possibly because i've mostly been listening on earbuds (good insight, karl)
― 808s & Deep States (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:24 (six years ago) link
eric was right, i should've voted for "it's not up to you"
how do i masterthe perfect day
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:24 (six years ago) link
There's still time imo.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
the triumph of a heartthe triumph of the hearta triumph of the hearta triumph of a heart
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
Also, I can't say there's a Bjork album that does nothing for me. A couple of them antagonize me, but I'm certainly not neutral on a single one of them.
hope it's not too late to rep for these three remixes, all (as far as I know) only on whitelabels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88HqorPJDWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoP6Ro_41tI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psr9vd9lGiQ
― Siegbran, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 17:17 (six years ago) link
I have now tallied 14 ballots. Still a lot of people I know who are Bjork fanatics who haven't weighed in yet!
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 20:26 (six years ago) link
Oh, and here's where I ask if there's someone out there who feels like designing a tile template for the reveal thread?
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 20:27 (six years ago) link
“Pagan Poetry” isn’t just one of Bjork’s very best songs, it’s also the last time (with the possible exception of the chorus to “Mutual Core”) where I think “no one else could do with this melody what Bjork does”. There are strong melodies later (though fewer than before of course) and there are some amazing vocal runs, but the two don’t tend to be so mutually reinforcing thereafter.
Like, the way she leans into the first word of the chorus so aggressively, like she’s pushing though something painful to get to something beautiful - who else could pull it off? Who would dare try to cover it?
c.f. the “pop” songs on Medulla, where typically Bjork feels like she’s actually backgrounding her lead vocal more than usual even if she’s delivering a memorable chorus line - if not in terms of volume or prominence, then in terms of style and flair - as if dominating the track like she would have previously kind of defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.
Conversely the big vocal moments later on rarely combine with indelible melodies.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 06:00 (five years ago) link
Well these Greek guys tried to cover it:
https://youtu.be/DSfXZ5rkCNQ
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 06:28 (five years ago) link
Just tallied the most idiosyncratic ballot so far. Up to 15.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 16:22 (five years ago) link
Hopefully it’ll make up for my bound-to-be-boring one.
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:13 (five years ago) link
great post, tim f
when you talk about her "vocal runs" and "big vocal moments" as something distinct from the melodies, do you mean just in terms of loudness and prominence in the song, or technical virtuosity, or something else?
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:29 (five years ago) link
"Like, the way she leans into the first word of the chorus [of Pagan Poetry] so aggressively, like she’s pushing though something painful to get to something beautiful"
so otm. this ballot was painful to put together. i put pagan poetry below two other vespertine songs! (but how are you going to put any above "Undo"... so agonizing)
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:31 (five years ago) link
Undo is the best, it's true
― sleeve, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:34 (five years ago) link
Pagan Poetry and Undo are my two favorites from Vespertine also. For me it feels like the album comes to a peak with those two.
some days I think Pagan Poetry is the best thing she has ever done
― Dan S, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:36 (five years ago) link
Pagan Poetry and Undo are my two favorites from Vespertine also
i think i agree with this too, but i had a ~moment~ with Unison as i was wrapping up my ballot and ended up putting it above Pagan Poetry as well.
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:39 (five years ago) link
Cocoon my fave by far. Sun In My Mouth is fantastic, too, feels underrated (if that is at all possible for anything on Vespertine)
I still need to sift through the b-sides before I vote. Any pointers? A yt playlist, or a collection of sorts?
