News about the upcoming Björk album Volta.

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in order

homogenic
debut
vespertine
volta
post
medúlla

though that's v fluid...it's more like homogenic way out in front, and then the other five pretty much level

lex pretend, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Though I'm glad Volta is what it is. Declare Independence is basically perfect.
Medúlla did produce Triumph of a Heart, Oceania, Mouth's Cradle...I'd rank as up there with her best songs.
Volta has yet to hit me in that way, but I do expect it will.

o-ess, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Umm...how on earth could you put "Post" second-to-last?

brightscreamer, Monday, 14 May 2007 23:56 (seventeen years ago) link

For me

Vespertine
Homogenic
Medulla
Debut
Volta
Post

admrl, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:02 (seventeen years ago) link

All in fact very close

admrl, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:03 (seventeen years ago) link

lex pretend's got it right.

Drooone, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Homogenic
Post
Debut
Medulla
Volta




Vespertine

Melissa W, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:20 (seventeen years ago) link

hmm...dont get the love for Debut, i'll have to revisit that one.

Homogenic
Vespertine
Post
Volta
Medulla
Debut

ryan, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 03:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Medulla
Volta
Homogenic
Vespertine
Post


Debut

Cliftonb, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 04:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Can someone help me understand the hatteration on "Post"?

brightscreamer, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 04:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm big into Debut

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=56027

Surmounter, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 04:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't fathom Melissa hating Vespertine?!

Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 06:51 (seventeen years ago) link

there was a massive thread about it!

lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 06:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah? Perhaps when I wasn't around much. What was her reasoning?

Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Just heard a few tracks yet, but my impression is positive. It seems like the all the good elements of those hip producers (great use of technology, some interesting beats) are being preserved while the less good elements that they tend to have (too much rap, lack of melodies, exaggerated R&B vocals) are luckily gone for archetypical Björk instead. Which surely makes it a lot better than, for instance, Amerie.

Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 08:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Vespertine had some golden moments, but it almost felt, uh, a little too coherent for my taste. Doesn't have as many outstanding tracks as some of the other albums, and all in all, it's the one I've listened the least to (from the standard studio albums).

Homogenic
Debut
Post
Medulla/ Volta(?)
Drawing Restraint 9
Vespertine
that Dancer in the Dark Soundtrack (great film btw)

the Dirt, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 09:05 (seventeen years ago) link

"Homogenic" is still my favourite too. The first two were also obviously good. The rest have been kind of interesting, but the song material hasn't held up quite like in the 90s.

Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 10:58 (seventeen years ago) link

vespertine
debut
homogenic
post
medulla




volta

^@^, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Many great songs aren't on albums....her Gloomy Sunday, her I Go Humble?
And haven't we done many a poll about her best album?
It is clearly homogenic anyway...

o-ess, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 11:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I still think Post is better.

HI DERE, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Post is most like Volta in that there are a bunch of her most strong & full songs ever (Hyper-Ballad, Isobel) side by side with a lot of charmingly pleasant trifles (Cover Me, You've Been Flirting Again).

But on the whole, it's never really done it for me (not like Debut anyway!) and it's my least listened of hers, though I do love all of the material live, on the record much of it feels stiff and unrefined, especially compared with what came later.

and like Volta, Post often feels a bit shallower than her best stuff for one reason or another.

fandango, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:32 (seventeen years ago) link

but really she's pretty consistent over them all, with Debut/Homogenic/Vespertine being the absolute peaks... and Volta being a slightly worrying portent for the future.

fandango, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

post should be a total winner on all fronts, but it misses out somehow. still a very, very good album, just curiously lacking in a way i'm not even sure i can put my finger on

Charlie Howard, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Many great songs aren't on albums....her Gloomy Sunday, her I Go Humble?

'charlene' and 'nature is ancient' and 'sod off'!!!!!

lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link

and 'my spine'

lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link

and GENEROUS PALMSTROKE which may be her best song!!!

The Brainwasher, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Post does hold up for me, it really just takes patience, cuz it's interlaced with some spacey stuff

Surmounter, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

"Post is most like Volta in that there are a bunch of her most strong & full songs ever (Hyper-Ballad, Isobel) side by side with a lot of charmingly pleasant trifles (Cover Me, You've Been Flirting Again). "

Funny, for the longest time I would have described Homogenic in exactly the same terms, with basically everything from "All Neon Like" onwards in the second category except "Pluto". I pulled it out a few years ago and suddenly it made perfect sense, with "Immature" in particular undergoing a huge transformation in my head from totally inessential to awe-inspiring.

But I've always thought Post was very consistent. "Cover Me" and "Headphones" are amazing, totally underrated tracks.

