HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

Great! I've been preparing a bit this weekend, setting beat grids/cue points/etc for a nice playlist of Björk remixes, I'm just waiting for the poll-winners, include those and then I can live mix & record a hopefully halfway decent hour-long mix. Listening to dozens of these remixes, I feel more and more it's a real shame that she abandoned dancefloor oriented material so quickly.

(xpost)
Too low!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/volta.jpg

09. Volta (2007) -- 29 points; 4 votes; 1 first-place vote

commendable thread title

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/biophilia.jpg

08. Biophilia (2011) -- 54 points; 8 votes

selmasongs too low though i didn't vote for it in the end

So excited for this.

I'm fine with Volta being so low. Definitely her least essential full length album for me.

time to bookmark!

Oooh! Exciting.

These placements feel about right. ie. these three weren't on my ballot at all. :)

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/utopia.jpg

07. Utopia (2017) -- 56 points; 8 votes

Oh, Biophilia criminally too low.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/vulnicura.jpg

06. Vulnicura (2015) -- 123 points; 18 votes

Biophilia should be higher than Utopia. I'm still waiting for this album to connect beyond a few tracks (Blissing Me, Arisen My Senses and Future Forever being the main highlights). Vulnicura was my number five. Such a gorgeous record.

agree with Vulnicura ahead of Utopia but ahead of Biophilia too?? damn y'all

My "too low!" goes to Vulnicura. Still, half of y'all voted for it!

Yeah, there was a clear line between the number of votes 6th place got and 7th place.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/medulla.jpg

05. Medúlla (2004) -- 132 points; 17 votes

Oh, Biophilia criminally too low.

At least a lot of us gained a new appreciation for it (even if we didn't vote for it), it looked like. And that's really the best part of these polls imo.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/71e4ci9r61l-_sl1050_.jpg

04. Debut (1993) -- 183 points; 24 votes; 2 first-place votes

At least a lot of us gained a new appreciation for it (even if we didn't vote for it), it looked like. And that's really the best part of these polls imo.

― change display name (Jordan),

Yeah, that's true. It was really cool to see a positive reaction for Biophilia in the voting thread. I remember being so disappointed when it didn't even make the top 77 albums list in 2011. Speaking of new appreciations, Medulla was a revelation for me when I went back to it before voting. I've always enjoyed it, but I fell for it in a big way over the last few weeks. Ended up putting it as my number three.

I'm a little surprised Utopia did better than Biophilia

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/0416aad9845ed91751bf880c3951f34f-1000x1000x1.jpg

03. Post (1995) -- 228 points; 28 votes; 5 first-place votes

Yeah I enjoyed & listened to Medulla a lot when it came out, but was a little surprised to go back and realize that it's now one of my favorites (and maybe my #1).

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/vespertine.jpg

02. Vespertine (2001) -- 287 points; 33 votes; 12 first-place votes

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/homogenic.jpg

01. Homogenic (1997) -- 301 points; 33 votes; 17 first-place votes

Brief break and then back with Sugarcubes tracks.

only 12 voters for Sugarcubes? lol, I woulda voted for my five favorite KUKL tracks given the chance

if y'all haven't heard those records, they are worth your time

wow good for Vespertine, my number one

my albums ranking:
Vespertine
Homogenic
Debut
Post
Vulnicura
SelmaSongs
Medulla
Biophilia
Volta
Utopia

my album ballot:
Vespertine
Homogenic
Post
Debut
Vulnicura

Perfect top two! My order:

Homogenic
Vespertine
Medulla
Post
Vulnicura
Debut
Biophilia
Utopia
Volta
SelmaSongs

I guess it's not surprising to still see the eternal divide 92-01 / 04-present in the perceptions of her career. At the same time, I sense a re-appraisal, a few years ago you still had whiners asking when she'd finally return to pop (these people need to be slapped) and beats; now more people reserve a good place for her later work, though it's curious how nobody quite agrees on which. For example, I had a second discovery of Björk at the time of Medulla and Volta, so these two hold a special place for me, Medulla especially but this one really stands alone, I think Volta really defined her later work: all those sound-landscape portraits, and the use of additional instruments (horns on Volta, then strings, then winds). At the same time, I was always cold to Biophilia, which I find too... abstract and cold in its style exercises. I was hoping to see even more points for Vulnicura.
Post and Debut are both unequal, but Debut has a lot of charm, and so does Post, maybe.
I can't deny that Homogenic and Vespertine still tower in her discography, including for me, although for a while Medulla was my official favorite. I still can't decide which I prefer of those two masterpieces, as they're really so different. I certainly wasn't expecting a 17-12 for Homogenic, I'd have imagined Vespertine coming on top actually, because of its sheer orchestrated / atmospheric / post-pop beauty. I guess Homogenic is the all-rounder, while Vespertine is the late night shivers.

