Rank Bjork's Albums

Homogenic (9.9)
Medulla (9.7)
Post (9.2)
Vespertine (8.1)
Strings (7.6, compilation of Brodsky Quartet professional recordings)
Reply (7.5, compilation I made of B-sides 1994-2001)
Debut (6.5)
Selmasongs (5.7)
Telegram (5.3)
Drawing Restraint (5.1)
Volta (4.0)
Gling Glo (3.5)

'Homogenic' is likely my favorite album of the 90s, and 'Medulla' surprised me slightly by topping my Top Albums of the 2000s list. Vespertine has two of my favorite of her songs ("Undo" and "Unison"). Her performance of "Anchor Song" with the Brodsky Quartet is a heart-stopper--and shows how her mastery of her voice grew exponentially from 'Debut' through the early 2000s.

Homogenic (My favourite album of the 90's)
Vespertine
Post
Debut
Medulla
Volta

http://www.factmag.com/2011/03/17/bjork-multimedia-residency-at-manchester-international-festival/

Björk is will undertake a new music & multimedia residency at the 2011 Manchester International Festival, under the banner of Biophilia.

The three-week residency – comprised of six 1800-capacity shows at Campfield Market Hall – will see the artist give live performances of news songs and introduce companion apps, invented instruments and more. A press release explains the concept of Biophilia:

“Where do music, nature and technology meet? Björk introduces Biophilia, an extraordinary answer to this fascinating question and her most ambitious and exciting work to date. A multi-media project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows, Biophilia celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe, from planetary systems to atomic structure.

“For these six special shows, Björk will be performing new tracks from the forthcoming Biophilia studio album as well as music from her genre-defying back catalogue with a small group of unique musical collaborators. The show will feature a range of specially conceived and crafted instruments, among them a bespoke digitally-controlled pipe organ; a 30 foot pendulum that harnesses the earth’s gravitational pull to create musical patterns – creating a unique bridge between the ancient and the modern; a bespoke gamelan-celeste hybrid; and a one-off extraordinary pin barrel harp. These devices make visible some of the physical processes that are the subject matter of tracks.”

The Biophilia live show takes place on June 30 and July 3, 7, 10, 13 and 16. It will travel to major cities around the world following the Manchester premiere.

Where do music, nature and technology meet?

Love Bjork, but this is srlsly nothing new with her. All her records mix up organic sounds w/ heavy tech beats... and, um, all incorporate music.

Is a three-week music and multimedia residency as amazing as it sounds?

Does a two-shows-a-week residency sound better?

comprised of six 1800-capacity shows

I sort of picture a camp or community of sorts. The idea of having 1800 people living together, exhibiting ideas, playing music... and even better having artists like say Bjork among the community sounds wicked. I'd definitely pay to live in this sort of place for a few days... regardless if I get to have lunch in the same table as Bjork or not.

I guess I'm thinking of something similar to burning man. Only... you know, less faux-hippie, not in the desert and more music-centric.

1. Debut
2. Gling-Gló
3. Everything else

I wish she would've done more jazz albums, her interpretations of those standards on Gling-Gló are nifty. Still, nothing beats the clubby stuff of Debut - it's both insistently danceable and wonderfully idiosyncratic (there's never been a house diva like her). I like many of her later songs, and I understand why she wanted to move into other directions, but it was still a loss for the dancefloors. I've always been a dance music guy and I was just at the right age when Debut dropped... Hearing a voice like that on top of cool, minimal (for the time) house beats, and seeing those videos on MTV, nothing she's done since has given me such chills down my spine.

Agree that she was brilliant as a house diva but I don't think it would've fared too well for her in the long term.

also she did tons and tons and tons of dance songs all throughout her post-Sugarcubes career...?

I'm not saying she didn't. TBH I only own the two albums mentioned above, but I've heard most of the albums she's released after them at least once, and none of them have sounded as dancey as Debut.

you should, at a bare minimum, replay Post, Telegraph and Homogenic again

really she strayed away from danciness only on Selmasongs and even there it wasn't that far

you should run out and buy the soundtrack to drawing restraint 9 she did, its full of big bass dancefloor jams

Medulla sounds non-dancey because practically everything is a capella but I defy you to tell me this isn't meant to be a dance track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQB9d-MMIx0

huh I can't seem to find a non-shitty sounding Youtube of this

ah here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6eWhqFDRvE&feature=related

also I can't stand to watch the "Oceania" video because of the crystals on her face but that's basically her doing a capella trip-hop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1N2-ZgD7H0&feature=related

Yeah...Triumph of a Heart is pretty much the art-sy counterpart of Violently Happy.

I really like the Towa Tei mix of Hyperballad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqqBs3fr80w

There's even an alt avant dance club in the music video.

