HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

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.

"Björk's initial idea was to "make an album called Domestika that celebrated the banalities of everyday life," although the idea gradually "became superseded by the love call of Vespertine."[15] Originally titled "Lost Keys", "Pagan Poetry" B-side "Domestica" is an out-take of this earlier vein's sessions; a "gentle, humorous snapshot" of Björk looking for her keys.[15]"

I mean I know Vespertine is a masterpiece but I still wish she made this album

I've always really liked the background vocals in Oceania

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

same same same

let's not get too excited

haha, yeah, i was thinking the same. i enjoy the vespertine b-sides but i'm not sure i'd change a thing about the album sequence. the b-sides are really nice as they are, i think, as the extended family to vespertine.

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39. The Anchor Song (Debut, 1993) -- 383 points; 10 votes

I realized The Anchor Song was massively underrated. Glad to see it chart.

The appeal mystifies me, but it's clearly dear to a great lot of you (and her, judging from how often it still appears on setlists).

I appreciate it as gesture more than finished product and because it pissed off my parents when I played it twenty-five years ago.

i enjoy the vespertine b-sides but i'm not sure i'd change a thing about the album sequence

otm basically. though i was glad she included "generous palmstroke" in her vespertine live setlist

she always chooses great closing tracks for her albums

she's a master of the closing track

another reason why volta sucks tho

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38. Heirloom (Vespertine, 2001) -- 391 points; 13 votes

beautiful song

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37. Crying (Debut, 1993) -- 408 points; 11 votes

whoaaaaa yes!!! I was certain this was one of those songs that no one really loved but me

this got bumped off my ballot at the last minute but i'm sooo glad it placed. "human behavior" -> "crying" is awesome sequencing

There's no here
and people EVERYWHERE

A song that, like "One Day," took a long time to click with me. Its simplicity was off-putting to me in a period where precisely what I loved about Bjork was her eclectic maximalism. Now, I think it's got maybe the first album's best chorus.

When I first got really into Debut this was my favourite song.

Oceania gets a TOO LOW from me but really I love nearly all these songs. Great to see such a mix of the albums represented so far.