Bjork's new program "Vespertine" Total Victory or Total Failure?

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Yeah man, play on your own albums for a change ;)Anyway: Matthew Herbert? Korine? Sounds interesting I must say. What does the little satanist auteur do on the album?

― Omar, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

harmony wrote the lyrics to one of the songs. and pissed on her head.

― ethan, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ha! I assume he filmed it from 3 angles on 3 different film formats? ;) I dunno i'm not blown away by the single, but this talk about the album sounds pretty good.

― Omar, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've only heard a couple of tracks from Verspertine so I can't really judge the quality of the album, but it doesn't seem to have any more helpers than Post did. And anyway, she's a more canny foil-chooser than Madonna is by far - if I was making an album and could work with Matmos, Herbert and Bogdan I'd certainly leap at the chance.

― Tim, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

so it is true that everyones favourite drill'n'pop supastar Bogdan Raczynski is on the bjork album then? i'd like to hear that. i haven't heard any of the album yet though

― gareth, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Unfortunately it seems like for the most part all the contributers dont really mix well and its a garbled mess, like mixing too many colors together makes muddy gray brown.

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I haven't heard any of it. Vespertine is a beautiful word, so I will seek it out.

― Lyra, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah go look in the store for it. (Chuckles to self smugly thinking "The poor fool!", walks slowly back down long flight of darkened stairs to secret music lab. )

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Store? Oh, that's funny! That makes it sound as if...as if...I had MONEY!

No, I'll go to Morpheus for it.

― Lyra, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It sort of sounds like a mess of sound. Maybe I will like it the more I listen to it. Hidden Place is alright, a like the depth, the horizen of ice in the back.

― Mike Hanley, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Bjork is one of the most beautiful people in the world, and 'Vespertine' is one of the most beautiful albums I've heard in some time.

"How much did she even do" you ask. Good Lord, what a stupid question. Bjork composed and produced the bulk of this album herself, on her laptop computer. She then arranged to have brilliant musicians, such as the great Zeena, and Matmos to add there talents to the album. Make no mistake: 'Vespertine' sounds exactly the way she wanted it to sound. She's is the driver seat the whole time.

― , Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm impressed. Not having followed Bjork's career v. closely it has suprised me, + rewarded repeated plays. Less fussy, cluttered and 'fashionable', more poised, controlled subtle and sensuous. Matmos sprinkle a little glitch-magic here and there. Lovely.

― stevo, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It sounds like ice. There's even the sound of snow crunching amongst the glitchy-beats on one track (aurora). The weather's too hot to listen to it at the moment. And the music box instrumental is beautiful.

― heronette, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Predictably she delivers the goods again. Experimental yet very accesible by way of some sublime melodies. Seamless synergy with collaborators. "Like being hugged by trees" as somebody said on another thread (favourite description of a record in a long time).

― Omar, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm having a little trouble getting into the album unless it's raining outside. Is it that Bjork has fashioned an album so uniquely icy and watercolor cool that any attempt I could make to warm up to it is futile, or is that Bjork is merely a one-trick pony who forgot that choirs and cinematic orchestrations went out with Phil Spector?

Unfortunately for me, choirs and orchestrations didn't go out with Phl Spector, so that leaves only the remote possibility that I'm somehow subconsciously not giving this album the chance it deserves because I thought "Dancer in the Dark" was overwrought and pretentious, neither of which was Bjork's fault. Well, if that's the case then I'm going to go home tonight and really give it the old college try once more. I just know something really good and new will turn up in there someday.

― dleone, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Haven't really digested the album since listening to it on mp3 a while ago, but "Hidden Place" is a FANTASTIC song (even if the video is dodgy). Almost as good as "Bachelorette".

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hidden Place really is a fantastic song. Definetly the one I keep coming back to. Overall the album is wonderful but I have the same problem as the earlier post: I can only listen to it at night or when the weather is overcast. Try it with headphones, it seems there are millions of tiny details. Maybe not as good as Homogenic (maybe!), but contrary to Pitchfork that doesn't lessen her accomplishment.

