Paul Smeenus

(originally posted elsewhere in the summer of 2008)

I was never really a fan of The Sugarcubes, the only group from Iceland ever to hit the big-time in the US. Their 1988 debut album, Life's Too Good, became a major hit on the college radio circuit. I thought it had it's moments, tho, and I was very intrigued by the mysterious female vocalist, Björk. The subsequent Sugarcubes albums never really measured up to their initial offering (according to their fan base anyway, I really wasn't paying attention by then) and the buzz surrounding them diminished to next to nothing.

Then in 1993 Björk released Debut (a bit of a misnomer, she released a solo album in 1990). I thought Debut was a good album for the first 25 minutes or so, then just took a wrong turn when she started doing that chanting, lyric-channeling style of hers that to me represents Björk at her silliest. I kinda stopped playing it shortly after I bought it.

Speaking of silliness, Björk's reputation in this area was beginning to manifest itself at this point. Many of my friends were rejecting her music out-of-hand because of this (well, to be honest, I was hanging with a heavy-metal crowd for the most part in those days, so they wouldn't have been Björk fans anyway). Examples of this reputation, deservedly or not, would be exemplified in this famous GIF



Her albums got better, though, and more and more found themselves gravitating toward the dance genre, largely into a category loosely described as "trip hop".

I kinda lost track of her during these years, but re-discovered her in a big big way sometime in 2001 when I saw a concert video on the Trio network (since discontinued to the best of my knowledge) on DirecTV (which I no longer subscribe to) from the tour of the Homogenic album . This concert mixed a live orchestra, a wonderful live choir, and 1 gentleman on programming of various electronica. This was *substantially* better than any music I had seen from her prior. It was still largely in the dance mode (the ultimate example would be "Pluto") but also explores some lovely melodic textures on songs like "Jöga". Intrigued, I looked up her website to learn more. Upon finding that website, the front page, using flash animation, opened itself like a fan (web animation was still kinda new in 2001) accompanied by a gorgeous, music-box sound, trumpeting her new release, Vespertine.

I was floored by this, but inexplicably never followed up on it. Years go by...

Then, last year, I was making one of my trips to Portland, which really isn't complete without a visit to 2nd Avenue Records. Being the vinyl fanatic that I am, 2nd Ave. has one of the most extensive vinyl collections in the Northwest. I was perusing the record racks, & I find an audiophile double-album pressing of Vespertine. I finally pick it up. Even still, once I get home it takes me quite a while to spin it. Eventually I break it out, & rip a copy to my hard drive & eventually the iPod.

Then, once I finally isolate Vespertine do I realize what a gem this album is. Since falling in love with this album a year ago, I've learned than many of her base fans consider Vespertine to be her "boring" album. Oh well, then, call me boring, because this album has had be so spun out that I've gone through stretches where I wasn't even listening to anything else.

The opening track is "Hidden Place", a beautiful mix of strings & electronica that is pervasive throughout Vespertine, the synthesizer parts resembling backmasking. Here's the music video:



The 2nd track takes this artisan approach even a step further, "Cocoon" is beautiful, haunting, the video for "Cocoon":



...takes it's CGI effects even farther than the "Hidden Place" video, in the opening the apparently nude Björk (she's actually wearing a sheer bodystocking) is standing alongside several still clones of herself. She moves away, leaving them behind. As she sings, red animate vine-like appendages sprout from her breasts, dancing, darting, playing around her, eventually wrapping her into what the title of the song suggests:

The next track continues with the music-box (actually a harp) over-electronica theme, the gorgeous "It's Not Up To You". A magnificent live performance here:



This continues with the haunting, other-worldly, unbegoddamnlievably beautiful "Undo".



As wonderful this and this entire album has been to this point, the centerpiece of the album, IMO the finest work she has ever done, follows.



(I'll be discussing this video at length, watch it before or after, your choice)

"Pagan Poetry" begins with an almost Japanese sounding intro, then a octaved bass track "buh-buh-buhda...buh-buh-buhda..." that is simultaneously forceful and gentle. The video to this masterwork begins displaying soft-focus computer-outline-animation of sexual activity,



eventually morphing into an extreme close-up of Björk. As things go in and out (!) of the soft-focus sex, we see her string what appears to be a small chain through her nipple:



...some beads through her ear



& by the time the song reaches it's bridge, we finally see a full-frame view of Björk, her hair in a wild, fan driven dance around her face.



By this time the music has built up an epic intensity, then settles back down so it can hit us one last time.

"I love him, I love him - I love him, I love him"

This could have, on earlier albums, come across as one of the somewhat silly, lyric-channeling episodes I referred to earlier. But not here.



She fecking MEANS IT.

