bjork vs radiohead

Agree with nabozo, jimbeaux. I like Radiohead a lot but Björk is on a different level. With Radiohead every artistic influence and/or sound seems very conscious and deliberate on making the “cool” choice. With Björk it seems to come naturally… she’s preternaturally cool and her artistic choices sometimes fail because they aren’t as carefully planned but she’s on that very small plateau of truly original artists.

Wow, I don't get that sense at all. To me Radiohead have become more and more themselves in a quietly confident way, and you could just as easily accuse Bjork of cool-hunting by hiring hot young producers to keep updating her sound.

I'd counterargue she merely hires the producers who can keep up with her, but YMMV

I thought Moka's point was about freedom VS constraint (not producers). Which isn't a bad way to compare them. Björk is constantly breaking through the electronic envelope, the music she uses can take any form or shape because she constantly experiments with it. Radiohead writes songs within the electronic casing / design, and it's often the same one that gives them their identity, and it's more about finding a perfect balance between songwriting and textures.

Also the number of songs that are truly based on electronic elements are way outnumbered by the number that aren't, I think those elements have just gotten a disproportionate amount of attention. But yeah I agree that Bjork fits her production to her songs in an almost sculptural way, and Radiohead doesn't experiment with form in as obvious or dramatic ways.

I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing that such a meaningless question prompted such an enjoyable discussion

i don't really care for post's relative lack of cohesion but there's plenty to love about it anyway. only thing that's truly out of place is "it's oh so quiet" though

Radiohead doesn't experiment with form in as obvious or dramatic ways.

they certainly did on kid a & amnesiac

Do modern-day Bjork fans consider the Sugarcubes irrelevant?

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, March 15, 2023 6:37 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Maybe you had to be there (Iceland)

― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, March 15, 2023 6:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

...or maybe you had to be then (1988)

Radiohead only wish that they'd gotten a member of Gentle Giant to produce their record, though.

Just realized my first three non-Queen CD purchases were Bjork's Post, Radiohead's The Bends and NIN's Broken.

Okay I'll bite. My Bjork + Radiohead top 10:

Homogenic
OK Computer
Post
Kid A
The Bends
Hail to the Thief
Vulnicura
Vespertine
Debut
The Smile

I guess this is my somewhat disagreeable top 5 for each:

Vespertine
Post
Homogenic
Debut
Medulla

Kid A
OKC
TKOL
AMSP
IR

Yes I’m sorry for loving Medulla and TKOL above other albums and for thinking Post is slightly better than Homogenic and for thinking TKOL is better than even AMSP or IR.

Small caveat: I’m considering Supercollider and Staircase as part of TKOL which cements it as my third favorite RH album.

it's even called post ffs, totally exploded shards of modernism sitting in tension and dissonance with each other

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 15 March 2023 18:47 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

despite falling in love with this album when I was 13, I too always thought that is what the album title meant and was vaguely disappointed to learn some years later that it's "post" as in "postcards sent home".

I think the album flows very well FWIW.

i thought it was intended as both meanings mentioned

at reading festival back in the day, iirc, I heard her do a drum & bass version of army of me that was way more thrilling than the one on the record which I've always thought somewhat plodding & lumpen.

there's that whole locrian mode theory about Army of Me too

There is a flattened fifth in the verse bass line but the normal fifth in the chorus vocal melody makes it more Phrygian than Locrian

I feel like I’d need an x-y graph to rank Bjork and Radiohead albums. I love Biophilia and TKOL but they’re on a different spectrum. It’d be more of a map than a list

Not what you’re looking for but there’s this analysis of Radiohead albums and songs by sadness:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/2/14726996/radiohead-sadness-data-analysis

more of an emotional landscape