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 17:58 (five years ago) link
stevie d had some good resources:
fyi this is a great source for her remixes, grouped by era
http://www.youtube.com/user/BjorkDisography/playlists
― the masseduction of lauryn hill (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, April 11, 2018 9:45 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
b-sides too, it's p comprehensive
― the masseduction of lauryn hill (Stevie D(eux)), Wednesday, April 11, 2018 9:47 AM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh I also made this which afaict is a comprehensive list of all b-sides thru Vespertine
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlHmB5haapzRYVDJ30_ONRAd1_mrKbUCs
anyone who sleeps on her b-sides is canceled
― the masseduction of lauryn hill (Stevie D(eux)),
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:01 (five years ago) link
and camaraderie at arms length also had a nice selection, i thought:
Atlantic (from Human Behaviour single)Glora (from Big Time Sensuality single)Sweet Intuition (from Army of Me single)Karvel (from I Miss You single)I Go Humble (from Isobel single)Oxygen (Evelyn Glennie featuring Björk)Sod Off (from Joga single)Foot Soldier (from Hidden Place single)Domestica (from Pagan Poetry single)Batabid (from Pagan Poetry single)It's In Our Hands (from Greatest Hits)Trance (from To Lee, With Love, Nick ost)Náttúra (single, 2008)Flétta (Antony and the Johnsons featuring Björk)
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:02 (five years ago) link
Ohh blessig u KM <3
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:04 (five years ago) link
no prob! just bumping some posts upthread, they did all the work :)
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:07 (five years ago) link
https://78.media.tumblr.com/53bccd6850c11d881502052c50df9085/tumblr_ojz9wenAM91rpduwho1_500.gif
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:08 (five years ago) link
always include “verandi” in a björk b-side selection imo
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:33 (five years ago) link
*takes note*
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:35 (five years ago) link
"karvel" and "i go humble" are both perfect
homogenic b-sides were sensibly b-sides
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
(even though they are enjoyable)
There are some real hidden gems among those three Sugarcubes albums. Right now, I'm Hungry is my new jam.
― Marty8501 (Marty Innerlogic), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link
“when you talk about her "vocal runs" and "big vocal moments" as something distinct from the melodies, do you mean just in terms of loudness and prominence in the song, or technical virtuosity, or something else?“
I guess I meant the sense in which the songs act as vehicle for the expression of Bjork’s voice as an instrument for its own ends, rather than (or in addition to) Bjork’s voice being a vehicle for the delivery of the song.
In the context of her earlier work this is most clear in the way Bjork would tend to sing around the melody, filling her songs with all these delightful vocal curlicues - like in “Big Time Sensuality”, it’s difficult to say whether the snippet of singing from about 2:45 to 3:00 is part of the “song” in any sense divorced from Bjork herself, but it’s one of the best moments in the song; those curlicues tending to be the pinnacle of intensity, the moment when the singer’s irrepressible sense of lust or excitement or anger or wonder or sheer intensity would bubble up and kind of spill over or across the confines of song-structure.
As her songwriting has grown less structured, the distinction between song and curlicue has grown murkier - “show me emotional respect, ah-respect, ah-respect” is the most memorable refrain in “Stonemilker” and the kind of moment it’s difficult to imagine another singer infusing with such power, but on a Debut song that would have been a scat around the main refrain rather than the refrain itself.
It’d be interesting to trace out those developments in her songwriting and song performance more carefully - one reason I love “The Modern Things” so much is the sense in which it was the first time one of the songs on her albums simply adopted the thought-experiment of “let’s make the curlicues the entire point of the song”. But I also think Bjork’s singing style exists in an elastic relationship to song-structure, and if the songwriting becomes too diffuse it can tend to dilute the push-pull intensity of the singing, the sense in which Bjork is giving voice to some kind of radical excess.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:12 (five years ago) link
yes, really well said
― Dan S, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:23 (five years ago) link
There are some real hidden gems among those three Sugarcubes albums.
and the B-sides, and the 10" remix of "Deus"
― sleeve, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:35 (five years ago) link
As her songwriting has grown less structured, the distinction between song and curlicue has grown murkier
this is true, but it also made me think about how much i enjoy the moments in the later albums where you can separate out these aspects of her songwriting into distinct sections (for instance "mutual core" = curlicues in the verses assemble into the song in the chorus)
there's also a pronounced tendency in her later work to circle around a single melody for five minutes ("blissing me") and i don't know if i'd classify it as either song or curlicue (so, murky as you said)
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:39 (five years ago) link
Yes, and those are two of her best later songs in large part for those reasons.