Vespertine was my #1 but there was almost nothing separating the top three (Which included Vulnicura)

I should already be asleep but I think I'm going to...stick around for joy.

(adding to my post: *soundscapes and poetry really developed in Volta, the longer pieces too)
Anyone for a symbolic interpretation of Vespertine's cover ? Right now the swans and rapture are staring at me and striking me as a very unique and defy my thoughts.

Post
Homogenic
Vespertine
Debut
Vulnicura

any of those top 3 could be at the top on any given day, though

lol this was a pretty predictable top 5

Vulnicura almost squeaked in!

Full album results ...

Homogenic	301	33
Vespertine	287	33
Post	228	28
Debut	183	24
Medúlla	132	17
Vulnicura	123	18
Utopia	56	8
Biophilia	54	8
Volta	29	4
Selmasongs	20	3
Drawing Restraint 9	16	2
Vespertine Live	8	1
Telegram	7	1
Mount Wittenberg Orca	6	1

SUGARCUBES TRACKS

10. Eat the Menu -- 17 points; 2 votes

09. Water -- 20 points; 3 votes

(Not going to overwhelm the thread with YT links until we get to music videos, ftr.)

I didn't vote in the album poll (was a beyond-the-deadline voter), but Vespertine would've been my number 1. Post was 2 though, so I doubt it would've lead to a switch of those two.

Biggest surprise for is seeing Medúlla so high. Thought it'd place around 7th/8th, certainly not higher than Vulnicura and Biophilia!

08. Traitor -- 23 points; 3 votes

My albums vote

Homogenic
Vespertine
Vulnicura
Medúlla
Mount Wittenberg Orca

Did not vote for Sugarcubes tracks as I only know three. But will check out whatever comes up.

True confession, I've never checked out the Sugarcubes stuff

search the bonkers string-section remix of "Deus" for sure

07. Walkabout -- 34 points; 5 votes

06. Motorcrash -- 37 points; 5 votes

TOO LOW :)

Oops, "Traitor" and "Eat the Menu" had 1 first-place vote each

I agree, that Top 10 is pretty much wall to wall gold. Sleeve, enjoy your FP.

Thanks for doing this Eric!

I'll add myself to the Unison of praise for Eric's rollout and images. So many Björks! I spoke of being Björked out on the voting thread, only to start listening to her again almost immediately thereafter. It's been a turbulent relationship! I'd say I've been like a killer whale trapped in a bay, but I might be more like Meester Fly who, having gotten lost some time around Volta, has since emerged from the ointment and started buzzing against the screen in the darkness.

Re: All is full of love

I've never figured out what string instrument is featured in this, it sounds like plucked harpsichord strings.

Dan - that’s A harpsichord my friend

I don't know for certain what it is, but I'm fairly sure it's not a harpsichord. Sounds much more like a hammered dulcimer.

It’s a harpsichord according to wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Is_Full_of_Love

More accurately: according to whoever wrote the paragraph on this song for a Slant best 90s singles list. No hard evidence in that wiki article.

I still disagree. I can't claim to be an expert on the harpsichord, but I have been listening to harpsichord music regularly for about 15 years, and I've heard recordings of dozens or hundreds of different harpsichords - and the instrument in AIFOL just doesn't sound like one to me. The strings sound as though they're being struck, not plucked, and the inflection and variation in volume I hear are impossible to achieve on a harpsichord. As I said, sounds like a hammered dulcimer. Or a cimbalom. If I'm wrong and the strings are being plucked, then I think it must be some kind of harp, zither, psaltery...

Anyway, all this doesn't matter really but the harpsichord comments upthread caused me to listen to this for the first time in years and I felt compelled to inscribe my opinion as a harpsichord enthusiast on this thread.

