POLL Neon Like -- ILM artist poll #88 -- BJÖRK (voting open until April 27, 2018)

i've listened to her 4+ hours a day

These admissions amaze me, and I don't mean it in a condescending way – I've never done that with any musician!

"new world" used to be so triumphant sounding and amazing to me...i don't know why, but it doesn't inspire the same feeling in me anymore. perhaps because i'm no longer 17 years old

wow i had the exact same experience as karl here

ts: "overture" vs. "the next to last song" vs. "new world"

^^ actually "the next to last song" is a real rough listen even without the visual so i don't recommend anyone try to take sides there

are you talking about "107 Steps"?

in revisiting Selmasongs for the first time in a decade and a half, I'm with Gavin: "Scatterheart" is the best track. surprisingly I ended up liking "In the Musicals" second most. No need to dread listening, Alfred, it's basically a one-off EP side project--it's not terrible, but it is a bit of a mess

are you talking about "107 Steps"?

i'm not, though "the next to last song" is in the scene immediately after it in the film (it has the same melody as "new world" and "overture")

do NOT listen to it if you haven't seen dancer in the dark

lol the reason I hadn't listened to Selmasongs since 2001 is that I saw and loathed/resented DITD. Anyway, I know what you're talking about now

i loved ditd but i'll never watch it again!

:)

here's an element of ditd that isn't unpleasantly seared into my brain: does someone else sing Thom Yorke's part in the film, do they use him as playback singer, or is that part just not in the film version?

the actor (David Morse) sings it

version of "scatterheart" in the film is also radically different in that multiple characters sing it

karl it's actually peter stormare...

many of the songs/arrangements from the film are so different than the album that they can be separated IMO

My theory on why the newer bjork stuff isn't as memorable as she's deviated so far from melodies for years now that i find the ones i do end up liking are more melodic in nature.

For the sake of the poll, I'll combine votes for, say, "Scatterheart" with "Smith & Wesson."

peter stormare

oh that's right! thanks. it has been a loooong time since i've seen it as well

One of the top five closest times to breaking up with my BF of 18 years was immediately after we watched DITD in the cinema.

haha I can definitely imagine that. Reminds me a bit of when a long-distance girlfriend came for a visit and on our last night together, we went to see Naked without knowing anything about it

o hi thread, I will try to vote in this!

i have never seen ditd (but i do really like selmasongs) -- just never found the right time when i felt like being emotionally destroyed by a movie

I'm not a fan of the film, but it was fun watching some of the more doltish film critics (like Richard Roeper) try to figure out what to do with it at the time.

volta is still kind of a bummer

volta is still my dreadlisten

Truthfully, it has about as songs I like as Medulla, but I rarely ever cue it up and I frequently visit Medulla.

as i recall, volta kind of careens between loud, crunchy arrangements which demand attention (and then let you down) and softer passages, sometimes all in the same song. i usually choose music to suit my mood at the moment, and i'm just never in whatever mood that is.

the ten-years-late timbo collabs are still depressing imo

Yes. As much as I don't personally love the Anohni tracks, they are still evidence of a forward-thinking artist blazing her own trail.

Ballot almost ready to send. 13 tracks from Vespertine/b-sides, several from Biophilia, the rest from the 90s. Voted for almost all the 90s singles.

I’d love to be able to point out some unappreciated obscurity here but instead I just want as many people to vote for Aurora as possible, my number 2. This video doesn’t make the greatest case for it, honestly I have no idea why this was filmed, but I love it anyway.

https://youtu.be/i1LPN8e7ubg

Aurora will definitely be high on my ballot, the highlight of Vespertine for me.

