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

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Omg @ recording a full batucada group on the all-vocal album only to decide that no, it should still be an all-vocal album. Maybe she had to go to Brazil for a concert or something anyway?

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 17:43 (six years ago) link

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

one of the all time remixes

i think time will be kind to the reception of Vulnicura and Utopia - Vulnicura has some of her finest string arrangements to date and returns to the beat palette that made Homogenic so engaging. While it was sad to hear she disbanded that tour for mental health reasons (break-up) Utopia is the victory lap; meeting someone new, feeling sparks and letting the past be the past. Utopia is also her most vivid sound world, it's like an electric blanket

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Friday, 13 April 2018 17:51 (six years ago) link

i'd like to thank Eric again for this thread, which renewed my interest in Bjork who is a living legend imo

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Friday, 13 April 2018 17:54 (six years ago) link

The version of Oceania near the end of the doc with the crazy (midi?) piano is interesting too

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:02 (six years ago) link

Oh I see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcSZG3bmE7c

(although the doc version has beats + piano and it's even better)

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:05 (six years ago) link

xps You're welcome, but engaging in shared love for Bjork, the pleasure is all mine.

Uppercase (Eric H.), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:07 (six years ago) link

Batucada version was released! Ok, I'll stop liveblogging my descent into Bjork b-sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xj1y3PsT9o

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link

yeah thanks Eric! I tried to make a ballot the other day and basically gave up, but I've been enjoying reading the thread and listening to Björk for the first time in a while. I put on Selmasongs yesterday, which I hadn't played since the unfortunate day in 2001 that I saw Dancer in the Dark, and it was nice to re-realize there are some good songs on it despite LVT.

rob, Friday, 13 April 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link

The high note at 2:30...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRAd8nFmIiU

Uppercase (Eric H.), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:20 (six years ago) link

Every time I feel myself getting too down on Medulla, I remember it has "Mouth's Cradle," "Who Is It," "Triumph of a Heart," and "Desired Constellatioh" and really that's enough.

Uppercase (Eric H.), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:21 (six years ago) link

Damn that bit crushed harp on Desired constellation rules

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:25 (six years ago) link

oof, that all is full of love clip, here i go again. i need to just sit down and watch a full show

Karl Malone, Friday, 13 April 2018 18:26 (six years ago) link

desired constellation will be on my ballot, as well as triumph of a heart

Karl Malone, Friday, 13 April 2018 18:27 (six years ago) link

Of all the albums I'm most curious to see how 'Vulnicura' is doing on here. It's such a fantastic, understated record. Reception seemed to veer towards "oh a Björk break-up album nbd" a lot, but man is it classic.

Medulla will be the tough nut to crack for me, diving in deep for this poll.

lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:32 (six years ago) link

I just did my ruthless first pass on tracks to isolate my favorite-est of favorites. It's 24 songs long, leaving me only 6 slots for the roughly 40 or so garden-variety favorites.

Uppercase (Eric H.), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:32 (six years ago) link

Reception seemed to veer towards "oh a Björk break-up album nbd"

from where i was sitting at the time it was a very big deal!

i was only really capable of listening to it once but i’m looking forward to hearing it again

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:36 (six years ago) link

Some of her b-sides like Scary, So Broken and Domestica are probably in my top 20. As usual her performances are tight but So Broken and Joga on Jools Holland are so so good. I wouldn’t like to be the band following those ones.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:40 (six years ago) link

I lost interest after the brave, challenging, unlistenable Medulla, although the Von Trier soundtrack caused the first chink in my armor. I've given every album at least two spins, though. I look forward most to re-listening to Vulnicura

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:46 (six years ago) link

brave, challenging, unlistenable Medulla

medulla has so many hooks, what did you listen to

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:50 (six years ago) link

"Triumph of the Heart" I can still hum, don't remember a thing about the rest. It's been fourteen (!) years.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:50 (six years ago) link

"who is it" one of her most indelible choruses

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:52 (six years ago) link

gonna listen while I work out this afternoon

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link

I've been doing a good job today of convincing myself that Medulla is actually my favorite Bjork album

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 19:01 (six years ago) link

Drawing restraint 9 is where the rot set in

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Friday, 13 April 2018 19:09 (six years ago) link

this is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4RTMsb8bA

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Friday, 13 April 2018 19:31 (six years ago) link

Back to Biophilia and 'Mutual Core' is blowing my mind rn

change display name (Jordan), Friday, 13 April 2018 19:52 (six years ago) link


brave, challenging, unlistenable Medulla

medulla has so many hooks, what did you listen to

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, April 13, 2018 6:50 PM (one hour ago)

Seriously! 'Medulla' is her last pop record, with like melodies and beats and lyrics with meter that follows those beats. It's her last (successful) song record.