It is a sampled kora

It is absolutely not a harpsichord. It may be a harp played near the table but I doubt it. It is such a specifically kora-esque sound that I think it’s almost certainly that instrument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmFY97JlHk8

THE KORA IS FUCKIN DOPE

The next 17 tracks, if it had been a full 77 poll:

Pleasure is All Mine
You've Been Flirting Again
Declare Independence
I Go Humble
Future Forever
New World
History of Touches
I See Who You Are
So Broken
Family
Earth Intruders
Tabula Rasa
It's in Our Hands
Gate, The
Storm
Charlene
Atom Dance
― nourish nourish your turtleheart (Eric H.), Friday, May 11, 2018 5:11 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would've loved to see "family," though i'm sorta relieved i didn't have the chance to unload on "declare independence" at length

don't let them do that to you

five of my votes were in those 17 tracks!

I already unloaded on it in the polling thread

I can't tell what is uglier. When a successful musician writes a song that betrays their corny political views, or the fact that successful musicians will tend to have corny political views in the first place

would pay american currency for a corny political album by successful icelandic musician Björk Guðmundsdóttir

There you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidays_in_Europe_(The_Naughty_Nought)

Declare Independence is my least-favourite of all her singles.

A side poll I had no intention of doing. Though my answer to that would have been "The Dull Flame of Desire."

Poor Volta. The singles, or most of them, are probably the least successful things on it. A brassy mini-album based around "Wanderlust" and the somber middle section etc would be great.

a long time lurker (well, i did post briefly a few years ago), finally signed up just so that i could submit my ballot but couldn't manage it in time. so before i go back to lurking i just wanted to say how stunned i am that no Mark Bell / LFO mixes were mentioned at all, especially considering how well loved I Go Humble seems to be.

Possibly Maybe Lucy mix which is more devastating than the original (and the original is devastating enough, didn't she say it was the most difficult song for her to write?). then the trio of Bachelorette mixes, Blue/Optimism and this one, which would be my #1, probably:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8TpCBmpn8s

and Hyperballad, Stomp mix / Disco Sync mix and 3am mix is just so achingly beautiful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifSYpW6tLEE

also Come to Me Black Dog remix >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> anything else on The Best Remixes for People.

and sad Charlene and You've been flirting again didn't make it. the turn and the swell of violins in the latter when she sings "give her some time, give her some space", and the anticipation that something wonderful is about to happen, and when you hear it for the first time you're so afraid you'll be disappointed and then Isobel starts...

damn it, i forgot Verandi. i'm totally in the "vespertine b-sides" camp. the way the voice counters the falling bassline...

surprised (and glad) to see Enjoy and Crying make it - for whatever reason i also always thought that they were neglected and not widely liked tracks (and both were the first tracks i liked on both albums). funny it seems to be a shared perception.

Last-minute ballot so v.short.

Singles (ranked):

Hidden Place
Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)
Pagan Poetry
Hunter
Play Dead
Venus As A Boy
Domestica
Amphibian
Human Behaviour
Verandi

Remixes (ranked):

Crystalline (Omar Souleyman Remix)
Human Behavour (Speedy J Remix)
Hyperballad (Tee's Freeze Mix)
Dull Flame Of Desire (Modeselektor's Remix for Girls)
Stonemilker (Forest Swords Remix)

Albums (ranked):

Vespertine

Poor Volta. The singles, or most of them, are probably the least successful things on it. A brassy mini-album based around "Wanderlust" and the somber middle section etc would be great.

Yeah I do quite like the album (particularly that stretch in the middle) but Wanderlust is the only one of the singles I can really get behind. Dull Flame of Desire is a slog, Innocence is OK but just feels like an inferior retread of Alarm Call.

My normie ballot, except for my questionable volta stanning --

4 / Bachelorette
1 / Hyperballad
20 / Big Time Sensuality
9 / All is Full of Love
2 / Joga
8 / Hunter
18 / It's Not Up to You
3 / Pagan Poetry
12 / Who Is It
46 / Where Is the Line
Earth Intruders
54 / Lionsong
7 / Venus as a Boy
Pleasure is All Mine
The Dull Flame of Desire
48 / It's Oh So Quiet
5 / Unravel
30 / Enjoy
49 / Violently Happy
10 / Hidden Place
Moon
50 / I've Seen it All
15 / Cocoon
Stígðu Mig
Declare Independence
44 / Wanderlust
22 / All Neon Like
26 / Pluto
13 / Undo
25 / Aurora

also thanks for running this eric h! not often i feel knowledgeable enough to jump in on an ILM poll but this was one of them :) and the pictures were BEAUTIFUL!

