Bjork Post Poll

I don't think I said this album was an embarrassment of riches, but it is remarkably solid for the first 7 or 8 songs. Homogenic, otoh, is a straight-shot masterpiece from top to bottom. As consistently good as fucking Innervisions or Nu AmErykah.

As consistently good as fucking Innervisions or Nu AmErykah.

wow, people do really like that new badu.

Back in the day I would have said "Enjoy" or "Hyper-Ballad". Time and perspective make me say "Isobel".

lol, back in the day i would've said 'isobel', now i'd say 'enjoy'. i love post but it probably ranks as my 4th favourite bjork album. never understood why people raved over 'hyperballad', it's ok but a bit in the shadow of 'the modern things' for me...the brodsky quartet version is really excellent too.

bjork had some great b-sides (b-sides! remember them!) in this era too - offhand, 'my spine' (strange and playful collab w/evelyn glennie) and 'charlene' (which is making me think of...fireflies right now? uh) spring to mind.

and yeah, homogenic is one of THOSE incredible albums which is just straight-up genius throughout.

There's a great alternate version of "The Modern Things" on the otherwise kinda lame Family Tree box set.

"Headphones". easy.

i think "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy" are the worst things on Debut.

xxxpost Yes they do, but that was meant at least partially tongue-in-cheek, Jordan.

all Bjork albums seem to have an awesome first half and a dissapointing second. (except for Volta which sucked entirely, and i am a big Bjork fan)
I thought Medulla was the real grower.
In this case I'm voting for Isobel. (which is hehehe in the 2nd half, yes i know)

what, jed, you're going to seriously tell me "The Anchor Song" is better?

by the way I once did a playback version of It's Oh So Quiet on a carnival show, dressed up as Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm not kidding. One of the best thing I ever did in my life ;)

Anchor Song is fucking gorgeous.

I'm all for unorthodoxy when it comes to Björk, but that is not how you fucking arrange for saxophones.

I'll also say I much prefer "Like Someone in Love" to "It's Oh So Quiet" as far as the not-her stuff goes.

what, jed, you're going to seriously tell me "The Anchor Song" is better?

No, but "Come to Me" and "One Day" and "There's More to Life Than This" are!

"The Anchor Song", "Come to Me" "Aeroplane" are my favourite things on debut. i agree with you on Homogenic though.

voted for "I miss you". definitely prefer post to debut.

Yeah, I need to learn to just steer the conversation to Homogenic whenever Debut comes up.

I think Homogenic is her best album but Post is my favorite.

Vespertine 4 life

i am probably alone in this but i think Helmet's cover of "Army of Me" is one of the greatest covers of any song ever
http://www.imeem.com/people/VF-Iw6/music/nbLkak8D/helmet_army_of_me_bjork_cover/

Dan I am just agreeing with you all over the place here

Homogenic is the one that for me has the dated 90s production (late 90s techno vs early 90s trip hop?), but that may be because I'll still fuck with some trip hop, but techno is dead to me.

I don't think I said this album was an embarrassment of riches,

No, I said it.

Debut is maybe a notch below Post; Bjork seems to be wearing a musical straitjacket, and it's becoming, as far as it goes; it sounds like she's struggling to say something in an idiom she's halfway to figuring out. That's why I love "Come To Me," "Violently Happy," and "Venus as a Boy."

I feel like ███████████ you right this second!

I don't know if it's the best thing on there but "The Modern Things" is my jam on this album.

Overall, this is my favorite album of hers even though I never, ever, ever play "Army of Me" when I listen to it.

Dan we are EXACTLY THE SAME IN EVERY WAY. Well, in Bjorkpinions at least.

Along with It's Oh So Quiet, Army of Me is one of the most insular tracks on the album. But more than any Bjork album, I see post as being comprised beautifully of many insular pieces that gel together more with time. these days i even put army of me on by itself sometimes!

"It's Oh So Quiet" is a great song and her best ever vocal performance. This is not to say that the other, and less conventional, songs on this album are bad in any way, but "It's Oh So Quiet" is just too great.

Also props to "Possibly Maybe" but it sounded better after Goldie remixed it.

What is with the disliking of "Army of Me"?

"Isobel" by far.

Worst track is "Quiet" though.

How can Geir like "It's Oh So Quiet" so much when Bjork didn't write it? FWIW I boringly went with "Hyperballad" though "Headphones" runs it close because it's sexier.

"It's Oh So Quiet" is a great song and her best ever vocal performance. This is not to say that the other, and less conventional, songs on this album are bad in any way, but "It's Oh So Quiet" is just too great.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 20 December 2008 02:10 (Yesterday) Permalink

what an awful thing to say

"Hyper-Ballad" is probably my favorite Bjork track.

