Homogenic is Bjork’s 1997 follow-up to Post and while I found both albums mildly entertaining, I thought that this album is more accessible. Though Homogenic doesn’t stray too far from the club-culture, trip-hop formula of Post, it softens the sometimes cold and distant sound of the earlier album by adding a string section courtesy of The Icelandic String Octet. This is especially true on the opening track, entitled “Hunter.” The strings cushion the otherwise chilly song as well as add pathos when Bjork sings, “I thought I could organize freedom/How Scandinavian of me.”

Bjork continues to improve as a lyricist with her emotional frankness. “How could I be so immature/To think he could replace/The missing elements in me,” she laments on the spacious “Immature.” “How extremely lazy of me,” she continues. As the music changes tempo, she persists to ask herself the same question, alternately wailing and grinding out the words through clenched teeth.

Bjork carries the listener through a series of passions on Homogenic. For example, on “ 5 Years,” an angry Bjork admits:
I’m so bored of cowards
Who say what they want
Then they can’t handle
Can’t handle love

“Unravel” examines the insecurities of a co-dependent relationship. The gorgeous melody of “Bachelorette” underscores the anxious tone of the lyrics. The feeling is of a woman caught up in a fantasy life, perhaps alone in her room dressed in a wedding gown and imagining a better life than the one she is living.

On the flip side, “All Neon Like” and “Pluto” are harder-edge tracks that sound incongruous with the rest of the album.

Not everything is a rainy day on Homogenic. “Joga” is a sentimental, string-driven piece about a friend from her Icelandic home. “Alarm Call” is a buoyant pop song, complete with exuberant back-up vocals and Bjork asserting, “You can’t say no to hope/Can’t say no to happiness.” Finally, the dreamy “All is Full of Love” closes the album on an assuring note.

Bjork seems to be saying that although life sometimes hits you hard, there is still much in life to be optimistic about and to enjoy. Of course, you only have to look as far as the quirky album cover, with a computer-generated Bjork in her Princess Leia-Maasai-kimono outfit, to figure that out.


Recommended: Yes