tbh I don't think the top 5 remixes we collectively chose were actually the top 5 remixes; they were just the small handful of remixes that people had heard. IF we all did a deep dive and actually assessed her massive collection of remixes we'd I think certainly have more Mark Bell/LFO stuff.

yeah i only managed to get through the debut/post/homogenic remixes before voting

i love the black dog remix of "come to me" but it's like... the most unsettling version of that song and i think rating it significantly over "anything else on The Best Remixes for People" is a curious choice to say the least

then again i love cheap euphoria

just kinda shortchanges what the other remixes are going for i think

That Mark Bell "Bachelorette" remix is sheen.

ok so maybe i was a bit too dismissive of the rest of The Best Mixes (and didn't realize Ned wrote the allmusic review for it, just saw it)

but the Black Dog "Come To Me" is the one i immediately turn up when it comes on. if the original is being enveloped in this warm, glowing (yet almost suffocating) blanket of safety then the black dog version is the other end of it, the person to whom the song is addressed, completely surrendered, in a trance of not worrying. which could be seen as unsettling - but that's what the Sabres version is to me, it's the person realizing the suffocating aspect of it.

as for Human Behaviour it's nice but just feels a bit too "Underworld remixes Bjork" by numbers. i'd actually prefer if Sabres remixed it instead! just think of what Weatherall could do with it.

i really wish she had a follow up to The Best Mixes / Telegram, or a singles box set..

I like the Speedy J remix of Human Behaviour more than the Underworld one. Reminds me of The Shamen, oddly enough.

My ballot; Isobel and Hunter might have placed too high, but Hyperballad was an easy pick for #1.

1. Hyperballad
2. Possibly Maybe
3. Isobel
4. Hunter
5. Enjoy
6. Venus as a Boy
7. History of Touches
8. All Neon Like
9. Army of Me
10. Pluto
11. New World
12. 5 Years
13. It's Oh So Quiet
14. Like Someone in Love
15. Unravel
16. Immature
17. Human Behavior
18. Bachelorette
19. Aurora
20. The Gate
21. Joga
22. Black Lake
23. Arisen My Senses
24. In the Musicals
25. The Modern Things
26. Come to Me
27. Big Time Sensuality
28. Stonemilker
29. Violently Happy
30. Alarm Call

Albums

Homogenic
Post
Vulnicura
Utopia
Debut

i thought i'd never want to hear her voice ever again but i listened to Black Lake because of this poll and I liked it. i still don't want to hear her singing ever again though.

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAH omg you guys Mark Bell made a fucking Miami Bass remix of "Bachelorette" I am SCREAMING!!

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

@BradNelson

have been listening to the Spotify, great job as always ILM.

my ballot

Tracks:

Come To Me
Play Dead
Enjoy
Hyper-ballad
Possibly Maybe
Isobel
Immature
My Snare/Nature is Ancient
Pagan Poetry
Undo
Pleasure is all mine
So Broken
Sod Off
Stonemilker
Tabula Rasa
Triumph of the heart
Where is the line
Unison
venus as a boy
wanderlust
who is it
it's in our hands
you've been flirting again
joga
unravel
bachelorette
5 years
hidden place
scary
one day

Albums:

#1 Homogenic
#2 Vespertine
#3 Selmasongs
#4 Telegram
#5 Utopia

remixes

#1 pagan poetry herbert mix
#2 plaid all is full of love
#3 soft pink truth it's in our hands

music videos

#1 joga
#2 bachelorette
#3 isobel
#4 human behaviour
#5 i miss you

hey, i voted Come to Me #1 too! *high five*

such a lovely song

Debut turns 25 today.

listening to "come to me" with the most respect

Been listening again to this ranking and I love this poll’s results.

Aww, me too.

Funny, I was listening to this as well yesterday.

I found myself here just the other day because I had "Scary" swimming around inside my head and wondered whether it got an appropriate amount of love here. (It was on a few ballots, at least!)

TTL has all the old Bjork vinyls in stock, FYI

https://www.turntablelab.com/search?sort=best-selling&type=article%2Cpage%2Cproduct&q=bjork&_=pf&pf_v_artist_manufacturer=Bjork&pf_v_artist_manufacturer=The%20Sugarcubes&pf_st_stock_status=true&goal=0_8b218d7604-bbb69b2476-31345977&mc_cid=bbb69b2476&mc_eid=365684acc9