Cons: Some of the worst material of her entire career-- and that includes her 1977 debut.
The Bottom Line: As good as song of the songs are, the bulk of them are just terrible-- something I have never said about Björk's studio albums before.
I don't know how to start writing about Björk's incredible discography. With every new album, she experiments and creates some of the best music ever to grace my highly picky ears. Her instrumentation (or lack thereof) is greeted by Björk's incredible vocals and stunningly cryptic lyrics, both of which have given the Icelandic-native the title of being completely insane. And so what if she is: from her work with punk band The Sugarcubes up until 2004, Björk has been consistently incredible. After Medulla, an all-throat record, was released during a particular difficult summer, there marked a strange change in the way Björk was making music. Rather than instantly grasping onto the music, it took about a month for me to warm up to the bizarre bares-bones album-- especially after the scratchy and warm Vespertine. From then on, most of her music has taken multiple listens, and her last two official releases Volta and Drawing Restraint 9 have not been high on my list of fun albums.
As with her soundtrack/score to her boyfriend's film Drawing Restraint 9, I can only seek out a few great tracks on Volta before turning it off. This is a very alien concept as I love every single track on Debut, Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine. I don't know what happened, but her music just started to lose a lot of that special magic; but my journal with Volta did not start off sour. After a few months of nothing from my Icelandic goddess, I got wind of a new single, the incredible Earth Intruders, a song oddly produced by flavor-of-the-month Timbaland. Whereas Timbaland usually turns everything he produces into the same rehashed sound, he took Björk's song and shot it into the stratosphere. Björk is one of the most talented musicians of the past 100 years and working with her means tending to something very honorable and precious, but Timbaland's production is amazing. The song is loud, in-your-face, and bring us directly back to why we love her. Mixing Timbaland's normally generic style with the music found on Homogenic, the song is simply brilliant and Björk creates a B-Movie anthem while wailing: We are the Earth intruders! Come straight from voodoo!
Supposedly a follow-up to Medulla, Volta is like a tribe going to war and doing battle-- the idea, the concept, the artwork is all absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, at the core of it, the music is lacking. While there are some incredible tracks here, the most are generic Björk, that is to say that it's the type of music her haters expect from her. Nonsensical lyrics with odd melodies (or complete lack thereof)-- except this time I don't know if they mean anything. Björk's voice is as strong as ever on this album, but she tends to be babbling on the bulk of the record. I was shocked at how little I enjoyed this record on first listen. In fact, Earth Intruders was the only track I liked. Period. But this is one of my favorite artists, so it got many more spins. The Dull Flame of Desire is one of the most gorgeous songs she's ever made, with a tear-jerking melody and gentle lyrics, all played behind a sad brass instrumentation. Sung as a duet with Antony Hegarty, it's just a brilliant piece of music, clocking in at over 7 minutes. For such a long song, it doesn't feel it at all.
This record was Björk's most successful since the early 90s in the US, and her worst in the UK-- how ironic. And for the first time since the 90s, Björk sparked a bunch of back-lashing controversy when she cooed "Tibet..Tibet.." at a concert in China. The song was Declare Independence, which serves more as an ass-kicking than an actual track-- it's like Björk just got fed up and needed to chant and carry on, much like she did on 1997's Pluto. The song is a million times better live, but it's still enjoyable on the record, even if she seems more docile. This song, along with Hope and Innocence, are mixed in with the only ones I fully enjoy. Everything else is completely uninspired and straight-up boring.
Wanderlust, despite being a supposed "fan favorite," is just obnoxious and sounds like Björk is trying to hard to ignite the fire beneath a song that's just never going to work. I See Who You Are is like a bad Vespertine-bside with it's awkward production and overly-loud vocals, but it's still not as terrible as Pneumonia, on which Björk. just. wails. I do not know why, but she just carries on to the point of only not understanding the lyrics, but also to the point of getting a huge headache. I honestly do not know what she was thinking. For a woman who has produced such masterpieces as Post, an album that totally does not sound like it was made in 1995, I'm not exactly sure where her head was on this project. It's almost like she tried to show people how weird she could be.
Well, there's a difference between being weird and being obnoxious.
It's also an album that I'm torn on how to rate. If you stack it against all her work, it's a 1 star album. If you take it on it's on, it's 2.5 to a 3. And to that question "Do you recommend?", I just don't know.
TRACKLIST Earth Intruders Wanderlust Dull Flame of Desire Innocence I See Who You Are Vertebrae by Vertebrae Pneumonia Hope Declare Independence My Juvenile I See Who You Are (Mark Bell Remix)
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