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

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

Album that I am coming to realise is probably my favourite: Vespertine
Album that I am coming to realise I don't really like that much: Post

i haven't been in the right mood for vespertine all month, idk why

Yeah I’m not big on post - too inconsistent style wise, prefer telegram - challop perhaps.

Aurora rules and I neglected to vote for it. Thread makes me want to relisten to biophilia which arrived at a time when I cared little about Bjork and the app seemed distracting

prefer telegram - challop perhaps

kinda yeah it is, i think, those aren't even her best remixes from the post era

Killer versions of possibly maybe and cover me tho

the dillinja "cover me" is v good yes

I think of Post vs. Homogenic sort of the same way Stevie Wonder referred to Talking Book vs. Innervisions. The former, in each case, is a collection of great songs that maybe doesn't quite hang together as an album.

Post is good but doesn't really hang together as an album and only Hyperballad really reaches the peaks of Vespertine and Homogenic

i don't think that's true at all

album has "possibly maybe" and "isobel" on it ffs

What you might be missing about "Post" is that you have to put it into the context of her career. When you listen to it now, it might sound scattered, but when it came out, it suggested 11 different and distinct possible future directions for her. Much of the thrill of listening to it was anticipating her next move, hearing so many different possibilities on display

I mean, "Homogenic" was titled as such almost as a reaction to "Post"'s eclecticism. Eclecticism looks good on a Bjork album imo! Vespertine's best moments imo ("Cocoon", "An Echo, A Stain") are the songs that diverge from the album's thesis

i think that's still possible to hear now, or at least that's the vibe i accessed when i put it on immediately after debut xp

singular bjork (debut) becomes multibjork (post) becomes hypercompressed multibjork (homogenic)

fgti is otm but i still prefer the consistency of homogenic or vespertine, then and now

Biophilia is better than Volta

Yep even though it's not represented in what I voted for, this has been my big realization from this thread, and I've enjoyed discovering Biophilia.

Gonna listen to this today (Vespertine b-sides):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-whnnJ6WKRA

Debut is also hugely eclectic. I just feel like Post is a few amazing tracks and the rest are not exactly filler, but just not up to the standard of the LPs before and after.

Vespertine and Volta are the LPs I missed at the time (aside from the singles) and now sound wonderful and fresh.

I think Talking Book similarly intended to carry on with Music of My Mind's sense of boundless possibility/eclecticism.

volta was such a huge disappointment. caught the tour and she was on fire though, declare independence was way more of a rave-up live and she was doing cool stuff with tech and kaos pad like devices at the time. wanderlust in my top bjork songs ever tho

Debut begins eclectic, and then starts to sound stylistically monothematic-- I said so upthread-- "The Anchor Song" appears like whaaat? after a run of relaxing-in-a-hotel-lobby songs

I hate "Declare Independence" as much as I hate "My Girls"-- corny individualism masquerading as romance

dunno, declare independence at least sounded fun, unlike the rest of volta which is laboured af - i mean drawing restraint 9 came before it which is basically trash

Or in Bjork's case, protest song

In the wake of a financial crisis in which Iceland milked millions of dollars from German, English and Dutch small businesses (via IceSave) to essentially finance their own zero-emission geothermal paradise, with a Range Rover in every driveway, a song by an woman from that blessed country of 350k people claiming that we should all declare independence from our respective states and make our own flags really made me wanna take a literal shit on a physical copy of that album

Uh sorry, when I dislike a song I really kind of pull no punches

I love Bjork she rules

passion makes this place great so i'm all for it bud

The main problem with "Declare Independence" is that it's not "Pluto." At all.

Declare Independence has very corny lyrics but it's easily the standout of Volta anyway.

my response to lyrical approach on volta is, like, “oh, ok, REALLY?” for almost the whole thing

still vividly remember staggering up to a coffeeshop counter in disbelief upon first hearing "Pluto"

"is this.... Bjork??"

biophilia’s clunky sjon lyrics about cells dividing were a real relief

the song on volta about terrorism is clumsy

Haven't been paying attention to the lyrics on Volta, just the instrumentation. Declare Independence is perhaps the worst track on there.

the lowest point for me on volta is "innocence" which sounds like a track timbo and danja couldn't even get onto loose

innocence sounds dated on arrival

this is wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viX7tcKXehY