Rank Bjork's Albums

Bachelorette
Hyperballad
Army Of Me
Joga
Human Behaviour
Nature Is Ancient
Isobel
I Miss You
It's Oh So Quiet
Alarm Call
Big Time Sensuality
Venus As A Boy
Violently Happy
Play Dead
Hunter
Possibly Maybe (can't remember it enough)
Hidden Place
Pagan Poetry

anything i forgot stick in the middle (the Lynn Fox video projections for the recent tour look gorgeous)

-- Matthew "Flux" Perpetua

this is almost exactly my take on it, though i'm not sure i'd even bother ranking the new one.

Debut

Homogenic

I'm in a bit of a vicodin haze right now...should I go listen to the album?

I just can't imagine loving something so...cotton candy.

Part of it has to do with tensions I hear that maybe you don't: how e.g. glitches or dissonance might rupture soft 'pretty' melodic and timbral surfaces.

it took seeing the breathtaking Royal Opera House DVD for Vespertine to really 'click' with me, and when it did it was a small bombshell. As well as a 'Well, duh' moment. I don't hear it as glossed over, 'cotton candy' sentimental, superficial or derivative anymore since then.

In fact I think it shares a lot of moments exactly as raw, searching and emotionally exposed as 'Homogenic' (Cocoon, Pagan Poetry, An Echo A Stain and especially Aurora) along with the more familiar loved-up peans to eternal domestic comforts, life and family.

To me it's another fantastic work that came from a not-too enjoyable time in her life very much akin to 'Homogenic', if you're willing to buy into the whole emotional pain=deeper better art theory/cliche I guess.

I think the reason this wasn't picked up on as much of a take on the record is as much a result of her modesty at the time in not making any linking comments re: Lars Von Trier (although she has spoken out a bit more about it now, describing the process of making Dancer In The Dark as like 'having petrol poured on your soul' (approx)) and the fact that the record has a happy ending this time, mirrored by the fact she was very publicly known to be in love again.

I do think a big weakness of the record as a whole is the length, and the 'still' sounding songs (It's Not Up To You, Undo, Harm of Will) which make it feel sprawling and dense compared to her usual albums. The first two of those in particular just felt like re-treads thematically for her and really alienated me from what I feel is the real spirit of the record better captured further in. And as for 'happy endings' again, I think 'Unison' is a charming but unusually indistict closing track by her standards.

I'm definitely glad she's moved on from it though, it would have been a stiflingly pretty, eventually vacant artistic direction to move any further into.

I guess I wrote all that because I'm a huge fan of hers too, and (ridiculously) it really pains me to know that someone else has the trouble I had not 'getting' one of her finest records yet. Or maybe you'll never like it it doesn't really matter :)

1 = Debut/Homogenic/Vespertine
4 = Post/Medulla

interspersed with huge amounts of everything else she's done. Post from the livebox is also far, far more deserving of the acclaim for that record and time and carries the sentiment, and sense of adventure a little better than the studio record I think.

6 = Selmasongs :(
(me too)

The only song I can actually stand on that record is "Heirloom."

so, for me, its:

homogenic
vespertine

and then the rest I like more or less about the same. Medulla is an admirable record but I don't listen to it much.

I love the first sugarcubes album although they are a band served best by the greatest hits collection.

[oh sod it, the rest]

There was no discussion of Voltaic on ILM?

wait what's Voltaic? not volta? News about the upcoming Björk album Volta.

Best first:

Homogenic
Medulla
Post
Vespertine
Debut
Volta

Homogenic
the song "Ruby Baby"
Debut
Post
Volta
Vespertine
Medulla

Medulla
Vespertine
Homogenic
Debut
Post
Volta

Post
Homogenic
Debut
Vespertine
Volta
Medulla

Homogenic
Post
Debut
Vespertine
Selmasongs
Medulla
.
.
.
Volta

Homogenic
Post
Debut
.
.
.
Medulla
.
.
.
Volta
.
.
.
.
(the cruel depths of hell)
Vespertine
Selmasongs

debut > post

congratulation to the five or so posters who got this right itt

Homogenic
Debut
Post
Vespertine
-----------
then i gave up on bjork

(the cruel depths of hell)
Vespertine

SO RONG...

Life's Too Good
Post
Homogenic
Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!
It's It
Selmasongs
Gling Glo
Telegram
Medulla
Vespertine
Debut
Volta
Stick Around For Joy

Homogenic
the other albums

homogenic
vespertine
debut
post
selmasongs
medúlla
volta

Vespertine = steamy winter sex music

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.

I clicked Stan's link before bed last night, then dreamt I went and saw the show.
In my dream, it was awesome and I started crying almost immediately as soon as she walked on stage.

I definitely rank vespertine at the top but these were tipped by the live versions of the songs from that album in the Volta shows with all the strings rescored for brass. Magic.

my ranking

vespertine - FUCKING AMAZING
homogenic - amazing
medulla - mostly great, a bit hit or miss
selmasongs - very good
post - pretty good, but never got the hype as to why it's one of her best
debut - quite patchy
volta - mostly zzzzzzz

think that's it. i haven't played telegram more than once (cant even remember it) and never heard Drawing Restraint 9

Telegram is a remix collection, based on "Post" (gettit?)

In my drawer here is Debut, a dual sided disc with DVD content. 5.1 mix and a bunch of vids.

VESPERTINE
(big gap)
HOMOGENIC
MEDULLA
POST
VOLTA/SELMA
DEBUT

New one leaked. Wasn't really feeling it at first, but the second half is surprisingly strong.

She keeps repeating that trick in "Crystalline" where the tinkly, xylophone/celeste/harpsichord whimsy gets crashed by industrial beats, but it seems to work better in "Sacrifice" and "Mutual Core."

(I guess that trick sort of dates back to "Hyper-Ballad.")

AAAAHHH I HAVE TO HEAR THIS NOW

as usual, i have no idea which bjork thread to revive. but this is really good writing on bjork, i think: http://thequietus.com/articles/23621-bjork-best-albums

also, since the thread hasn't been revived since 2011, i'm curious how bjork fans rate vulnicura and utopia among her other work.

Homogenic
Vespertine
Post
Vulnicura
Debut
Medulla
Biophilia
Utopia
Volta

i am the worst bjork fan ever, but i have approximately 0% recollection of biophilia

replace but with and

vulnicura took a little while to grow on me - i usually tend to gravitate to her more 'active' material, but vulnicura is great sink-into-able material from front to back, and better than she's done that kind of stuff on any of her earlier records. watched the videos for utopia but haven't gotten around to it yet apart from those

i haven't listened to a few of these completely in a while, and i'm generally pretty amenable to most of what björk does, but (very) rough ranking off the top of my head:
homogenic
vulnicura / debut
post / volta / vespertine / medulla / biophilia

rank em

Homogenic > Vespertine > Telegram > Post > Debut > Medulla > Selmasongs > Utopia > Vulnicura > Volta > Biophilia > Drawing Restraint 9

Vulnicura was a welcome return to form for me when released, it seemed to revisit the harsher distorted beats of Homogenic and was a little more accessible emotionally. Utopia was also a nice surprise, the arrangements are gorgeous on this and it's really a record to live in. Also there's some good melodic vocal hooks, which it seems have become less frequent on recent Bjork albums

also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68qymYgSxCM

Recruiting: POLL Neon Like -- ILM artist poll #88 -- BJÖRK (voting open until April 27, 2018)