HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

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"make an album called Domestika that celebrated the banalities of everyday life," although the idea gradually "became superseded by the love call of Vespertine."[15] Originally titled "Lost Keys", "Pagan Poetry" B-side "Domestica" is an out-take of this earlier vein's sessions; a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

Not often cited as one of her best, "Crying" unlocked Debut for me. I heard her vocal decisions, those keyboards, the harmonies, and thought, "Damn, I can dig this."

Crying feels like the most dated track on Debut, production wise, and was never a big fan of it. The ending is the best part, though. Love the vocal harmonies.

Always thought "Crying" sounded like it could have fit on the last Sugarcubes album. Cool song, though it didn't quite make my ballot

Also, no comments on "Heirloom"? For me, it's the one impenetrable track on that album, as much as I dig the visual energy.

hey i said it was a beautiful song

love crying, especially that piano bassline and the harmonies on the chorus

my #12

it's one of the first vespertine songs that really clicked with me. lyrics seem to summarize the aim of the record xp

pure domestic magical realism

Yeah, the ascending duet harmonizing during the chorus of "Crying" is super spare but still somehow expansive.

I love where Heirloom is placed on the album, coming toward the end between two tracks that are reveries

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36. Immature (Homogenic, 1997) -- 420.5 points; 13 votes

this song came alive for me when i was revisiting everything for this poll. i find it... jazzy? (sorry alfred)

is that the first Homogenic track to place?

Yes, and (spoiler alert) the last.

lol

For a very long time, those were my absolute favorite minutes of Björk, I used to play it on repeat. I haven't really changed my opinion, she tears it apart, the melody behind is deceptively simple, with gorgeous detail, this is a transcendent moment in music for me. At most there are three other Homogenic tracks I'd put in front of it.

The way the layers of sound peel off toward the end until you realize that the sampled bassline is actually in a different key gets me every time.

another one i voted for. possibly the most vespertine-like of the tracks on homogenic, if that makes sense.

i think i thought "immature" was a minor track when i was younger but that might've just been bc of the relative brevity of the lyrics, now it's one of my absolute favorite things she's done. as a drummer i kinda wanna cover it just bc it would be fun to figure out how to approximate the programming, it's so buoyant and loose

Ugh, got the number wrong on that graphic. Ah well, it truly is #36. Don't be fooled.