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

The amount of respect being shown here is heartwarming.

-- admrl, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 4:53 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

"Let's unite tonight/We shouldn't fight..."

Vespertine is my favorite Bjork album, too. It's just so God damn pretty.

yeah, it's my favorite too. and like Dan said, I like all of them!

haven't heard Volta except for 'Earth Intruders", which I liked and which sounded very different than anything on Vespertine. The vinyl is like $53 at my store!

earth intruders is the worst track off it. which doesn't mean the album is awesome or something. haha. cryptic... you should listen. it's interesting.

There is no way "Earth Intruders" could ever possibly be worse than "The Dull Flame Of Desire".

ha!

Both those songs are awesome (except the latter has Too Much Antony). Cut the mentalism! That being said, there is some dull-ass shit toward the end of that record.

Oh and btw, Verspertine rox, whoever said it sounds like a crystal music box otm.

"There is no way "Earth Intruders" could ever possibly be worse than "The Dull Flame Of Desire"."

We are not going to agree on the subject of the Bjork. This song is the only reason to listen to Volta!

respectfully.

yes true, that is in fact the only song on the album i remember, it is quite lovely

I think I've listened to the entirety of "The Dull Flame Of Desire" exactly once, mostly because I kept thinking "Is this ever actually going to end??????????"

it's a toughie. i just like how it goes into Innocence (it does right?)

that's awesome

TOTAL VICTORY

after obsessing high school and taking a nearly decade-long break starting with vespertine (i didn't dig it at the time at all), i've been on a big bjork kick lately. but while going back to debut and post and homogenic is like going back home in a sense after a long musical journey (boring story but i didn't listen to music for the first half of my life and bjork was one of the very first artists i ever got heavily into), vespertine is like this whole other house i didn't realize i had. "Unison" is so so awesome.

yeah, funny that a lot of longtime fans at the top of this thread seemed to really dislike it when it came out. it's probably my fave bjork album, really gorgeous from start to finish.

holy moly, it's been 9 years since Vespertine? I wonder if i'll like it more now. Will try today.

this is suddenly all I want to listen to. the tension between the intimate & the epic is in most bjork, the way she puts herself into songs/the world, there's a similarly paradoical magical domesticity about this record, something relaxed and enchanted, otherworldly and everyday. I'm increasingly appreciating music which is comforting, nourishing, centreing, and this is v clearly that, a sort of withdrawal.

No love lost if all of the very first batch of posters on this thread are DEAD. Vespertine is a stone cold classic, I seek it out a couple of times per year and it always gets to me. Not sure if I'd call it relaxing, but enchanted, withdrawn, nourishing: absolutely. Also magical.

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

(xpost)

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.

has Melissa changer her mind?

"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.

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

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

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.

Homogenic is my fav too. 5 Years and Unravel rule

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"

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

I love him
I love him
I love him

I love him

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

I

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

best bjork thing ever period, dont @ me

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

upon further, still total victory

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.

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?

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

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

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

This is probably her best album.

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).

― 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)

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

I think she would be happy about that.

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)

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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