very very positive review on pithfork

 

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bjork-utopia/

‘Body Memory’ is a bit of a drag but in love with the rest.

I'm actually beginning to really love that one - it conjures up all this wintery mountainous imagery in my mind's eye. It sounds so bleak, almost tragic...

Fresh video.

i think this album already has a title

 

not sure tho

Björk releases 2 new versions of “Blissing Me”

^incredible new version

I really wish they had picked Blissing me as lead single instead of The Gate

also I would have wait til Q1

I remember Bjork's Animal Behavior music video though. Let's say you really need some special evening to understand what's going on xD

Saw her at all points east on Sunday night and she’s without doubt the best live act I’ve ever seen.

Such an experience.

Saw her at all points east on Sunday night and she’s without doubt the best live act I’ve ever seen.

Such an experience.

oh my god I feel so lucky... I tried to get tickets for the Cornwall show coming up in July a while back, they were sold out but now I've managed to get 2 tickets! It's a weird one tho cos I don't really know how it's gonna happen (but I'll figure something out) - idk what I'm doing with the spare ticket yet and it'll be my first time in the UK too haha

Bump to say that it's the 25th anniversary since Bjork's debut album in a couple of days... Great article from Albumism here:

 

Björk’s Debut Album ‘Debut’ Turns 25 | An Anniversary Retrospective

July 3, 2018 | Terry Nelson

 

 

Happy 25th Anniversary to Björk’s debut studio album Debut, originally released July 5, 1993.

 

25 years ago when I first heard about Björk’s Debut, I, like many others, was expecting The Sugarcubes 2.0, but we were all dead wrong. Her work as lead singer of the Sugarcubes is a far cry from her solo output. Debut is an eleven-song night out with a friend who, with great delight, takes you to every single bar, dance club and after-hours spot she can think of. The album’s beauty lies in the fact that it cannot be placed into one category. Debut comfortably slides in and out of genres from one song to the next without disturbing the flow, making the journey feel seamless.

 

The beginnings of what was to become Debut started in the late ‘80s when Björk moved to London and began exploring the city’s underground club scene. She once told BBC News’ Liam Allen, “I remember going to Manchester, and 808 State taking me around, and me just seeing things that I'd never seen—that I'd hoped existed. So I would be up until early morning...sometimes from just the enthusiasm for the music.” Accompanying her on these late night adventures was producer Derek Birkett, whom she had previously given a demo of her own songs.

 

This “research” gave Björk a whole new world to explore which led to her musical identity moving further away from The Sugarcubes. She remarked to Time Magazine in 2015, "As a music nerd, I just had to follow my heart, and my heart was those beats that were happening in England. And maybe what I'm understanding more and more as I get older, is that music like Kate Bush has really influenced me. Brian Eno. Acid. Electronic beats. Labels like Warp.”

 

By the time The Sugarcubes’ 1992 album Stick Around for Joy was released, it was inevitable that Björk’s time with the band was done. Half of what was to become Debut was already written, including the opening track “Human Behaviour.” While searching for a producer, Björk continued writing material with 808 State’s Graham Massey. Through her then boyfriend, DJ Dominic Thrupp, she was introduced to Soul II Soul and Massive Attack producer Nellee Hooper. The pair hit it off after discovering their ideas about the sound of Debut were very similar. The only thing left to do was to get in the studio and begin working.

 

Debut was recorded in the wake of the breakup of The Sugarcubes in 1992 following the band’s brief stint as the opening act for U2 on their Zoo TV tour. Without the restrictive nature of being in a band, Björk was allowed to explore everything. Björk and Hooper threw an insane mix of harps, techno beats and saxophones together to make a sound that was different yet familiar. One minute you think you’re hearing House music, and the next minute a harp is thrown into the mix.

 

The aforementioned and brilliant “Human Behavior” opens the album and features a tympani sampled from an Antonio Carlos Jobim song. It’s a smart and quirky observation of us very strange humans as seen through the eyes of an animal. The song was written in 1988 while Björk was still a member of The Sugarcubes. In an interview with David Hemingway, she once explained, “I wrote the melody for "Human Behaviour" as a kid. A lot of the melodies on Debut I wrote as a teenager and put aside because I was in punk bands and they weren't punk. The lyric is almost like a child's point of view and the video that I did with Michel Gondry was based on childhood memories.”

 

“If you ever get close to a human / And human behavior / Be ready, be ready to get confused / There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic / To human behavior / But yet so, yet so irresistible.”