I thought I would be including more of the 90s stuff when I re-listened to those albums

but I'm still drawn to the later denser music – in particular Vespertine, Vulnicura, Utopia

haven't finalized anything yet

"wanderlust" is pretty great tbf

ok, i take it back a little, the middle section of volta ("i see who you are" -> "vertebrae by vertebrae" -> "pneumonia") is pretty good

those three may be my favorites from that album

my mind is still grappling with the rest of biophilia (hot take: actually better than volta!) but i’m 100 percent voting for “virus”

Biophilia remains the only one of the 'main' (post-Sugarcubes non-soundtrack) LPs to be unrepresented in my likely top 30. Part of me feels I should try harder...

I love Crystalline, Virus, Dark Matter, Sacrifice, Hollow, Cosmogony

i think, stonemilker, black lake, and the gate will be my only votes from her last two albums

biophilia works better than the other later lps for me because of how it’s recorded, spare and close and intimate-sounding for the most part

Dan’s list is almost exactly what I voted for!

I love the gameleste sound of biophilia

xp re: the last two albums
those all are all-time, but I think there are several others from those albums that are also great: Mouth Mantra, History of Touches, Family, Atom Dance, Quicksand, Blissing Me, Arisen My Senses, Tabula Rasa, and especially The Saint, and most of all, Future Forever

Karl's list = 3/4 of my selections from the last two albums, plus another from Dan's list.

Will give Biophilia another shot. It's definitely been disadvantaged by being strictly a Spotify thing for me. Been carting around CDs of most of the rest in recent weeks!!!

Mutual Core is the highlight from Biophilia for me. as an album I certainly prefer it to Utopia and Volta at least (maybe Medulla too) but it feels the most like what I would imagine a 'late period Bjork album' would sound like if I hadn't actually listened to any of them - similar sound palette to Vespertine and Homogenic but sparser and songs that aren't as strong. the computer controlled instruments are an interesting concept but in practice they can sound overly rigid?

If you’re having trouble cracking Biophilia id recommend the bastards remix album. Hudson Mohawke remix of virus knocks it out of the park and Herbert’s is solid as usual.

*listens to “cosmogony” twice* you know actually biophilia is fucking awesome

my mind is still grappling with the rest of biophilia (hot take: actually better than volta!) but i’m 100 percent voting for “virus”

Agree with everything here. Biophilia is better than Volta, I'm 100 percent voting for "Virus," and I'm still grappling with the album. Without a doubt my favorite post-Vespertine.

Bjork + MAW + EW&F =

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNq7EetdCAE

Hooray for so many people coming around on Biophilia, an album I ranked above Homogenic not because I'm challopsy but because Biophilia set impossibly high expectations of its creator and she very nearly lived up to all of them

Interestingly enough the lowest point for me on Biophilia is the repetitiousness and "hookiness" of the chorus of "Cosmogony"-- itself a gorgeous song in execution and sentiment-- but just that in an album that avoids obvious points of entry in favour of a more obscurantist compositional approach, "Cosmogony" in the context of the rest of the album sounds saccharine and non-adventurous. The way the choir falls at the end of "Cosmogony" into my favourite part of the record, Dark Matter -> Hollow -> Virus, that fall gives me the impression of Björk lovingly folding up and putting in storage an old method of songwriting before adventuring out into new territory

The way the choir falls at the end of "Cosmogony" into my favourite part of the record, Dark Matter -> Hollow -> Virus, that fall gives me the impression of Björk lovingly folding up and putting in storage an old method of songwriting before adventuring out into new territory

<3

At this point, I may end up slotting 4 or 5 songs from Biophilia.

I am enjoying going through the process of listening to the discography, as generally I will listen to a new Bjork album quite a bit then permanently shelve it by the next year. There's so much good stuff post-Vespertine that I'd completely forgotten about.

I love seeing this belated realisation that Biophilia is actually pretty good, it felt like I was the only one who liked it at the time!

Not sure if I should vote in this since I have this weird thing with Bjork in that I like three of her albums a lot and the rest I don't really care for.

As long as Biophilia is one of them, vote away!

the ilx biophilia thread is extremely depressing