― Ryan White, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Okay, I bought the album at lunch today. HOLY SHIT it's good. Listening to it on headphones in the correct running order is a MUST. Wow.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 6 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Heard it twice so far, and I definitely like it. I'm not sure I'll end up liking it as much as Homogenic in the end, but then again, that album took me like six listens to really get into. My favorite song so far is "It's Not Up to You" followed by "Pagan Poetry".

― palpable, Friday, 7 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's no surprise that the nature of responses has changed dramatically from July to September. After taking time to actually listen and live in the music, it continues to haunt longer after the CD player is silent and the demons have gone to bed.

Vespertine is undoubtedly Bjork's most exquisite work to date. From start to finish, there exists nothing more creative, more original, more awe-inspiring, more unique.

She teaches us that passion and spirit can be derived as easily from a 60-piece orchestra as from almost nothing whispers. With every listening, feel free to soar higher and higher. For there is nothing better.

― John F Danbury III, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, I quite like it too.

A "Lovers midnight sleigh-ride across a pristine Narnia snowscape" ur sumthin'.

― DavidM, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I still find it to be an incredibly disappointing album, with the soundtrack affectations layered on to disgusting effect, without the presence of unique melodies or anything else to save it.
I really wanted to love it. I wanted it to be great. It's just not.

― Melissa W, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Melissa, good to see you again, defending yourself once more. What recommendations might you have for Bjork neophytes?

― John F Danbury III, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Initial thoughts are that this is excellent. In my own personal world Verspetine feels like an important album, making a couple of connections that I'd half-imagined in my head and reproducing them in a much more beautiful fashion than I had envisioned. Also it's much more pop than I had expected - "Hidden Place", "It's Not Up To You", "Pagan Poetry" and "Aurora" are all gorgeous songs quite apart from their breathtaking production. I'm reminded of what Reynolds said about Saint Etienne and Stephin Merrit, about appreciating the pop song for the loveliness of its formal contours. Everything Bjork employs here - melodies, lyrics, glitch rhythms, harps, choirs, her own vocals - seems designed to capture a certain, fiercely independent idea of beauty.

― Tim, Tuesday, 11 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I've changed my mind on this album a bit. It still has trite strings and melodies, and cringeworthy moments, but it's perfect for this lonely, lovey mood I am in. It's like drowning in love. Far from her best, though.

― Melissa W, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I changed my mind again. This is still pretty atrocious.

― Melissa W, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Melissa, I can certainly see your point. But I disagree because I think Bjork pulls off something very unique with this album. Yes, of course, children's choirs, harps, music boxes, and sentimental string sections are all usually trite and overblown. But they are not inherently such, but they seem so because of past offenses by other musicians. But what saves this album, and in fact makes it quite beautiful and unique in my opinion, is that all of this is put in the service of such small pleasures. These songs are tiny miracles. All of this seeming excess is not used to portray a sticky view of world peace, or something else of monumental bad taste. In other words, these are not "We are the world" moments. Instead, these songs portray the most minute of pleasures, that inner euphoria that sometimes occurs for no reason, and the intense and absurdly overblown emotions that love stirs up inside us. By using those kind of feelings, Bjork rescues what would normally be sentimental tactics and puts them to wholly appropriate use.

And face it, we all secretly love children's choirs.

― Ryan White, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

[...] it's perfect for this lonely, lovey mood I am in.

I think this album, moreso than the others, requires a particular set of moods. I adore the album to death, but the last time I played it I was vaugely annoyed and coming home from a night club with my wife, one of her best friends (who'd just turned 30), and the 19-year-old boy he'd gotten thrown out of the bar for. The album was bizarre and jarring for me, while the two "lovebirds" in the back were making moon-eyes at each other and drowning in each others' souls.

