Ah, the third of Bjork's studio albums, and I still don't know how to make the two little dots over the "o" in Bjork's name. Well lets start with what I don't like about the album. That is one strange shot of her on the cover. Is it even her? She is dressed in an ornate Oriental looking gown with a wide collar, gold rings around her neck, and her hair is done up on two buns that Princess Laya would envy. Ah well, this is the woman who wore a swan to the 2001 Emmy Awards.
Nevertheless, like the other Discs in the Bjork Box Bjork Surrounded, Homogenic Surrounded is a dual disc, which means the original studio album Homogenic is on the CD side, and the album is in Surround Sound on the DVD side. There is a Dolby Digital track, and a DTS 5.1 track mastered at 96 khz in 24 bit. It also includes 5 wonderful videos. For review purposes, I have been listening to the DTS 5.1 tracks on the DVD side.
Do I still love Bjork as she goes from quirky alternative pop and trance star deeper into her own Bjork world? Yes! As I discover that many people actually hate Bjork, and consider her singing style strange, her music weird, and her fashion sense stranger and weirder still, do I still think she is the most wonderful artist I have discovered since David Bowie? (and that was way back in high school). Yes, I do! Well Bowie, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, The Talking Heads, even Led Zeppelin do all have one thing in common which makes them top my list of favorite bands and artists. They are always changing and growing. Even Plant and Page reimagined the songs of Led Zeppelin in a whole new light. Neil Young has always had a dissident view of the record companies and basically recorded what ever the heck he wanted to, and I love his music all the better for it. David Bowie has gone through more "Changes" than any artist I can think of.
Which brings me back to Bjork. I may have only fallen in love with her last week, but it hasn't taken me that long to figure out that she records whatever the heck she feels like. She doesn't care what you think of her singing, she sings because she loves to sing. She doesn't care what you think of all the odd sounds she uses in her music. Best of all, she doesn't stay the same. Even from The Sugarcubes (yeah, I went out and bought Life is Good) to Debut to Post I could hear significant changes in her style and her songs. If anything, I have fallen deeper in love with Iceland's best export ever.
Which brings me back to Homogenic. It starts with the song Hunter. Ravel's Bolero plays fervently as Bjork sings I'm going hunting, I'm the hunter, I'll bring back the goods. This shows a much more lush arrangement than previous Bjork albums and I like it. Full orchestral instruments and the usual (or is that unusual) assortment of sounds back Bjork as she sings. Her humor and interesting lyrics still rule the day thought I could organize freedom, how scandinavian of me. (And I haven't even described the included video yet!).
Joga also begins with lush instrumentation and sweeping grand sounds all these accidents that happen, follow the dot until Bjork sings screams the chorus state of emergency how beautiful to be, state of emergency is where I want to be. The music that backs her is accompanied by what sounds to be a huge industrial machine, yet Bjork manages to blend the industrial machine sounds, beautiful orchestral music and her own bellowing voice into a captivating song.
Unravel continues with the newer sound and music direction that Bjork takes in Homogenic. Although the voice is still uniquely Bjork, the music takes on new dimensions than previously explored. This song is a sweet song of a love missed while you are away, my heart comes undone, slowly unravels in a ball of yarn, the devil collects it with a grin. Bjorks Icelandic accent and the way she yells her lyrics grows on me still. Even her detractors cannot disagree that this woman is full of exuberance.
Bachelorette is one of my favorite songs on this album with its sweeping grandeur, and epic like tone. Each verse seems to get louder and build up to a grand finale. In a fountain of blood, in the shape of a girl, you're the bird on the brim, hypnotised by the Whirl. The music video for this is even more interesting. This is a most emotional song about a relationship that has failed I'm a tree that grows hearts, one for each that you take, you're the intruder I'm the branch that you break. You can hear the heartbreak and anger mixed into her voice.
All neon like is a soft reflective song that serves up another Bjork fantasy landscape composed of strange beats and instruments I cannot identify.
5 years follows with another crushing beat of large industrial machines, perhaps machines to crush her suitors that say they want then they can't handle, you can't handle love, you can't handle love. Clearly whoever she was in love with writing songs for Post isn't around, because these songs have some anger in them. Yet, Bjork even gives songs of anger a quiet beauty, reflected in the strings and the orchestral sweeps in her songs.