Tim F, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link

'hyperballad' is the one consensus bjork track i don't really get - it's this, more than anything on post, which seems slight! it seems almost like a warm-up for 'the modern things' which mines the same territory to much greater effect. i much much much prefer the brodsky quartet version of 'hyperballad'.

my low ranking of post isn't because it has very many faults, it's just...the other albums set the bar very high!

lex pretend, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

I like that 'the modern things' is also one of her oldest tracks-around since before debut, from what I read. It is what Post is all about for me.

o-ess, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:31 (seventeen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

still think it should have been called 'eglyg'

Mark G, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link

wow lex, you don't like Hyperballad? that's craaaaaazy! you in particular i'm surprised.

so guys i'm just listening to Volta, really haven't listened enuf yet but i think my first reaction is to the sprawling tunes. i wish she would go with the groove of a tune more, instead of letting her vox meander into oblivion. and the duet with antony seems kind of repetitive... more 2 come

i have to say tho, that even though at first Declare Independence seemed i don't know kinda dumb, it progresses into bliss. really, bliss.

Surmounter, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link

so OK, on the other hand... lol this is such an On The Other Hand album

at least u can't call this album bad becuz it's cheesy, which is good. if anything, it seems to take the complexity that is bjork, and make it even more complicated. hyper beats, discombobulation and sprawl almost say to me: Okay, this is what I can do, and I'm not gonna pretend otherwise.

she's always been about her abilities, u know? On Medulla, she felt ABLE to do voice, and went with that all the way. i feel like on this, her abilities were very free form, so she went with it. i like having it on, so far.

Surmounter, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 21:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I know a lot of people hate Anthony's voice, and it's certainly very wierd and affected. But for me, I think "The Dull Flame of Desire" is likely to be one of my fave songs for the year. There's really something to the vocal chemistry there. I don't know if I could handle him on his own, though, since I haven't had the opportunity to check his solo stuff out.

Oilyrags, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 21:30 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, i really can't stand antony and his johnson. i do like his stuff on volta, though. very nice.

funny farm, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah i actually do like the volta antony... not bad quality to that, but i haven't quite come around to the song yet

Surmounter, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

But I've always thought Post was very consistent. "Cover Me" and "Headphones" are amazing, totally underrated tracks.

-- Tim F

yeah, I'm definitely doing them a disservice with the pretty bad way I was describing them above, I think I was trying to aim at the way they're (awesomely) half-way between ambient sound experiments and actual songs... maybe more gloop than trifle(?) it still feels like underexplored territory somehow and really hard to categorise.

fandango, Monday, 2 July 2007 11:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I do hope Björk forgets how to make a "Björk song" sometime soon and remembers how to conjure a bit of mystery & depth in her music again, frills be damned, collaborators irrelevant, she's perfectly capable of doing it without even needing 'interesting' sonics imo.

still not really loving Volta... solid 7/10, not without moments, overall a bit flat & unconvincing/unexciting and the drop to 7/10 is from somewhere off-the-scale so yeah, it's difficult to really feel pleased about it's existence, let alone that she thinks it's worthy of touring around the bloody world for 18 months :/

fandango, Monday, 2 July 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Agreed - Volta is still a bit of a letdown, despite some very nice tunes. None of them reach my Björk top twenty though.

"Pneumonia" is a really nice song.

the Dirt, Monday, 2 July 2007 13:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not sure if the worthy-of-touring thing has anything to do with Volta, more with the fact that she released an album and feels like touring. The NY show with more guests seemed to have more Volta material, but when I saw her there was a stretch of about ten songs in the middle from past albums!

mh, Monday, 2 July 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah it's probably got more to do with my own expectations being unfeasibly high perhaps... it is also the first 'proper' tour for (some of) the Medulla material too I guess. Just looks like Greatest Hits part 2 though somehow.

fandango, Monday, 2 July 2007 14:09 (seventeen years ago) link

i like parts of volta but it sounds too much like bjork revisiting parts of her back catalogue (the snow-trudging sounds on one track make me think of vespertine)

titchyschneiderMk2, Monday, 2 July 2007 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

here's what i like about volta, given the semi-ridiculous sprawling nature of these tunes: i think it allows bjork a lot of exploration.

she has said "i sing the only way i can," and i think she's taken that even further here. on some tunes it sounds like she's making it up as she goes along, but i can appreciate that.

also the beats are hot.

Surmounter, Monday, 2 July 2007 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link

and at least she hasn't gone all cheesy (gosh what would THAT sound like?) at least it's only a cutting-edge-but-still-on-the-cutting-room-floor kind of a problem.

Surmounter, Monday, 2 July 2007 14:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Feels like that array of famed collaborators wasn't such a good idea - as if they have an idea of what they think a Björk song should shound like, and make something that sounds a little dated and unoriginal rather than let her evolve the way she has done on her other records.

the Dirt, Monday, 2 July 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Innocence

Surmounter, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 03:54 (seventeen years ago) link

the vinyl of this in my local store is almost sixty bucks.

sleeve, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 03:57 (seventeen years ago) link

HUEG sticker...

fandango, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link

If this album didn't have "The Dull Flame of Desire" and "Declare Independence" on it, I would say it's a masterpiece. As it stands, it's okay. DEFINITELY better than Medulla, about on par with Vespertine and Debut, not nearly as grand as Post, Homogenic or Selmasongs.

HI DERE, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link


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