Very few artists have had such a profound impact on alternative music like Bjork. However, when you ask many people about her you get comments like, "Who?! That crazy lady from Iceland!" or "She's strange." It's surprising to me that people judge her music by calling it weird, it's just unique from anything else that's out there - she's her own force, not influenced by any other musician, unlike the majority of mainstream music.
When I first heard Bjork, it was the blazing, bass beat song of "Army of Me" spun on her postmodernist album, Post. It was unlike anything I had heard, a blending of punk, techno and classical music rolled up into one amazing song. I knew I had to discover more of her music and so I did. However, as I tuned in to more and more of her music I realized that it was constantly evolving into more dynamic and bold directions. Why repeat the same production over and over and hope that a hit would magically appear out of thin air? With this kind of approach I found that I was I constantly craving more of Bjork, never settling for less than some replacement.
After hearing the whole Post album, I wasn't sure Bjork could replicate another album with such success and variety - jazz, pop and dance. Then, much to surprise she dropped Homogenic, an album filled with euphoric strings, pulsating beats and divine vocals of emotionally charged songs like "Hunter" or "5 Years." Similar to its title, most of the songs are strikingly similar and cohesive, however, they manage to stand apart from one another - an extremely difficult thing to do. The most memorable song on this albums have got to be "Unravel," a beautifully written song with sublime lyrics like "My heart comes undone/Slowly unravels/In a ball of yarn" that suggest a kind of creative artistry not seen in many songs today. Another one of my favorites is "All Neon Like," a song that penetrates the heart with sharply pounding beats and soft angelic vocals. The overall songs seems to exude a brand of minimalism despite the songs seemingly structural complexity. All in all you can't help but feel emotionally satisfied after hearing this highly acclaimed album that many feel to be her most glorifying moment - except her infamous swan dress and magnificent performance as Selma in the movie, Dancer in the Dark.
What could Bjork possibly do that she hadn't done before, she already had a numerous amount of hits in her innovative catalog of music. Little did people know that her next release would be equally as successful as Homogenic. When 2001 finally rolled around and all the hype of Y2K faded, her album Vespertine created a frenzy of acclaim from both fans and critics. The album was like falling asleep after being emotionally drained from Homogenic and waking up with the remains of its memories implanted in your brain as sound waves. The most interesting part of the album was the collection of "mini-beats" she collected from various aspects of nature and used in her songs, creating a organic texture to contrast the electronic texture of Homogenic. She even managed to collaborate with an all female Inuit choir, a harpist and duo of of sound engineers. Songs like "An Echo, A Stain" are faint, soft and ghost-like constructing a somber like awakening. Others are more layered and magnificent like "Pagan Poetry," "Hidden Place" and "It's Not Up To You." For it's sleep induced aurora and organic beats Vespertine remains one of my most cherished Bjork albums.
Bjork continues to impress me ever more with recent releases like Medulla, an original all vocal based album, and Volta, a tribal adventure with dance flair and Timbaland production. It's never a dull moment in her world, where visual artistry and conceptual collide into a unique genre influenced by classical, jazz, dance, experimental and alternative music. She is a musical genius in the minds of many who aspire to be like her.
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