HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

Happy I ended up sending my ballot... desired constellation and domestica would be way below if not.

my version of Debut has Play Dead at the end. It's a weird fit after The Anchor Song, so I've always paid it no mind, but I'm listening again now and holy crap, this is one of my favorite Bjork vocals ever. If someone told me that Portishead based their entire band off that song, I wouldn't be shocked.

*this, being Play Dead, not The Anchor Song

"Anchor Song" version that is a top 3 Bjork vocal performance (and was my #4 pick):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgiI2gm-RIs

that is beautiful

it's so fucking good it's unbelievable, and she makes it seem so easy. just this effortless grace. i've thought this recently, and so probably mentioned this here, sorry, but she could have easily kept going back to the 'Come to Me' well for years and years and it would have been wonderful. it speaks to her artistic ambitions that she's mostly left the simple (perfect) song structures behind. maybe she felt like there wasn't much more to accomplish there, because she'd already bjorked the living hell out of it

― obviously DLC (Karl Malone),

yep -- it's her "Live to Tell," and, like Madonna, she didn't return to it.

Many thanks to Spotify user weinventyou for again updating that playlist 'overnight', my time. Twas cool to catch up with the new additions aurally before I could sit down for the thread. :)

no prob!

I always forget what "Heirloom" goes like when I see the title, even forgot I voted for it! I just can't connect the name and the song. Glad it made the list, but I do wish it was called "Recurrent Dream"

Yeah I agree. It’s one of my top 10 bjork songs but I didn’t vote for it because the name just slipped when looking at the songs and making my ballot.

Have any of you seen the Riverside Church performance?

https://youtu.be/XIKsRjcxT0U

Almost as good as the Royal Opera House one... the versions of All Is Full of Love and Possibly Maybe on this one are perhaps her best live performances of the song.

The setup she had for the live Vespertine tour with Matmos, Zeena Parkins and the Inuit choir was so so good. I envy so much the people who got to see her on this tour and in the smaller venues. It’s perfection... she was at her peak on this tour.

The points are going to go exponential from now on, Alarm Call still has only just 15 votes.
I'm slightly worried that some of those songs would not make it: Earth Intruders, Mouth's Cradle, Vokuro, Solstice, Not Get, Aeroplane, Charlene, Utopia.. they might get run down by minor songs like One Day, Enjoy, 5 years or Pluto :P
I keep thinking Cover Me is a 2 minutes song for some reason.

5 Years may be a minor song on Homogenic, but it still has one of her best vocal performances, so it had better place.

I'm concerned about number of the same tracks as Nabozo! Looks like 4 of mine have placed so far. Many more will presumably arrive with Homogenic/Vespertine avalanches. I suspect I voted for an above average proportion of 21st century tracks (belated HOORAY for "Desired Constellation" by the way) but have precious little idea which later tracks could be inside the 30. That popjustice poll reassures me that things like "Stonemilker" at least have admirers.

Does "My Spine" have a chance of placing? I've no idea what sort of traction it might have around here.

*I meant Come to me, whose track length I was effectively confusing with Cover me
The worst song on the popjustice poll is Ancestors. I really dig Ancestors, it took me ages to properly listen to it, but I almost included it. In the context of Medulla, it's a high point, like a tired primal symphony crumbling and going to rest. All this breathing, rattling and yawning sounds reminds me of Meredith Monk or other great avant-garde pop vocalists, in a positive way.
Jeff: aha, zero, that must be one of her obscurest tracks, I certainly didn't know it. But hey, I'm still rooting for Charlene myself.

wow I thought Play Dead would be a lock for top 20, the strings + bass are really excellent

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/30-enjoy.jpg

30. Enjoy (Post, 1995) -- 513 points; 14 votes

fucking love the bump 'n' grind of this tune, especially that revolving jar sound effect

horn stabs

my intro to Tricky

"It's Oh So Quiet" was the song that got my attention (late to the party, admittedly), but listening to the album and having it followed by this song in sequence was what caused me to fall in love with her.

yay enjoy!

as of yesterday only 6/30 of my ballot has placed so i am v interested to see today if my tastes are just the most or just the least normie

Of the 15 songs I'm revealing today, I voted for 9 of them, so today is my best day.

For the longest time I thought the downbeat of the song was half a step off, which basically doubled the tempo, like the heavy snare/handclap thing that that's on the 4-and I thought was on the 4, and that the horn stabs were on the off-beat instead of the downbeat (which makes the vocals off-kilter in a way that makes no sense, I don't know how how I heard it this way for so long???)

like i basically thought this was a weird industrial jungle track

It kind of is?

The beat is nice and there's a small shiver when she says "Eeenjoooy", that's about it for me. Glad she never went this way again, probably because it gets muuurdered by Isobel two songs later.

I wish she had done more tracks like this.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/29-the-modern-things.jpg

29. The Modern Things (Post, 1995) -- 515.5 points; 16 votes

Nothing really wrong with it per se, but I've always felt this song was the second Hyperballad that comes after Hyperballad.

CUTLERY

and that the horn stabs were on the off-beat instead of the downbeat

Wait, they're not? Where do you hear the kick drum?

Yeah, maybe they should've sequenced "Enjoy" after "Hyperballad."

That said, "The Modern Things" got my enthusiastic vote.

"enjoy," like "crying," fell off my ballot at the last minute (first draft of my list actually ended with "enjoy"/"crying" which i, uh, enjoyed)

"the modern things" is fucking amazing however

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/28-one-day.jpg

28. One Day (Debut, 1993) -- 521.5 points; 15 votes

THIS IS SEX WITHOUT TOUCHING

i can't believe "one day" beat "come to me" but also "one day" is so good

So far today is the day of 90s tracks I don't particularly care for

Enjoy makes me wish she had done more collaborations with Tricky. were there any others besides Enjoy and Headphones?

xp boo

My original copy of Debut might have excluded "One Day". I see it's on my current thrift store replacement but it still sounds largely unfamiliar!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/27-mouths-cradle.jpg

27. Mouth's Cradle (Medúlla, 2004) -- 526 points; 14 votes

my favorite track from Medulla

Ah now we're talking

Wow, happy to see this one!

whoa, didn't expect it to be top 30!

Medulla, even more than her other albums, demands to be played either on good headphones or loudly on speakers. laptop speakers, moderate volumes, and earbuds just don't cut it.

Mouth's Cradle made it !!
Never fails to heighten my mood, with its cascading choir vocals, what dense simplicity, it makes me want to run or ascend mountains. The way the electronic sample starts the song and then doesn't return because the combination of vocals are just so good at keeping the pace. A marvel of composition. Joie de vivre. She should have made another Medulla.