Bjork doesn't blame failed relationships all on the men however. In Immature she laments how could I be so immature to think he could replace the missing elements of me, how extremely lazy of me how could I be so immature. If you ignore the lyrics though, its another song that just sweeps through your head with this dream like quality. I can hear pianos and noises and white noise and I don't know what, but it sounds most pleasant.
Alarm Call is an upbeat song with a bouncy like sound to it. The Surround sound aspect allows it to bounce all over the room. This sounds more like the playful Bjork of the Sugarcubes. The lyrics are quite interesting I want to go on a mountain top with a radio and good batteries and play a joyous tune and free the human race from suffering The chorus echoes around Bjorks voice It doesn't scare me at all as Bjork screams I'm no f***ing Buddhist, but this is enlightenment.
Pluto is trance like dance music with a heavy industrial beat that drones throughout the speakers. excuse me but I just have to explode. Her voice is electronically enhanced and we get to hear Bjork do what she does best Aaaahahhahah a ahahhahahaaaaaaaaaaaaahh aa aah hh aaauughghh a auughhah a aaaah auugghh!!!!!. Wow, I thought Debbie Harry could scream!
All is Full of Love closes the album with a final full orchestral sweeping song complete with strings, industrial machine percussion, and is that a harp? Whatever fantasy background is playing here, Bjork's voice floats above it promising you'll be given love, you'll be taken care of, you'll be given love, you have to trust it She sounds like an angel. I can just see her angel wings, no wait, those are swan wings! Never mind, its just the dress she was wearing.
The music on this album is terrific, a lot different than her first two solo albums and her work with the Sugarcubes, but thats a good thing. It stands on its own, and it is dreamy ethereal music that is relaxing to listen to despite the despondant tone of some of the lyrics.
However, that's not all! Homegenic (______ Surrounded) also has 5 music videos.
Joga showcases the beautiful land of Iceland in sweeping overhead views combined with fascinating computer graphics showing the lava underneath this violatile land. Perhaps Bjork is showing that she is like the land she comes from, beautiful on the surface, but hot and volcanic underneath.
Bachelorette is an even more fascinating video than song. one day I found a big book, buried in the ground and it started to write itself. Bjork leaves the forest and takes the train to the city with MY STORY. She takes the book to a publisher who loves it, and soon it is a published book. Then it becomes a stage play about the book. A producer discovers it, and makes a movie about the play about the book. Soon it is a broadway play about a movie about a play about a book. Through all the excitement Bjork and the publisher fall deeply in love, and he sits in the audience and watches as Bjork performs her story about the book on stage. The props and sets are amazing. Alas, if you go read the lyrics about the song, you know all is not well. The writer and the publisher break up, and the play goes all funny, it is wrong, it is somehow not as it should be. Soon the play falls apart, and the publishers office is now abandoned and overgrown. The video ends as the book unwrites itself. It is quite an inventive music video.
The Hunter shows Bjorks playful side as we see her with a bald cap on. (I like her better with her fascinating hairstyles myself). However, if you don't like the bald look, don't worry because Bjork turns into a polar bear. Yup, thats right, as she shakes her head, blue protrusions grow out of her head. Sometimes they disappear, but then they reappear, until she is a full fledged polar bear. The mischevious looks on her face are priceless. Interesting.
Alarm Call has a more agressive mix of the song, and Bjork shows her sexual side as she suggestively rides a small raft through a rainforest river. A snake rises up between her legs and she caresses it. Symbolism isn't subtle here. Piranas bite her dress as the edges trail in the water. However the video ends with Bjork showing that she is no ones plaything as she opens her mouth in a grimace full of razor sharp teeth at the piranhas, scaring them all away.
All is Full of Love gives us a Bjork Bot. Perhaps others have long suspected that Bjork is not human, and this video may give them the proof they need. Bjork is a human robot that sci fi dreams are made of.
Summary Homogenic was also produced by Bjork, has been certified platinum and peaked at #4 on the UK album chart (thanks Wikipedia). It was originally released in 1997, and it has just been re released in the Dual Disc format reviewed here. You either love Bjork or you hate her. If you love her, this album is definitely worth getting on Dual Disc, either separately or as part of the Bjork Box.
Related Reviews:
I Met a Woman from Iceland, I Think I'm in Love : Review of Bjork Post (__ Surrounded) Dual Disc
I Love You Bjork : Review of Bjork - Debut (__ Surrounded) Dual Disc
Recommend this product?
