Pros Headphones, You’ve Been Flirting Again, My Spine and Hyperballad
Cons Extremely challenging
The Bottom Line While it's not the most accessible of Björk's music, Telegram is still a very good album. It's fun, wild, strange, and creatively free.
Full Review
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the Icelandic pixie Björk is a uniquely enchanting personality. Her music could never, ever be called derivative or boring. Certainly there are people out there who cannot appreciate the songs because of the darkness, bleakness, and just plain strangeness—but that’s a comment on personal preference and not her overall appeal or talent.
Björk swaggered onto the music scene first as a member of the band Sugarcubes and soon thereafter as a solo artist. From the start of her career, it was clear that (as with all great talents) she had a screw or two loose and jostling around her noggin. And while she got her first taste of international success as a member of her band, it was her solo career that really got her the notice she so deserved. Though Björk did release a few native Icelandic albums before 1993’s Debut, it is that album that is usually regarded as her official solo coming out party—and boy what a party it was.
Debut was energetic, silly, theatrical, and thoughtful at the same time. It was not only incredibly well-produced, written, and performed it was also perfectly entertaining. It was in my humblest of opinions the perfect album that Björk could have possibly recorded for her solo entrée. It’s the kind of album that makes you feel, think, and simultaneously shudder nervously. And with tracks Human Behavior, Venus As A Boy and Big Time Sensuality (all truly outstanding songs) contained on the album, it is easy and clear to see why Björk soon became an international phenomenon.
Fortunately, the strange little Björk didn’t stop there. She followed Debut up with an equally wonderful album titled Post. Post took Debut, and upped the levels of anxiety and experimentation. The end result is seamless, magical, and in the end as gorgeous as it is odd and as accessible as it is isolating. Post gave the world even more melodic magic to chew on in the form of Army Of Me, It’s Oh So Quiet, Hyper-Ballad and Isobel. It was clear upon the album’s release in 1995 that Björk was a musical fixture.
But what Björk did next took massive courage. She took all of the material from her well-received 1995 album and turned it on its head. She basically just reworked everything. She didn’t leave anything intact, and the resulting “remix” album was early 1997’s Telegram. I use the term remix lightly though…these are entirely new and different interpretations of songs that are already tried, tested, and true.
So what exactly is Telegram? First and foremost, I believe it to be Björk’s way of further experimenting wither her music. Certainly it worked out nicely in the long run as a way to further rope fans into a purchase, but the funny thing is that the album on the whole isn’t exactly the most mainstream appealing outing. See, Björk infuses new and different elements--a dash of strings here, an electronic whirr there. Whereas Post was merely a challenging hill, Telegram is a treacherous mountain. Is it a mountain worth scaling? That is of course a personal choice and preference, but I do believe it is if nothing else an enlightening and creatively liberating album.
But before you tackle Telegram, toss out everything you know about Björk aside from the fact that she’s bizarrely creative. With that one bit of knowledge in mind, pop the disc into the stereo and close your eyes. Be patient, open your mind, and simply relax…like all things by Björk this disc takes a great deal of effort to fully digest. Does it rank among the chanteuse’s best releases? Nope, but it is still pretty darned good and well worth the purchase for fans. Plus, I find it fascinating how seemingly perfect songs were completely altered and made into a new, completely different creation.
Telegram starts with the trippy, winding beats of Possibly Maybe. The twisted, troubling beats work wonderfully and are in truth the focus of the mix. Björk’s usually strikingly off-kilter voice is distorted and tweaked to the point that it is a mere instrument. And in the context of this track, it works relatively well. Though as compared to the Brodsky Quartet version of Hyperballad that follows, it is pretty much a washout. Hyperballad is reinterpreted with the use of strings. Quite honestly, I’m hard pressed to come up with problems with the song aside from the obvious fact that it is a complete change from the somewhat disappointing original. While the rest of Telegram is good on the whole, get the album if for no other reason than for this remix.
Enjoy has never been a personal favorite. The original was wild, strange, and irreverent salted with drum machines and a trumpet. This version again uses drum machines, but it is much more of an industrial offering than its predecessor. While I like the Outcast mix, I do find it to be a bit too aurally painful. Fortunately, the next track is rewarding. My Spine is a collaboration with deaf avant-garde composer Evelyn Glennie. The song is brief and sparse, and set in the mix of a slew of uncontrollable and often loud mixes it is a welcome release.
Continuing on, I am overwhelmed with joy. I Miss You has always ranked as one of my favorite parts of this album and for that matter Post. While the original is a guttural, compounded dance track this Dobie (of electronica production fame) mix works wonderfully. I am especially keen of the heavy beats, bass laden production, and for that matter the deceptively controlled arrangement. Is it better than the original? It is a toss up—again, all a matter of personal preference. The pace of Telegram changes markedly with Isobel. Still theatrical, but in more of a tropical, swaying way than the original it is good enough…but certainly not an album highlight.
You’ve Been Flirting Again is remixed by Björk herself. Rather than the stark, string backed arrangement of the original the track sounds like a hymn sung in a dark, dank church. Her vocals are engulfed by even-keeled, mellow, although somehow also emotionally troubling electronic elements. As the song progresses, more strings and various other “instruments” are added. It is definitely one of the better songs here.
And while I appreciate much of what Tricky did for Björk, I don’t think Cover Me was among his best work. In fact, I’ve never been particularly fond of the slightly Oriental slant. Though, in this case I do have to mention that I wholly adore Dillinja’s jungle flair. The entire focus here is on beat and ambiance—it could easily get play in a club. Björk’s voice is secondary, but in this case that’s of no particular concern. Army of Me, a perennial favorite for many fans, goes in a completely different direction here. The popular melody is almost completely indecipherable in favor of distorted vocals and droning electronic rhythms. Mixed by Graham Massey, the techno-laden track is good, but strangely it is difficult to find much of Army of Me in there at all.
Headphones, originally a Björk and Tricky collaboration, is in this case reinterpreted by Mika Vaionio—a Finnish producer with a tendency toward lo-fi electronica arrangements. In many ways, his work with Headphones reminds me musically of something from Angelo Badalamenti but of course with the benefit of Björk’s stellar voice it puts the song in another category completely. Vaionio compliments her voice with an organ, and percussion that mimics a heartbeat. Really, this is an incredible work of art.
Another version of I Miss You wraps the album up. The jungle beats, whistles, and accordion mesh strangely well with Björk’s equally wild voice. Once again, the new version of the lovely original is exceptionally different. It’s really quite good, and in many ways one of the most user-friendly and easy to follow songs of Telegram.
Telegram is overall a strangely compelling album. I don’t fully enjoy every moment, but there are enough great moments to at least somewhat make up for the mediocre ones. I’m particularly fond of the versions of Headphones, You’ve Been Flirting Again, My Spine and Hyperballad. It is a worthy album, and a truly extraordinarily brave experiment from the already rather experimental Björk. Telegram also could conceivably function as a bridge to appreciating techno for new and possible fans of the genre.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Possibly Maybe (Lucy Mix)
02. Hyperballad (Brodsky Quartet)
03. Enjoy (Outcast)
04. My Spine (Evelyn Glennie)
05. I Miss You (Dobie)
06. Isobel (Deodato)
07. You've Been Flirting Again (Flirt is a Promise Mix)
08. Cover Me (Dillinja)
09. Army of Me (Graham Massey)
10. Headphones (Mika Vaionio)
11. I Miss You
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