#168 Bjork - Post

Bjork is one of those artists that I'm supposed to like, but just could never get into. People who like the kind of music I like tend to like her, and she's undeniably done some original stuff, but so far, I just have not been able to get into her, never really found her listenable. But, Hyperballad being pitckfork's #11 song of the 90's, plus my recent exposure to the Sugarcubes, lead me to give one her one more try.

I was fortune enough to put this on my mp3 player while I washed the dishes, which allowed me to really listen to this without trying to do anything requiring any actual attention. This is not work music. Its noisy and erratic, yes, but it's also that its appeal also lies in the subtle crannies of the lyrics, which are easy to miss if you aren't puzzling them all together as you listen.

The first half really won me over. Army of Me doesn't sound quite as striking as it probably did when this came out, but Hyperballad really is incredible. It is unbelievably evocative, crushingly bittersweet. A true original. Similarly, It's So Quiet is without peer, that vocal performance is something else, totally beyond what I thought Bjork could do with that voice of hers. Enjoy and You've Been Flirting Again are also great, and serve as heartbreakingly unusual breakup songs.

After that though, it really falls off for me. Isobel and Possibly Maybe are trip-hop meanderers that I don't have any patience for, and I Miss You just sounds cheesy, an undercooked version of the sound on display earlier. Album closer Headphones brings back an unsettling unusualness, but its too little too late, the second half sounds like the sort of Bjork that made me not be able to get into Bjork.

Where does that leave me? An album with two really striking songs that I think will gain depth every time I listen to them, some good stuff, and a whole half I just don't see myself making it through again. The fact I resorted to going track for track really shows how mixed my feelings were here. Across the board, its a stark, frightening breakup album that I think is actually kind of amazing in the abstract, even if I don't like large parts of it. I think that, as often happens with albums where I have some baggage coming in, the score I settle on seems both too harsh and too generous. In this case 3.5/5