of her first studio album, as if Bjork is just as much a businesswoman as she is an artist. Her own words seem to indicate otherwise; and I think part of her success in the creation of Post has to do with her willingness to collaborate with other artists, infusing the best of what each party has to offer, and showcasing excellently produced electronic music.

It’s Oh So Quiet is probably one of the wittiest and most charmingly theatrical covers I’ve ever heard, and the music video does a good job showcasing her acting skills. It also calls upon a couple of my musical influences, both show tunes and electronica; so it’s a nice kind of crossover. It might sound really weird, but it looks like so much fun to burst out in song and dance around with a mailbox and a fire hydrant.

Spoiler for my pick from Post:

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3-HOMOGENIC (1997)



An exploration of beats and strings. This is the extroverted twin sister, described by Bjork as being "outgoing, confrontational, and hardcore." Bjork had spent a good part of the year before the release of Homogenic listening to beats; mostly Drum’n’Bass.

This album is stony, expansive, and stark, and in a way, it’s a tribute to her homeland of Iceland, with its glaciers, volcanoes, and grey drizzly weather. She wouldn’t return to her use of tectonic rhythms until she released Biophilia in 2011. This album exemplifies Bjork’s philosophy of merging opposite forces through music. One the one hand, she presents graciously flowing melodies and poignant, anthemic arrangements, which make me think of wide skies and vast silvery oceans; and on the other hand, he disrupts the flow with very sharp, angular, craggy rhythms; throwing the elegant waters into dramatic turbulence. Overall, it’s a great album for awakening the emotions and breaking out of a haze.

Her masterpiece, entitled "Joga," is apparently an ode to one of Bjork's closest friends, and is an homage to Iceland. One of my absolute favourite songs, it captures feelings of dedication, patriotism, intimacy, inspiration, awe, and even romance. Just a lovely song in every way.

Spoiler for my pick from Homogenic:

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4-VESPERTINE (2001)



This is Homogenic's more introverted, gentle, shy and patient twin sister. The beats are smaller, and the production is more intimate, with much of the vocals having been recorded by laptops. The purpose of Vespertine is to explore those innermost feelings one shares only in a domestic, sheltered environment with only the most intimate of their confidantes.

Despite my own identification with the album's concept, this isn’t one of my favourites by Bjork. Like some listeners, I just found it much too intimate, like something reserved for the affections of a married couple. In essence, it's a bit like walking in on somebody. And in a way, I think that’s what the album was intended to be- the candid discussions and experiences of an intimate pair at home alone. However, I can’t help but admiring its delicate, frost-laden beauty. This a good one to pull out during the dead of winter, when the trees are dusted with ice and snow, and you feel like slipping into hibernation under your covers. Hopefully if I ever get married, the intimacy shared in this album might feel a bit less off-limits. (Not to come off as too much of a prude).

Spoiler for my pick from Vespertine:

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5-MEDULLA (2004)



This album is notable in that it's an exploration of vocals and a capella arrangements. The intention is to showcase the "sacred" qualities of the human voice as a universal instrument of mankind. As a result, this is Bjork's most organic sounding album.

Again, though it's certainly an epic endeavor, this album is not one of my favourites. I can see what Bjork was trying to do here, but at the end of the day, it gives me the feeling that peoples’ lips are less than an inch away, blowing hot air into my ears. If I can even say it, for me Medulla is just too vocal. I generally have a problem with excessive breathiness in songs already - the anatomical reality is just too apparent; and I’m not a huge fan of the technical art of throat singing either, which is called upon in this album on occasion. With the added influence of Neopagan ritualism, it just ends up being much too physically, primitively, indulgently human for my taste. On the other hand, some tracks, like the colossal "Where is the Line" provide very interesting (and goosebump inducing) combinations of vocals and keyboard effects.