 

The next track, which is a favorite of mine, “Crying” is fascinating because behind the infectious and bouncy music is a tale describing feelings of alienation living in a big city. The way in which the piano and bass is used in the song is an effective and respectful nod to the House Music that was prevalent in the club scene in the states.

 

Another highlight is “There’s More To Life Than This,” an homage to dance clubs that was actually recorded in the bathrooms of London’s Milk Bar. The slick production gives the impression that Björk is gleefully going back and forth from the dancefloor to the bathroom.

 

“Like Someone In Love” gives us a peek into Björk’s love of jazz standards and particularly Chet Baker that would reveal itself even further on her future albums. It provides a nice break before we hop back on the dancefloor for “Big Time Sensuality” and “One Day,” which Björk said was inspired by “the records that DJs play at seven o’clock in the morning when they’re playing for themselves rather than clubbers.” “Aeroplane,” “Come To Me” and “Violently Happy” keep us moving until we reach the end of the album, which is “The Anchor Song,” an ode to her native Iceland. It’s the only song on the LP produced by Björk and it is a fitting send off for the listener.

 

At the time of its release, Debut was a welcome respite from the endless assembly line of Nirvana and Pearl Jam clones forced down our throats by unimaginative radio programmers and lazy record executives. It was representative of everything the music industry was not: fun and experimental. It made you dance even when you thought you didn’t feel like dancing.

 

The global critical reception was mostly positive, with American critics being mostly harsh. The most ridiculous review came from Michele Romero of Entertainment Weekly who wrote, "On a few songs, [björk's] breathy mewl is a pleasant contrast to the mechanical drone of Sugarcube-like techno-tunes. But most of Debut sounds annoyingly like the monotonous plinking of a deranged music box. Wind it up if you like—eventually it will stop.” Clearly Michele did not get it and possibly may have never danced a day in her life.

 

Twenty-five years later, Debut is still the infectious bundle of creative joy it was when it was first released. Put it on now. I dare you not dance.

^Nice, thanks

An impossible task, but how would people rank her albums?

I think this is it for me:

 

01 Vespertine

02 Homogenic

03 Vulnicura

05 Post

05 Medúlla

06 Debut

07 Utopia

08 Biophilia

09 Volta

 

I love them all though, 7 seems ridiculously low for Utopia.

1 Homogenic, miles ahead of everything, definitely one of the best albums in the history of music.

 

2 Post

3 Debut

4 Vespertine

 

the rest are not as good but still great

5 Volta

6 Vulnicura

7 Medulla

8 Utopia

9 Biophilia

 

Right now I'd say this for me:

 

1. Vespertine

2. Homogenic

3. Medúlla

4. Vulnicura

5. Debut

6. Post

7. Volta

8. Utopia

9. Biophilia

01 Homogenic

02 Vespertine

03 Post

04 Vulnicura

05 Medúlla

06 Debut

07 Volta

08 Utopia

09 Biophilia

 

Whew

 

So many great albums

 

Earth Intruders doesn't get enough credit — only Björk would work with the biggest, most in-demand producer in the world (at the time) and come up with this.

Couldn’t agree more, Björk/Timbaland sounds like such an odd combination but it works so well. Love how different it was to everything else he was working on at the time (and has done since).

 

Volta has some huge highlights (those first three tracks 👌🏼) but I think it’s her least consistent overall. It could easily switch places with Biophilia though, that’s equally inconsistent.

I love 'Earth Intruders' to bits <3 Björk is a true individualist so I think her ideas and views etc are naturally formed without much outside influence. I do look at her as someone who's almost on like a 'higher' mission of music. She has her own completely uninhibited vision and without meaning to sound dramatic, she's pretty much on the planet to bring this to life.

 

'Vertebrae by Vertebrae' is another Volta highlight for me!

This rather interesting new video for 'Losss' has been released. I think it has been used as a backdrop for her Cornucopia tour as well, which, *deep breath* I will be going to in Dublin in November if all goes well omg. It shall be my second time seeing Björk.

 

I like the video but this version of the song sounds harder to digest to me than what it is on the album. It's not that it has been cut down by two minutes (it was a pretty long song) but it sounds quite different to me? Maybe it's my headphones :P

 

 

"we based the visuals on the conversations between our inner optimist and pessimist , when i recorded this i tried to sing in a deeper tone for one of them in the left speaker and a higher optimist in the right . and if you listen on headphones it will match the imagery" - this is interesting!