It's very context-specific music.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I still don't like it. Its too Tori Amos, too confused sounding and aimless. There doesnt seem to be a good skeleton of songwriting under the flesh of trendy sounding production.

― Pennysong Hanle y, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There isn't any good songwriting here. This album certainly merits the "all production, no songs" criticism so often wrongly doled out. I also think Tori Amos broke into the studio and wrote half the lyrics. And that drippy instrumental.

― Melissa W, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I actually adore that drippy instrumental. :) Part of that stems from being in Switzerland and spending a good amount of time looking at the insides of music boxes, though.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There are plenty of songs. That argument is as bogus in this case as it is in most cases. In fact, people who argue that usually are talking about straight-ahead (Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus etc) songs, of which Vespertine probably has more of than most Bjork records. Look at Undo, or It's Not Up to You. My personal favorites are the 2nd and the 11th song personally.

― hans, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

with bjork you either love her work, or the opposite... i believe

me, i think this is her best work yet. even if you hate or love bjork, you have to admit one thing.... it is her, and it is totally unique. its so personal... i dont know how the hell you people can say its just the other people doing her work for her, you really need to get a clue. Look at any other pop artist and you can find maybe 2 or 3 songs actually written by them (most of the time just cowritten) nevertheless produced. and i really dont care what anyone says, but her lyrics and her melodies are very original and interesting (not to mention they suit each other perfectly).

So i dont know... we are all entitled to our own opinions, but keep the facts straight -Rex

― Rex Gregory, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The more I listen to 'Vespertine' the more I love it. The minimalistic glitch and scratch balancing perfectly with her exquisite melodies. She morphs her voice in so many directions. Those complaining about the lack of song-structure completely miss the point. Utterly divine, I've not held Ms Gudmundsdottir is such high esteem since 'Birthday' was released.

― stevo, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Vince Mendoza is the devil. I want Emir Deodato back. The arrangements of choir and strings on Vespertine are still dreadful and trite. And surely the melodies and chord progressions were picked out of a hat full of complimentary notes and chords?
I love Post and Homogenic dearly. But Vespertine has now officially taken its place as my least favorite Bjork release.

― Melissa W, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

complementary*
I'm so tired.

― Melissa W, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Melissa, I think we've got where you're coming from on this one - I didn't think this was an ILFMBoP thread. ;-)

Strangely, apart from the "no songs" accusation, most of what you say about Vespertine is true. But misses the point. I can't really explain it, but all the yardsticks by which one previously judged a Björk record just don't seem to be of any use with this album. AND it sounds gorgeous into the bargain.

Record of the year so far, then.

― Jeff, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

ILFMBoP???

I guess I'm just more disappointed by this than I've ever been about a record...that's why I keep going on about it.
I expect a lot from Bjork and she usually delivers.
If I wanted to listen to the Empire of the Sun score over glitch beats...then I'd get two stereos and do just that.

― Melissa W, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Vespertine is the most beautiful, intimate, and cosmic piece of music ever created. (my humble opinion)

― Archer Krantz, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

After reading your criticism of Vespertine, Melissa when I finally got it at the weekend I approached it with a bit of trepidation. Listening to it I've came to the conclusion you're listening to a different record. It must be the most vulnerable, passionate record I've heard this year and the tunes are as good as anything she's done.

On a slightly different topic what is the thing on the front of the CD it looks like a stone or maybe top of a crutch? Any ideas?

― Billy Dods, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The cover looks neat, but neither I nor anyone I know has said it's a good album. It's crap. It's barely even music. Of course, I don't really like her anyway.

― Nude SPock, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

On a slightly different topic what is the thing on the front of the CD it looks like a stone or maybe top of a crutch? Any ideas?

I was wondering about that too, until I saw a promotional shot of Bjork wearing the same dress as on the cover. If you look at it very closely, you'll notice it's the head of the swan.

― JC, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You 'know' a few here at least who adore it Nude Spock. Seems to have split opinion more strongly than any other recent release I can think of.