"Oceania" is certainly an interesting piece of artwork- it was written for and performed at the 2004 Athens Olympic games, accompanied by a massive display. The vocal layering is lush and somewhat ethereal, creating a mystical, ancient-world kind of sound that's exotic and aquatic; like a Siren chorus from the lost city of Atlantis. Really, Medulla creates a lush atmosphere of otherworldly, aboriginal-sounding music you'd expect to hear on Avatar's Pandora.

Spoiler for my pick from Medulla:

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6-VOLTA- (2007)



After a 3 year break from studio albums (she did a movie soundtrack in the meantime), Bjork was back in '07, and all about having fun. Volta is inspired by African music, and infuses industrial-style beats to enrich the feeling of tribal dance, and to infuse electronic elements with more organic forms of music. There are lots of horns and jazz influences as well, which provides an interesting contrast between primal rhythms, and the slick jazz and classical instruments she introduces to the work.

This album is neat; but it doesn’t create the same kind of compelling mystery that her previous albums did for me. In spite of that, I'll reserve my judgments for now, since I still haven’t given this album a proper listen-through, even though I really should. It takes a couple of tries for me to really get in alignment with Bjork’s music; I need to get into the right head space first. The thing is, this album is a lot coarser in its instrumentation than I usually prefer, so it will likely take some time to sink in.

I was actually notified by iTunes when “Earth Intruders” came out, and to me, it represents the side of Bjork I came to love in the first place- playful, quirky, dramatic, powerful and electrifying, with her signature tongue-in-cheek wit that is both contemporary and timeless. I couldn’t get this one out of my head for the longest time; that beat is just so ingenious.

Spoiler for my pick from Volta:

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7-BIOPHILIA- (2011)



For me, this is one of Bjork's finer accomplishments in the past few years. Many long-time fans were disappointed with Biophilia; and after all the hype and attention that preceded its release, many people wished she had been more "groundbreaking." But knowing Bjork, she never strives for "groundbreaking" per se, but instead for honesty. And in 2011, Bjork's idea of being honest seemed to be driving home her passion for synthesizing opposites, exploring concepts and fusing science and the human experience together in a symbiotic friendship. If it wasn't clear before that Bjork is attempting to bridge the gap between nature and technology, Biophilia makes it obvious.

I see this album as a culmination of most of the elements used in her previous work. There's the same almost nerdy, glittering, trinket-like quality that can be heard in Debut. There's the theatricality of Post, and the stark, elemental quality of Homogenic. There's the intimate recording methods like those executed in Vespertine, and the vocal chorus accents of Medulla. All of this comes together in a celebration of the natural sciences in a time when touch screen technology is advancing our ability to explore the ever-changing dynamics of natural processes.

In many ways, Biophilia is the most perfect album I could expect from Bjork, based on what my personal interests happen to be. If I was a child today, I would have been transfixed by this album in its ability to bring life to the scientific concepts that captured my intense focus- geography, geology, meteorology and astronomy. It would have been equally fascinating to be able to study the technical dynamics of this music, which strays from the familiar 4/4 time signature. That kind of format, in my mind, is a truly inspiring way of looking at music.

One thing that many people dislike about Biophilia is its use of unusual time signatures, her vocals (some people actually think she's tone deaf) and her seemingly random arrangements that sound like something "a child would make while plucking away at an instrument." But if you look at nature and its processes; the growth of a crystal, the spread of a virus, the complex double helix of DNA, a thunderstorm, a volcanic eruption; if you mimicked the nature of these things in music, 4/4 time simply wouldn't capture their true essence; the way they interact with time. The point is that these natural things each have their own kind of order, even if on superficial observation they appear to be random and erratic. Basically, that's the whole point of science to begin with- making sense out of what appears to be a realm of chaos.

I enjoy almost every song on Biophilia, and have been really enjoying the recent remix series. My favorite songs from the album, in order, are probably Mutual Core and Crystalline (tying for first), Hollow, Thunderbolt and Nattura respectively. These tracks merge nature, visual art and sonic vibrations into a quite synesthetic experience. I personally consider it to be a masterpiece.

Spoiler for my pick from Biophilia:

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