Homogenic
Vespertine
Post
Debut
Medulla

Haven't heard Volta or Selmasongs. Am I missing much?

Selmasongs is a curio with a couple of good songs on it (curiously, the one nominated for the Oscar wasn't one of the good songs).

Volta ranges wildly from awesome to unbearable; if you can put up with 7+ minutes of Antony bleating, it's worth getting.

I can't! But I'll listen to it anyway.

Check out "Earth Intruders", "Declare Independence", "Innocence" and "Wanderlust" on Youtube; if you dig those, the album is worth getting.

Wanderlust video is awesome, btw. Probably my favorite of hers... she chooses her video directors even better than her producers.

She is some sort of countercultural Madonna in a sense that she functions more as a sort of art director than as an actual artist.

if you get only one song from Selmasongs, make it this one:

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

Anyway my ranking:

Vespertine - Coccoon
Post - Hyperballad
Homogenic - Unravel
Debut - Come to Me
Medulla - Desired Constellation
Selmasongs - Scatterheart
Drawing Restraint - Storm
Volta - I See Who You Are

Wanderlust video is awesome, btw. Probably my favorite of hers... she chooses her video directors even better than her producers.

She is some sort of countercultural Madonna in a sense that she functions more as a sort of art director than as an actual artist.

This doesn't really make sense to me... I'm sure most of the the time she has a vision of what she wants to do, and picks her collaborators accordingly (as does Madonna). In music, unless you're a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar or electronic music producer, you always have to find other people to work with you, but that doesn't make you less of an artist. "Art director" would imply someone who only finds those other people but isn't involved in the creative process itself, which I doubt is the case with Björk (or Madonna).

Does anybody have a point-of-view about her actual debut solo album, "Bjork" ?

I don't think it's ever been reissued except as a bootleg. And TBH I'm not particularly interested in what she sounded like when she was 11.

Well, she struck me as someone that was somewhat precocious, musically.

I wondered if what she made then had any bearing on what she produces latterly.

(I did see a CD a few years ago, but wasn't fussed about getting one)

"Bjork cannot be here tonight. She was trying on her Oscar dress and Dick Cheney shot her."

In Fopp, £5 gets you "Debut", the two-sided CD/DVD version...

homogenic >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Crystalline" -> http://disconaivete.com/post/6899643048

sounds really dated/boring

the end is a bit Venetian Snares, if you got that far

yeah that's why I said it sounds dated

Oh, ok. I thought so too, btw.

homogenic
post
vespertine
debut
selmasongs
volta*
medulla

*I should note that I never really spent that much time w/ this & acknowledge that my opinions of other björk albums has adjusted over time w/ repeated listening

1. homogenic
2. debut
3-z. bad albums with good singles

I do quite like the new Björk single. That the ending is reminiscent of Venetian Snares or Squarepusher doesn't really matter to me. I like the how it's paced and builds up to it's finale. Nothing shocking, but it's still Björk. Just love hearing her voice again, a-new, I guess.

What I can't get too enthusiastic about is that the new album will feature apps for every song. But then I'm one of those lol people who doesn't have a smart-phone. Even if I did, I don't think I'd drool over that.

i have a smart phone (not an iphone) and i couldn't care less about apps - any, including björk's - and making it the hook of the project makes me instantly bored

the song is...not awful? idk yet.

Instantly bored, that's the phrasing I was after.

I don't know if it's the hook of the whole project. I think one can avoid it by just buying the cd or mp3's? That's what I am aiming for at least.

The new song indeed is not awful. But I do miss hearing it in its "album habitat". With Björk songs tend to make so much more sense as part of an album. Never thought of her as a 'singles'-artist (despite knowing she will probably disagree, what with all the single box sets and all).

Bjork is a singles artist, no question.

I can't even begin to comprehend any of these rankings. How could anyone possibly hold up Homogenic above All Else when it contains such duds as "All Neon Like", "Five Years", "All Is Full Of Love", is beyond me.

How anyone can condemn Medulla to the depths of hell when it contains two of her best songs ("Oceania", "Who Is It"), and many other essentials.

Even then, a greatest hits single comp wouldn't be tolerable any more than it would be of Sparks, Kate Bush, Bowie or any other artist who vacillates from impetus to impetus so wholly that the entire package feels like a science experiment.

Your last argument is exactly why ~ for me ~ Björk is an albums artist, as she has been for me since Debut. Every new album means a new realm, the disclosure of a new, exciting, before unknown universe. Which is why I can't wait to hear the new song in that richer context, to see how it connects and makes love to the other songs.

(I'd struggle ranking the albums. I am only completely sure that Vespertine is my favourite Björk album, by far, for it's coherence, it's intimacy and bare-naked honesty)

I have a smart phone and don't really care but I like it when musicians experiment with presentation.

such duds as "All Neon Like", "All Is Full Of Love"

gtfo