Did you hear the record or just read some bad reviews? ; )

Soundslike, Friday, 13 April 2018 19:56 (six years ago) link

HOW CAN I IGNORE
THIS IS SEX WITHOUT TOUCHING

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 20:03 (six years ago) link

I'm very curious about the songwriting/production arrangements on this album. Apparently "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things" were initially recorded before Debut, but they sound very much "of a piece" (if anything on this album can be described in those terms) with the other electronic tracks sonically, sort of sitting halfway between the Nellee co-productions and "Enjoy". The production credits suggest that maybe Bjork built the bones of those songs with Graham Massey and then retouched them with Nellee Hooper?

The funny thing is that songwriting-wise there's nothing like those two tracks on Debut, and the other Nellee co-productions on Post ("Hyper-Ballad", "Isobel", "Possibly Maybe"), which I think Bjork wrote by herself, all follow Debut's relatively more conventional song template (the album's "Violently Happy", "Aeroplane" and "Venus As A Boy" respectively, perhaps).

So it's almost as if what changed when Bjork collaborated was not so much the production sound as the songwriting approach, though in this case it's more the collaborator sparking something out of Bjork that was there, given there's no way you could conceive of (say) "The Modern Things" as the product of any other musician.

― Tim F, Monday, 21 November 2016 11:47 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was listening to Post last night and thinking this again.

And to be clear I would never attribute primary responsibility for the sound or style of her work to anyone else. But I guess since throughout the 90s it felt like Bjork was always riding the crest of an advancing wave of modern pop sound design, it's fascinating to me to consider the sound of that work in its broader context - like the way the buoyancy and swing of "Come To Me" feels like the culmination of a sound that started with the early Soul II Soul singles, or how "Play Dead" so precisely presaged (and, I suspect, directly inspired) the sound of Depeche Mode's Ultra some four years later.

Tim F, Friday, 13 April 2018 22:54 (six years ago) link

ike the way the buoyancy and swing of "Come To Me" feels like the culmination of a sound that started with the early Soul II Soul singles

This explains some of the ambivalence up thread, and it might also have something to do with how old one was when Bjork released Debut. With Hooper I was conscious of the Massive Attack and Soul II Soul background, therefore those things sounded like a culmination; to others they're the blah-est tracks.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:18 (six years ago) link

oh, i just realized that i associate "bachelorette" with this amv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrLq6daOp9Q

this same thing happened during the smashing pumpkins poll lol

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:22 (six years ago) link

also holy shit i still love this song

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:23 (six years ago) link

Triumph of a Heart is really grating to me for some reason, the melody just does not work for me at all.

ufo, Saturday, 14 April 2018 00:28 (six years ago) link

i realize that i actually like the beatboxing on that track, except for one of the voices - the one that moves much faster than the others, at a high pitch. that particular mouth grates, for me. really like the rest of it.

Karl Malone, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:25 (six years ago) link

watching the video, you see how personal of a process that might have been, to record the different components of that beat. and you can almost imagine them not having the heart to tell the guy who does the high pitched fast moving part to just be quiet. it was too awkward, so they just let him keep doing it i guess.

Karl Malone, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:26 (six years ago) link

Today is the day I discovered the Motorbass Remix of “Isobel”.

Tim F, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:29 (six years ago) link

Also

This explains some of the ambivalence up thread, and it might also have something to do with how old one was when Bjork released Debut. With Hooper I was conscious of the Massive Attack and Soul II Soul background, therefore those things sounded like a culmination; to others they're the blah-est tracks.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:18 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this is correct. I got on board in 1995 and while Poat sounded more up-to-date than Debut, the difference didn’t seem substantial (it actually seems like a wider gulf now than it did then - sonic trends moved so fast in the 90s that it wasn’t obvious then just how remarkable the velocity was - now the idea that things could change so radically in just 2 years seems remarkable). Whereas if you jumped on board with Homogenic the production choices on Debut might seem very safe or classicist.