― stevo, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Where are all the Björk fans that hate Vespertine? I can't possibly be the only one!

― Melissa W, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Anything worth really loving is worth really hating too.

― Ryan A White, Wednesday, 3 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one month passes...

if you're a björk fan and you don't like vespertine then its only becuase you're a fucking moron and have to be told how to have emotion....

― tyler durden, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Where are all the Björk fans that hate Vespertine?
I would love to join you there Melissa but I can't. I hate Björk AND Vespertine. Though I did only listen to a track or two. Are there any Björk haters who love Vespertine would be a much more interesting question from my point of view...

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

*fucking moron*
Emotion is not all there is to music. Staind are pretty emotional.
Cut-rate glitch + cheesy strings and choirs + warbling Björk + cringe- worthy lyrics + flat melodies does not a good Björk album make.

― Melissa W, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i know it's cheesy andrew lloyd webber pap but i loves it i does. (can't listen to merzbow ALL day, now, can we...)<-- well of course we can but one gets a royal headache.

― bob snoom, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think "Vespertine" is brilliant.

― Sean, Tuesday, 20 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Skipping 147 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Yeah, it's a great record and there's so much shit being talked at the beginning of this thread.

(xpost)

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:32 (six years ago) link

it's not relaxing but I think bjork seems perhaps at her most relaxed, less of that blank-eyed imperious wizard biz. like a lot of melissa's complaints, I more or less agree but think they are positive: delicate sweet bells and strings, less drama, shapeless. it's not up to you is my favourite, there's something overwhelmingly humane about it, forgiving and warm. despite all the frosty icelandic cliches I think it's a very warm album.

― ogmor, Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link

has Melissa changer her mind?

― dance cum rituals (Moka), Sunday, 16 July 2017 20:53 (six years ago) link

"Undo" is my favourite. I like that Bjork is healing through this record, it seems a long ways off from Homogenic which is insular, caustic and full of distress.

― Paisley Window Pane (Ross), Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:03 (six years ago) link

Vespertine and Homogenic are her two masterpieces. Two of my favourite albums of all time.

― kitchen person, Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:29 (six years ago) link

Homogenic will always be my favourite album of hers, but Vespertine is very close.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:32 (six years ago) link

has Melissa changer her mind?
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Sunday, July 16, 2017 3:53 PM (forty minutes ago)

Not really! But I was just thinking that I probably haven't heard this album in full in over 15 years. I'm glad/embarrassed that all my initial thoughts on the album when I was 17 are preserved in amber on this thread. I don't really disagree with my past self, but I probably wouldn't phrase my thoughts as dramatically now.

― Melissa W, Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:39 (six years ago) link

Homogenic is my fav too. 5 Years and Unravel rule

― Paisley Window Pane (Ross), Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:46 (six years ago) link

Funny to see I posted to this thread in '01 with a positive opinion. As I recall, I initially thought Vespertine was disappointing compared to the amazing Homogenic, but I guess I liked it from the get go! Maybe I confused my actual opinion with the ILM hivemind opinion. In any case, I'd put this right up there with Homogenic nowadays. Best comment upthread: "this sounds like ice"

― Vinnie, Monday, 17 July 2017 01:38 (six years ago) link

Also, hey there Melissa, miss seeing your posts on this site

― Vinnie, Monday, 17 July 2017 01:51 (six years ago) link

I love him
I love him
I love him

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 July 2017 02:44 (six years ago) link

I love him

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:40 (six years ago) link

I love him
I love him
I love him
I love him

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:40 (six years ago) link

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:41 (six years ago) link

she loves him
she loves him
she loves him
she loves him

― nice cage (m bison), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:47 (six years ago) link

best bjork thing ever period, dont @ me

― nice cage (m bison), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:48 (six years ago) link

as an amateur bedroom electronic music person, this is one of the most influential records for me

― nice cage (m bison), Monday, 17 July 2017 03:48 (six years ago) link

upon further, still total victory

― Karl Malone, Monday, 17 July 2017 03:54 (six years ago) link

cosign the love, probably my favorite overall record of hers. Although the insane peaks of Homogenic top any individual moment here, the record flows so well and is so integrated. Plus, Zeena Parkins.