― Spencer Chow, Friday, December 19, 2008 11:52 AM Bookmark

― USICMAKEULOSECONTROL (The Reverend), viernes 19 de diciembre de 2008 14:01 (2 days ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Enjoy", I think. Almost all of the rest of these tracks (as good as they were) were improved upon by their remixes. Actually I guess "Army of Me" wasn't.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Played this last night for the first time in years; Army Of me is fucking AWESOME through big speakers. Great record.

That's the one track that I still don't ever play off of this album.

How come?

there was a björk concert available to watch on the plane back from canada last week - first time i'd heard "army of me" in a while and that groove is pretty fucking amazing, right? started raving in my seat

Yeah, it's fucking monstrous.

i also really approve of the song's sentiment

SELF-SUFFICIENCY PLEASE
AND GET TO WORK

AND GET OFF FACEBOOK!!

Strangely Norman Tebbitesque lyrics to that song but it kicked her Glastonbury set into gear - lasers!

"Army of Me" is a click too slow for me, edging the beat from being menacing into just being plodding and stodgy. I also think the transition from "Army of Me" to "Hyper-Ballad" is the weak link on the album where the end of a song doesn't accurately set you up for the beginning of the next one.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/bjork-post-round-28-nicks-choice/

what's a "playback version on a carnival show"?

"army of me" is incredible, both as a song and as a thing to listen to when you need to be jolted out of moping around and feeling sorry for yourself. i think this song has helped people.

More a song I'd rather play for other people than myself.

Also, "sex without touching" sounds a lot less menacing now than it did in '95.

i think it's useful. i have an easier time taking tough love advice from bjork than i do people i actually know. "the modern things" should have won this poll though. when she starts singing in icelandic it's the most beautiful thing on the record.

Relatedly, I've long felt that "The Modern Things" was, if not necessarily the best song on Post, then perhaps the one that sums up the appeal of her work during this phase so consummately

In that it was intended for Debut but evolved in its approach going into Post, it's a best-of-both-worlds proposition too.

modern things might be my favorite, the version of the family tree box is cool too.

OK, can we acknowledge that the sequence from "Army of Me" to "Isobel" is...astonishing?

It seems a bit odd to cut it off there TBH.

Listening back to this album, one of the things that really struck me is how much emphasis there is on the arrangements mutating in line with the narrative development of the songs. This is perhaps a key distinction from Debut, where the songs' arrangements typically follow a more conventional verse/chorus structure.

In particular, "Hyper-Ballad", "The Modern Things" and "I Miss You" are almost relentlessly mutational, especially in their use of rhythm, but the same is true to a lesser extent of most of the other tracks as well (e.g. the arrangement on "Enjoy" would be at the more maximal end of Tricky co-productions of the era (though not atypically so), but then is capped off by Einar Orn's horn freakouts, which doesn't feel like something that would happen if it was actually a Tricky track).

The jackhammer beat punctuating the second verse of "I Miss You" is particularly indicative I think, a very literalised ramping-up of exuberant tension.

Homogenic really ran with this idea I think, the arrangements "telling a story" as much as the vocals and lyrics.

OK, can we acknowledge that the sequence from "Army of Me" to "Isobel" is...astonishing?

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 28, 2022 7:04 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes, this album blows my mind.

stand by my position above that "the modern things" is the best song here. it makes me cry.

In that it was intended for Debut but evolved in its approach going into Post, it's a best-of-both-worlds proposition too.

― Eggs Benedick (Eric H.), Tuesday, 28 June 2022 19:23 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It would be fascinating to hear the pre-Debut versions of "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things". 808 State's Gorgeous from 1993 sounds rather more resolutely early-90s than Debut (kind of a mix of FSOL's Accelerator, Orbital's Green album and, um, Hyper-On Experience maybe?), so - unless Hooper had taken over co-production from Massey - it's difficult for me to imagine what they would have ended up sounding like if they'd ended up on Debut.

(meanwhile 808 State's Don Solaris from 1996 does sound like "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things", which raises the question as to how much if anything Bjork had to do with getting them to that sound)

I don’t know if it’s that I’m not a native english speaker but the main attractive for me in his vocals is precisely how unusual and freeformed they are.

While I do appreciate more traditionally structured songs like Bachelorette or Isobel, her vocals sound more like broadway musical to my ears on those two songs and I find myself more interested in the arrangements than her actual vocals. Of course, she pulls it off effortlessly and I respect it but I don’t think I’d be much of a fan if that was her usual style.

Her not his, sorry I suck at english pronouns

Anyways, Isobel. Great song, I love it. Glad it’s the only song in that style.

Actually I think I ended up loving Post the most because every song feels very unique and different from the following one.