HYPERBALLOT: ILM Artist Poll #88 -- Björk Resultsness

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/14-human-behavior.jpg

or "human behavior" for that matter

Fuck, that's the wrong number again. Standby, I can't abide this.

xp if we only get one post-Vespertine track for the remainder, I'm hoping it's Stonemilker

human behaviour ;)

I only ended up voting for Hyperballad and Isobel from Post - nothing particularly against any of the other tracks, but none of them blow me away the way everything else I voted for did. Army of Me in particular is a track I liked at first, but which I've completely tired of now.

Human Behaviour = best track on Debut afaic

that isn't true but it still sounds amazing

Internet high five to the other Cocoon #1 votes.

i suspected it but the poll has me more convinced now that she's been the best artist out there for the past 25 years.

I really like that it’s not immediately clear what the harmonic connection is between the baseline and her vocal line at the beginning of Human Behaviour. it always draws me in

Here's the right image, at any rate:

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wow my fav one yet

i remember distinctly the first time a negative review sold me on an album, and the first time i recognized r0ck1sm (but i didn't have a name for it.)

Months before the Sugar Cubes' first album debuted in the United States, a heavy buzz began to circulate about the group's lead singer, Björk. It was weird enough that the group hailed from Iceland, but Björk's eerie yelps, shrieks, girlish whispers and leather-lunged vocal acrobatics transported the band into another head space entirely. The word invariably used to describe Björk's synapse-bending vocals was feral. Songs such as "Motorcrash" and "Delicious Demon" were supercharged tours de force.

In concert, however, two things became abundantly clear about the Sugar Cubes: First, Björk could deliver the goods; second, the Sugar Cubes' stage act seemed dangerously close to bad performance art. On two subsequent albums, the Cubes abandoned their blunt rock attack for a trendy Euro-dance sound. Björk's vocals were lost amid the electronic clatter. People wondered if it wasn't time for Björk to light out on her own.

She did, and Debut is the utterly disappointing result. Rather than sticking to rock & roll, Debut is painfully eclectic. On "Come to Me" and "Venus as a Boy" Björk adds not just a string section but an entire orchestra from India. It's more intrusive than galvanizing. Likewise, on the jazz standard "Like Someone in Love," Björk is accompanied by a harp — not the kind Little Walter played. Only on the opening track, "Human Behavior," do we get a glimmer of what the fuss was all about.

Producer Nellee Hooper (Sinead O'Connor, Soul II Soul) has sabotaged a ferociously iconoclastic talent with a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry. Björk's singular skills cry out for genuine band chemistry, and instead she gets Hooper's Euro art-school schlock — and we do, too.

Rather than sticking to rock & roll, Debut is painfully eclectic.

on the jazz standard "Like Someone in Love," Björk is accompanied by a harp — not the kind Little Walter played.

Björk's singular skills cry out for genuine band chemistry...

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13. Undo (Vespertine, 2001) -- 901.5 points; 25 votes; 1 first-place vote

hi 5 Moka

Stonemilker is going to be top 5 isn’t it

it's not meant to be a struggle uphill

omar I almost posted that review to the noms thread, that is totally why I bought Debut! (mostly cuz it mentioned Nellee hooper and I was obsessed with soul ii soul)

Undo is my #1!

It's not meant to be a strife
It's not meant to be a struggle uphill

undo was my #4. these lyrics are always relevant, even though i always find myself disagreeing with them (it's not meant to be anything, any "it" that is there is our own making). but the sentiment is so intoxicating and lovely i find myself believing it, every time

love this, especially with headphones. all of the vocal tracks sound slightly different

Undo was my #3, my favourite from Vespertine

the way the harp drifts in and out! the way the beat drops out halfway through! the choir! the harp outro! it's not meant to be a strife!

sisyphus' friends are always putting Undo on his mixtapes and he fucking hates it, stop that, he says

there's also a really good live recording of this from the Royal Opera House on youtube

oh I always thought "uphill" was "up here," i.e. up here on planet Earth, Björk graciously reminding us we live on the same plane as she does.

Same!

me too lol

sisyphus' friends are always putting Undo on his mixtapes and he fucking hates it, stop that, he says

― obviously DLC (Karl Malone), Friday, May 11, 2018 10:10 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao i had a similar joke percolating in my head and this is much funnier

This top ten will be interesting, cause I was expecting the last three to crack it.
Undo is divine. I love the version on Vespertine Live too.

<3 <3<3 Undo, my #2

oh I always thought "uphill" was "up here," i.e. up here on planet Earth, Björk graciously reminding us we live on the same plane as she does.

― geoffreyess, Friday, May 11, 2018 1:19 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same!

― nourish nourish your turtleheart (Eric H.), Friday, May 11, 2018 1:20 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too lol

i did too for a long time! it's lovely because the song is so celestial that it totally makes sense that way

or, i guess when i thought it was "up here" i took that as some sort of higher plane of existence where people like bjork roam. it's interesting to look at the "up here" as earth, though!

forgot to vote for this poll but "Undo" would've been my #1. phil elverum covered that live at a show once out in a field in Western Massachusetts with everyone singing along and it was beautiful. believe it was before the julie doiron collab album.

had graduated from college and was really struggling to find a job let alone a lol career and that "struggle uphill" line for real helped change my perspective on Life.

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12. Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right) (Medúlla, 2004) -- 904 points; 26 votes

xpost
yeah, his song "voice in headphones", besides musically and lyrically quoting "undo", is also pretty much just about how amazing the song is.

YES

YESSSSS

many xps

I love Army of Me but is it just me or does it sound like a demo? It’s mostly the chorus which bothers me how it sounds... the verses sound more overpowered and the chorus sounds somewhat unfinished. I wish I knew more about music production to verbalize what I’m hearing.

The bass cuts out is all

Sometime-reported music nerd moment alert: "Army Of Me" is the most conspicuous single in popular music to be written in the Locrian mode, complete with stylistically correct cadences; likely a conscious music-nerd decision on Björk's part to attempt to write a hit single in this most bizarre of modes

björk's best pop song imo. more in the spirit of a theoretical björk/timbaland collab than the one we actually got

Also "Who Is It" is THE BEST

At its early peak, "Who Is It" was the song I teased out as being the surprising #2 overall.

I knew it wouldn't hold the same I way I knew Fassbinder wouldn't stay #3 on the movie directors' poll, but it was a thrill for a moment, nonetheless.

oh damn xp

if you ask yourself
patiently
and carefully

"who is it" is one of the medulla songs i can't imagine w different production, it's the embodiment of vocal exuberance

I ... like the handbell version too.

I'd like to ask her how she got the vision for Who is it, it's so not "intuitive" and complex as a pop song.
I guess for Medulla at large it must have come in good part from these backing choir vocals she knew so much about.
Those drums <3

I love the version of this song they used for the video, with all of the bells and chimes, is that the handbell version?