803 Björk - Vespertine (2001)

Studio Album - Electronica

About the Act:

Björk is a demented Scandinavian pixie. She has been making a musical living out of being professionally weird since her teens in the early 80s, with several bands, mostly Punk, but one Jazz Fusion, eventually making it fairly famous with The Sugarcubes. She and her pixie smile went solo in 1993 making an experimental name for herself with the aptly named "Debut" album. She has had 9 solo albums, or more, depending on how you count them, and how many fingers you have.  She is from Iceland.

About the Album:

This was her fourth solo album and a deliberate contrast to her previous album Homogenic. It sold well and did really well with critics.

My History with this Album:

I have a copy of several of Björk's albums but I do not remember ever specifically listening to this one. I must have at some point, but probably not often or with great attention.

Review:

This is an extraordinary album. You need to put that idea of the little Icelandic pixie out of your mind, because this is hugely removed from that. It is.. well there are adjectives, let's try ethereal, whispered, nuanced, and meticulous. Good start. There are no big beats here, and not always a beat of any kind. When there is they are glitchy microbeats carefully crafted together from the sounds of everyday objects. The studio as an instrument is a big feature here, and the production is very, very careful.

Musically it is odd, which comes as no surprise. There are repeated ideas at times, but the concept of a strong song structure is not. It wanders musically and sonically, with a mixture of wide, lush sounds like strings (but typically quite cold in tone, as opposed to warm - the bass end is definitely and deliberately muted) and a choir at one point, mixed with spacious reverb and sound placement, and then there is lo-fi electronic sounds like early synths, especially sine waves. There are the glitchy beats I have already talked about, although at times they are more of a hint of a beat, like trying to work out the shape of an object from its shadow. And then there are real acoustic instruments, mostly of the plinky variety (harp plays a big role, but other similar sounds) and the occasional wheezy sound like a hand-pumped organ. This mixture of textures is played with in various ways. Harmonically it steps out of the standard rulebook quite a lot, but in ways that work. At times it feels more classical than anything, but Avant Garde.

The vocals are a big part of the experience, and I guess I should talk about the vocal lines (tunes is not the right word, but what notes are used is what I am talking about). Björk's work is characteristic in this sense, in that her English pronunciation can be slightly odd at times, but also the musical lines she sings have a disconnect with the words, almost as if she didn't understand them. She doesn't rhyme, and doesn't do metered line lengths, but it is not free-form. There are sometimes repeated lines or even sections. The vocal delivery is - well she's versatile, and human, with breaths and feeling and little chuckles and all sorts of sugar. And then the vocals are treated to overdubs and different processing, each line could be dealt with differently.

It's kind of weird, but it is purposeful, and every little sound is curated, even the little mistakes in the real instruments that have been kept in on purpose to humanise it. Despite the carefulness it is still quite human. The songs are about all sorts of things, some kind of fantasy stuff, some hard to work out and some really personal and at times sensual (and explicit, but not "dirty"). The thing about the weirdness is that it all just works. It's not what you would expect but the effect that is being created is understood.

So, it's a great album, it's quite an experience to actually listen to it and do nothing else. I would suggest with headphones in the dark, for the full experience. My only real criticism is that it feels about one or two tracks too long. This is not a big criticism, and I have to say that as I listened I had my mouth gaping in wonder at quite a few points.

8.9

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4u3MPfHM60rFFULJebZIay

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_PD_RD4vvcjJZAOq0v8UicO_eIy87nZl

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespertine