HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

xp: Good lord, I should at least have remembered "LSIL". *blushes*

didn't vote for it, but going back through the list, the more I listen to 'There's More to Life than This' the more brilliant I think it is

I guess I also feel the same way about 'Sun in My Mouth'

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47. Headphones (Post, 1995) -- 289 points; 9 votes

i love headphones so much. maybe an even earlier example of what brad called "centerless compositions" upthread

appropriate -- I'm just off to bed with my headphones :)

Such a great song and ode to not only music but its consumption and therapeutic qualities

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46. Where is the Line (Medúlla, 2004) -- 294.5 points; 8 votes

Today's recap!

46. Where is the Line (Medúlla, 2004) -- 294.5 points; 8 votes
47. Headphones (Post, 1995) -- 289 points; 9 votes
48. It's Oh So Quiet (Post, 1995) -- 286 points; 8 votes
49. Violently Happy (Debut, 1993) -- 282 points; 8 votes
50. I've Seen It All (Selmasongs, 2000) -- 268.5 points; 8 votes
51. Blissing Me (Utopia, 2017) -- 258 points; 8 votes
52. Sun in My Mouth (Vespertine, 2001) -- 257.5 points; 7 votes
53. Virus (Biophilia, 2011) -- 255 points; 7 votes
54. Lionsong (Vulnicura, 2015) -- 254 points; 8 votes
55. Amphibian (Being John Malkovich soundtrack, 1999) -- 224 points; 6 votes
56. Mutual Core (Biophilia, 2011) -- 222 points; 8 votes
57. There's More to Life Than This (Debut, 1993) -- 217 points; 7 votes
58. Generous Palmstroke ("Hidden Place" B-side, 2001) -- 216 points; 6 votes
59. An Echo, A Stain (Vespertine, 2001) -- 210 points; 5 votes
60. Quicksand (Vulnicura, 2015) -- 196.5 points; 7 votes

I also think that Violently Happy, Headphones and Where is the Line are nowhere near the top of their respective albums. But we're voting on a lot of songs. I like It's Oh so Quiet, another great novelty piece.

I've had a bit of a journey with It's Oh So Quiet - having loved Debut so much but being turned off by Violently Happy and Big Time Sensuality, it seemed like the Bjork I liked had been replaced by this novelty popster - and as it was so huge I feared that she'd just go for that from then on. I listened to Post a couple of times but it seemed so all over the place, I never really engaged with it, so then I was late to the party with Homogenic.
Listening to IOSQ now is the first time I can really appreciate it. She does what she sets out to really very well, the vocal performance is just brilliant, it's just such a shot of joy, I can't really begrudge it anything. I nearly even voted for it.

Where Is The Line I did vote for, absolutely one of the highlights of Medulla for me.

Re IOSQ: when Post was first released I pretty much viewed it as this album's 'Like Someone in Love' - a Bjorked version of a jazz standard (that I didn't know at all prior). Not a novelty thing, just one of many new widescreen flavours of her.

That it was superficially much more exuberant than LSIL was in keeping with my (then-)perception of Post as a technicolour hyperkinetic harder sharper version of Debut (this doesn't really hold up).

And then it was released as a single and lodged in the (UK) top 5 for the duration of the Christmas holiday period and became perceived something a bit completely separate from the rest of her stuff. It is still great, within the album. I didn't vote for it.

^ I love the description of Post as a "echnicolour hyperkinetic harder sharper version of Debut", though. It might be a bit simplifying, sure, but she basically went in deeper in every aspect. Then Homogenic was a bit like a palate cleanser, and a start of a new chapter for her. At least that's how I've always perceived her 90s output.

It's kinda funny to think of 'Homogenic,' the greatest album of her career and arguably the best album of its decade and genre, as a "palate cleanser". It feels like a culmination of what was already a pretty long artistic career--but certainly more focused and cohesive than her intentionally eclectic and exploratory solo work prior. She's continued to be eclectic, but album by album, and not again so much within one album as with 'Post'.

