Björk - Post

Where Björk's Debut record gets off to a confusing yet almost "cute" start, her follow-up record Post really starts to push the boat out. Holy mother of fuck what is going on here? One has to simply compare album covers to get an idea of the difference. Debut was different in so many ways, but seemed to have one guiding theme. Post, on the other hand, seems to have not been planned out in any way shape or form. The record opens with "Army of Me", which is fantastically heavy for a song comprised entirely from electronic instruments. "Hyperballad" follows, which is the best Björk song ever, in my opinion.

By track three however, things start getting a bit weird. All of the free-form jazz up in this bitch! And on top of that, the song is about cars. The song tells the tale of cars that have existed since the dawn of time, and have been hiding in mountains because they were scared of the noises the dinosaurs made. Okay...

And it's all downhill from there, until track seven, "Isobel", which is a world of awesome. Random snippet of info: money-grabbing sellout arseholes Carcass performed a version of this song with Björk on vocals for the single CD release of "Hyperballad" or something. She hated it, which is entirely understandable. Anyway, Post lurches onward to it's inevitable closure, and as someone who spent a large majority of ages 10 to 18 plugged into either a walkman, cassette player or mp3 player, closer "Headphones" really strikes a nerve with me. Seriously, I feel a full-blown Björk obsession coming on here. It won't be long before I paint myself up like Darth Maul and shoot myself in the fucking face.

Bjork - Debut

Bjork has always been one of those artists I've always been interested in but never got around to properly checking out. With my recent upgrade to Spotify Premium, I now have easy access to thousands of records I would otherwise overlook. Sure, I've always downloaded music, but typing "Bjork" into Spotify and pressing play is easier than researching a band and then finding links to the "best" record, downloading the .rar, importing into iTunes, yadda yadda yadda. Hence Bjork happened, after like eight years of being put off.

 

A few weeks ago my girlfriend Jo buggered off to New York for a week and left me in the house all alone. With absolutely nothing better to do with my time, I consumed my body weight in fried chicken and out-done my personal best in the consumption of bowls and blunts. One particular evening I smoked so much of "the good" that I pressed play on Bjork's Spotify page and let it run for five hours. What I did within that time I'm not entirely sure, but I imagine a large portion of it was spent staring at the wall. I decided soon after to buy some Bjork records. Go figure.

I started at the beginning, with Debut. It is no secret to most that Bjork is absolutely fucking batshit insane, so by her standards, Debut is as tame as a fat Persian cat loaded to the gills on catnip. There isn't any breakbeat here, or any enormously 90s dance vibes. There is a smattering of jazz and alternative instrumentation, even some dubby tracks and some with the old house feel. But what leads the whole circus is Bjork's somewhat retarded and Welsh-sounding - not to mention eternally mesmerising - voice. It literally sounds like a "special kid" has been given access to a million dollar budget and a high end studio crammed with all the musicians in the world. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. I might be a bit late to the party, but Bjork, I think I'm in love with you.