― sleeve, Monday, 17 July 2017 03:55 (six years ago) link

Really, that Björk has basically the top 2 greatest albums ever recorded, is there any real need to decide which of the two is greater?

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 04:05 (six years ago) link

this is the only Bjork album I've ever really listened to, it sounded wonderful on a snowy day.

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Monday, 17 July 2017 04:08 (six years ago) link

it's also interesting to hear this record at the peaks of valleys of love in your life. the mood is completely changed depending on how you're feeling. it's natural to hear things through the filter of your own emotional state, and some albums can take on a more powerful meaning if the listener is in a certain life state (like yo la tengo's atntiio and depression+divorce).

i don't know wtf i'm talking about but eventually i was trying to argue that vespertine has at least several different distinct emotional/life/sound ties like that, at least for me, and it seems otherworldly and always refreshingly current and relevant for that reason

― Karl Malone, Monday, 17 July 2017 04:09 (six years ago) link

great post Karl

I hate to say this is the last I really was invested in Bjork. The Royal Opera performance of Vespertine is essential as well.

Vulnicura revived my love in her though

― Paisley Window Pane (Ross), Monday, 17 July 2017 05:16 (six years ago) link

This is probably her best album.

― chap, Monday, 17 July 2017 11:09 (six years ago) link

― Karl Malone, Monday, July 17, 2017 4:09 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Goddamn right and expressed so eloquently. The album can hit you in a myriad of ways, soundtracking both the peaks and the valleys of love. Thinking about this further I have a hard time coming up with an album, or even a single song, that does this. Take 'Pagan Poetry'. The whole gut-wrenching 'I love him, I love him' sequence is equally applicable to both the euphoria of love as the utter destruction of it all falling to bits. Embracing love with such force and swallowing it whole, opposite the lamenting and hysteria of love that died/is dying. That song alone has accompanied me in both sides of the spectrum.

(fp'd you for saying 'I don't know wtf I'm talking about' bcz, clearly, you do)

― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 17 July 2017 16:35 (six years ago) link

Went to re-listen to this. Receipt for my first pack of condoms sitting under the CD tray. Oof.

― maffew12, Monday, 17 July 2017 17:08 (six years ago) link

I think she would be happy about that.

― Anne of the Thousand Gays (Eric H.), Monday, 17 July 2017 17:44 (six years ago) link

final track on this record is my favorite bjork song of all time. i can remember thinking i didn't like this as much as homogenic at the time but now i v much feel the contemporary consensus. imo homogenic feels like it's always trying to explode where vespertine seems like it's always trying to be quiet. her best record along with medulla (which i like more than most)

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 17 July 2017 18:27 (six years ago) link

Medulla's when her quailty control started slipping - all her records since have been patchy.

― chap, Monday, 17 July 2017 18:30 (six years ago) link

I like this album a lot but I never listen to it, whereas I go back to Post and Homogenic (and selected songs from Medulla and Volta) a lot.

― this iphone speaks many languages (DJP), Monday, 17 July 2017 18:31 (six years ago) link

I think the original title for Vespertine gives us a nod to why it's so quiet - Domestica

― Paisley Window Pane (Ross), Monday, 17 July 2017 18:53 (six years ago) link

two years pass...

Anyone heard the Vespertine opera, any good? It's now released on CD:

https://www.galileomusic.de/cover/400/oc978.jpg

― Siegbran, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 07:46 (four years ago) link

Funny to see the intital lukewarm reaction to this now ILX certified classic.

― chap, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 12:47 (four years ago) link

that is weird. IMO it's clearly her best album and also the last album of hers I really loved.

― akm, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 12:59 (four years ago) link

I'd agree, except maybe with the 'clearly'.

― chap, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 13:03 (four years ago) link

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