More cohesive, I agree, she starts giving themes to her albums. But I agree Homogenic is very different, not just more refined or mature, it's like she only kept her best ideas and invents a new class of music, where previously she was toying with those formulas (that Debut and Post share, almost one for one). She begins her fuse of orchestration with beats, which you already find on Hyperballad, Isobel or Possibly Maybe. She slows things down, finds a new role for electronics, the regular beats are actually relegated to the B-side (5 years and Alarm Call, not the most essential tracks).

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45. Scatterheart (Selmasongs, 2000) -- 300 points; 8 votes

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44. Wanderlust (Volta, 2007) -- 303.5 points; 9 votes

This is where I'm going to use my "Too low!"

wanderlust is mb the archetypal björk song

This is one where I think bias against Volta worked to the song's disadvantage. It's a key post-Vespertine track.

one more volta song that i thought would place! as one of the only people who i think liked that album i am happy.

i voted for *checks notes* holy shit four volta songs. making my ballot was weird.

Björk's vocals are among her most powerful on Volta, which I think is one thing she has gained in the trade from moving away from her pre-Medulla sound. The inevitable advance of the complex beat, the slightly dissonant horns, and the melancholy in her voice are glorious. Among her best choruses. "Wanderlust, relentlessly craving Wanderlust, peel off the layers Until we get to the core".
Yet I don't think Wanderlust is above the rest of that album, though Wanderlust sounds a little more like a single. If you like Wanderlust, listen to Innocence and Vertebrae by Vertebrae again.

For whatever it's worth, the lyrics that stand out the most as defining Björk for me are found on Volta's Hope: "Well, I don't care
Love is all I dare to drown To be proven wrong". It's like an artist and life's credo.

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43. Oceania (Medúlla, 2004) -- 308.5 points; 10 votes

Now we're talking. I don't listen to it often, but what a composition, and how perfect it was at the Olympics.

"Wanderlust" probably is too low and I'm part of the problem. I barely appreciated it (am definitely guilty of a broader anti-Volta bias) and had never seen the MV (great image, by the way!) before last month. I decided on the weekend that I erred in leaving it off my ballot.

YES Oceania!! I'm surprised "It's Oh So Quiet" is so low, I assumed everyone loved it but me (it only barely made my list). I'm totally content w "Violently Happy" being as low as it is too.

Y'all are seriously sleeping on "Virus" tho

Fabulous photo.

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42. Crystalline (Biophilia, 2011) -- 330.5 points; 11 votes

^^ love the Omar Souleyman remix of this on Bastards

i can’t say why i think this but “crystalline” is björk’s grace jones song imo

love how all over the place these results are

Yeah, but with an artist like Bjork who inspires such fanaticism, I definitely expected a healthy mingling of hits and deep cuts.

Speaking of deep cuts ...

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41. Domestica ("Pagan Poetry" B-side, 2001) -- 332 points; 10 votes

Ohhhhhh! What a wonderful surprise!

didn't end up voting for this but probably my favourite B-side, a great discovery

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40. Arisen My Senses (Utopia, 2017) -- 349 points; 12 votes

I've never heard "Domestica"!

The Verspertine b-sides are better than the album cuts imho. I completely overlooked both how many there were and their quality.

Great to see her later works being represented in this list. A lot of these polls often just focus on the earlier material (with good reason some of the time). She is one of the artists I've loved for a long time where a new album still feels like an event.

Arisen My Senses is the perfect opening song for Utopia

looking forward to checking out all these B-sides, when I made my ballot I discovered that all the Bjork CDs I had originally copied from a friend had B-sides tacked on after the album proper, but no track titles, and it was just too hard to figure them out although there were a couple I really liked.

Yay! Arisen My Senses is a nice surprise this high.

I'll be a bit contrarian here and say that Medulla and Volta are already over representative for my tastes. Oceania is not a very enjoyable listen to my ears and I feel Medulla is a creative low for her

has "Generous Palmstroke" charted yet?

Yep. Number 58.

Also: another HOORAY for "Arisen My Senses"!

The production and precision on this is something I'm not used to hearing, despite living in this age of mega-sampling. Yet it somehow stays simple. A good overture.
Maybe I'm crazy but it reminds me of my other darling Joanna Newsom in terms of elaborate preciousness (her latest album).

OH FUCK YES "Domestica"!!!! What a gem.