Tim F, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:33 (six years ago) link

Also

This explains some of the ambivalence up thread, and it might also have something to do with how old one was when Bjork released Debut. With Hooper I was conscious of the Massive Attack and Soul II Soul background, therefore those things sounded like a culmination; to others they're the blah-est tracks.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 April 2018 23:18 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think this is correct. I got on board in 1995 and while Poat sounded more up-to-date than Debut, the difference didn’t seem substantial (it actually seems like a wider gulf now than it did then - sonic trends moved so fast in the 90s that it wasn’t obvious then just how remarkable the velocity was - now the idea that things could change so radically in just 2 years seems remarkable). Whereas if you jumped on board with Homogenic the production choices on Debut might seem very safe or classicist.

Tim F, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:33 (six years ago) link

Sorry for the double post

Tim F, Saturday, 14 April 2018 05:33 (six years ago) link

I was like 9 years old when I first heard a Bjork song. It was in the Now that’s what I call music #2 compilation and the song was “it’s oh so quiet”. My cousin and me thought it was the weirdest song ever.

✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 14 April 2018 06:29 (six years ago) link

Volta is very much her Varèse album, isn't it? The larger instrumental ensembles are back but I'd forgotten that it's nearly all brass and percussion. Saving the strings for Vulnicura, it turns out...

Maximum big surprise! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Saturday, 14 April 2018 07:43 (six years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnRhxOx_Cw4

holy shit

flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 15 April 2018 15:33 (six years ago) link

dope brad

i think you can make a case for "it's oh so quiet" being a gateway bjork track for the ardent and casual fan alike, i remember working at a&b sound and people would buy Post with like red hot chili peppers, not to judge that band but i'm saying it appealed to everyone

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Sunday, 15 April 2018 16:51 (six years ago) link

it was the first bjork I heard. I remember my teacher in junior school one day getting all excited "did you guys see buh-jork on top of the pops last night?!"

ogmor, Sunday, 15 April 2018 19:35 (six years ago) link

I definitely heard/saw Bjork via some of the Debut videos first, but "It's Oh So Quiet" was the first thing by her that I remember enjoying. I'm in the process of watching all of the official music videos available on her YouTube channel, and I can't imagine anything topping this for sheer exuberant joy (though "Big Time Sensuality" comes close).

Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Sunday, 15 April 2018 21:40 (six years ago) link

Stonemilker is really incredible, I think it's going to make my top 10

ufo, Sunday, 15 April 2018 22:27 (six years ago) link

30 tracks was impossible. I'll send 30. . . but personally, I didn't fall to anything I don't like more than 99.9% of contemporary/contemporaneous music until well after #50. And if I did it again at another time, anything between 20 and 40 would probably wind up in a different order.

Reinforced what I already thought, which is that 'Medulla' is basically right there with 'Post'. In terms of tracks, I actually ended up with 11 from 'Medulla' in my top 50. I wish others heard in it what I do--her last great stab at song/melody/beats before focusing mainly on texture/abstraction/instrumentation. But I am already prepared for the likelihood that at best one or two tracks will sneak into the bottom of the ILM top 30.

The thing I hadn't realized before this exercise is that while 'Vespertine' hasn't held up for me over the years like other albums, the b-sides from that era are maybe her best--I've got as many b-sides as album tracks from 'Vespertine'.

For post-Medulla work, sadly, 'Volta' remains as repellent to me as ever--while I dig some of the thought process and the instrumentation, I just find the whole thing disjointed, and while "song-based" totally unengaging as songs and as a song-sequence. 'Biophilia' remains the lovely little trifle I remember it as, not at all unappealing but basically minor. 'Vulnicura' is stronger as a whole than anything since 'Medulla' (and is the only later album to place multiple tracks in my top 30) but it's still most interesting as a sort of "older person looking back and arguing with her early art" than as a work unto itself, for me--while nevertheless being her first emotionally engaging work in a long time. I found a couple tracks from 'Utopia' that manage to actually stand apart enough to be noticed, but the sum total of the album remains fascinating wallpaper.

Soundslike, Sunday, 15 April 2018 22:29 (six years ago) link

I didn't fall to anything I don't like more than 99.9% of contemporary/contemporaneous music until well after #50.

Same.

Uppercase (Eric H.), Sunday, 15 April 2018 22:58 (six years ago) link

"older person looking back and arguing with her early art" ... while nevertheless being her first emotionally engaging work in a long time.

OTM. Especially glad to have revisited Vulnicura this week.

Maximum big surprise! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 16 April 2018 09:37 (six years ago) link

It's so incredibly early yet in balloting, but for the record, the current #2 track is an amazing surprise.

Uppercase (Eric H.), Monday, 16 April 2018 16:14 (six years ago) link


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