“Blissing Me” reminds me of Vashti Bunyan both vocally and musically.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:45 (five years ago) link
God, "Blissing Me" is an oasis on that album.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
it's such a lovely song
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 19:48 (five years ago) link
I think there's a definite analogous path to Bjork's career as there was to Joni Mitchell's, and right now we're at 'Mingus'. Which maybe means soon Bjork's going to do interesting song-form music again soon that will be following trends rather than laying foundations--but it'll still be interesting. And then in a few years we'll get "back to basics" Bjork (or maybe that was 'Vulnicura'). FWIW, I've come to love almost all of Mitchell's ouevre even though none of it ever matched the heights of 'Blue', so I'm hoping I'll dig 'Utopia' one day...
― Soundslike, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 22:47 (five years ago) link
Which maybe means soon Bjork's going to do interesting song-form music again soon that will be following trends rather than laying foundations
great description of volta
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 22:50 (five years ago) link
not sure which if any Volta tracks I'm going to vote for, but the video for Wanderlust is all-time great I think
― Dan S, Wednesday, 25 April 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
agreed, i couldn't fit it into my top five but it's a gorgeous video
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 April 2018 12:51 (five years ago) link
It's my 2nd place vote for vids.
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Thursday, 26 April 2018 12:52 (five years ago) link
finishing up my ballot, will send tomorrow
― 808s & Deep States (voodoo chili), Thursday, 26 April 2018 14:14 (five years ago) link
^^^ me too
― sleeve, Thursday, 26 April 2018 14:45 (five years ago) link
really enjoying the lyrics on Utopia today, googling love in this fucking mist, etc.
― geoffreyess, Thursday, 26 April 2018 20:48 (five years ago) link
lol i nearly stopped the record when i got to that one
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 April 2018 21:10 (five years ago) link
love the lyrics to Features Creatures. it's also a track on Utopia that stands out to me musically
― Dan S, Thursday, 26 April 2018 21:37 (five years ago) link
I'd generally rather not hear the word "googling" on an album but I make an exception for Bjork.
― geoffreyess, Thursday, 26 April 2018 21:46 (five years ago) link
I should be able to get my ballot in tonight (Australia time).
Going through the albums this past fortnight, I think Utopia is my favourite after Vespertine.
In an odd way, for reasons that make it sound like the opposite to how it is described by most people. With the exception of a few cases (stuff like “Body Memory”) it feels like a very composed and thoughtfully pretty record to me, and the key stretches - the first three tracks, the middle double-hit of “Courtship” (almost a pop song) and “Losss”, parts of the final lap - are actually really accessible and focused.
I know that people were down on “The Gate” as a first single but I love it, it sounds so hushed and reverent, like it’s being transmitted from an ancient, sacred grotto.
Also woodwinds are such a good look for her, and their continual presence kind of connects the album with the sound of early tracks like “Atlantic”, it feels like coming full circle.
― Tim F, Thursday, 26 April 2018 21:59 (five years ago) link
Mine is coming later tonight. I was hoping to discover some later period stuff that i might include, but nope. Get ready for a ballot that’s 90% 90s.
― incel elgort (cryptosicko), Thursday, 26 April 2018 22:15 (five years ago) link
― Tim F, Thursday, April 26, 2018 2:59 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 April 2018 22:17 (five years ago) link
also every stretch you mention kinda acted as a different portal into the record every time i listened to it. like at first i was spellbound by "arisen my senses" and "blissing me" and then progressively got confused, then on second listen "courtship" seemed to snap everything into focus, third listen "saint" and "future forever" really got to me, etc.
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 26 April 2018 22:20 (five years ago) link