Her vocals on the outro hits some points of such great intensity that it just send shivers running up and down my spine. Then comes the unforgettable final image of the video. All during the last two minutes of the video we see what appears to be some type of bead or pearl actually strung through the skin of her arms, skin being pierced, then the final shot, I was astonished the 1st time I saw this:



So ends the song & video, and again her finest work ever IMO, but not the album. not by a long shot.

"Frosti" is an instrumental, I believe this was the music-box sound effect I was greeted to in 2001 when I first took a look at her website, but that was a long time ago & I don't know that with any degree of certainty. It is lovely, if a bit of a letdown after the epic "Pagan Poetry", but that's OK, that's what the album really needs at that point is to take a breath.

"Aurora" is more of the same music-box over electronica that was the 1st half of the album. That's a good thing, it's lovely

"An Echo, A Stain" is much heavier on the electronica. Still nowhere near the Homogenic-style trip-hop, it's more trip and no hop, as it were.

"Sun In My Mouth" continues the music-box theme, but layered over strings, only a little programming this time. More gorgeousness. Yay pretty music!

"Heirloom" may be my favorite song (well, second after the final cut) on the second half of the album. Definitely featuring the programming, there are also a few strings & some harp.



"Harm Of Will" is strings, harp, & Björk loveliness.

Then there's "Unison", with one on the prettiest choruses I've ever heard:

"Let's unite tonight
We shouldn't fight
Embrace you tight
Let's unite tonight"

Simply stunningly breathtakingly beautiful not-so-amateur video here:



(the following was written as a follow up to the original review, it was posted a couple years later)

Vespertine has 4 distinct groups of songs for me, scattered throughout the album.

Group D is really 1 song, "Frosti". This is the only utterly skippable song on the album IMO. Yes, I know what I wrote in the original review but the song began to grate on me shortly after I wrote that review not quite a year and a half ago. In fact I started listening to Vespertine by selecting "Frosti" while on shuffle play, then immediately skipping forward, allowing me to listen to the entire album minus the one Bjorkless track on this transcendent Bjork album, I mean what's the point, ya know?

Group C contains 2 tracks, "Sun In My Mouth" and "Harm Of Will", both are good but below every other track save "Frosti" IMO, both remind me of the 2nd half of the Debut album in the sense of almost singing in completely unmetered prose, they're lovely but there's such a spoken-word arrhythmic lyric-channeling to them that I occasionally lose patience and skip forward. Forgive me.

Group B is the largest group, all great songs but just under what I refer to as "The Big Four"...

"Hidden Place"
"It's Not Up To You"
"Aurora"
"An Echo, A Stain"
"Heirloom"

Everything I said in the main review really holds up to this follow-up, I won't comment any further

Then Group A, "The Big Four". I want to comment on them in reverse order of how I rank them.

"One Hand Loves The Other"

"Unison" starts simply, then adds sweet subtle electronica, then overlays harp as she sings "I never thought I would compromise" which then leads into the gorgeous chorus as discussed in the original review. The real fireworks come on the second chorus, there are strings, either real or synthetic, that immediately follow the chorus that just level me. The out-choruses follow with beauty, spine-tingling melody, and power that make this a breathtaking finale to this great album

The next three songs I covered all to briefly, at least in the sense of the actual *song*. I talked about the *video* for the songs, one in tremendous detail. This time I want to discuss the music, in fact it's really why I wanted to write this follow-up a long time ago.

"Cocoon" is instrumentally a muted, GORGEOUS keyboard over a perfectly rhythmic electronic clattering, just remarkable. The 2nd verse is my favorite, IMO the greatest description of sleep-sex I've ever heard:

"He slides inside
Half awake, half asleep
We faint back
Into sleephood
When I wake up
The second time
In his arms
Gorgeousness
He's still inside me"

That is a wonderful wonderful place to be

Then, the second best track on Vespertine is followed by the best.

"It's not meant to be a strife
It's not meant to be a struggle uphill"

"Undo" is just beauty incarnate, almost incomprehensibly gorgeous, layered, she double-tracks her voice, then at about the 3:15 mark the layers build to an incredible point that almost brings me to a shivering, shuddering ecstasy, then fades bit by bit into the greatest thing she ever did IMO.

As stated in the original review, "Pagan Poetry" begins with a very Japanese style in the harp. Basically "Pagan Poetry" contains 3 elements, over the electronic rhythms. One is a bass groove, simultaneously forceful yet gentle, with a decidedly sexual beat

Buh-Buh-Buhdum
Buh-Buh-Buhdum
Buh-Buh-Buhdum
Buh-Buh-Buhdum-Buhdum (repeat)

Then Bjork herself, her voice hitting all the right timbres and dynamics, and very effectively conveying the theme of giving ones entire body and soul to a lover.

But what really floors me here is the high-register harp sounds, the incredible way they swirl, soar, dive, dance around the body of the song. Pay close attention to this as you listen, I recommend reconnecting to the YouTube links I posted to all these songs, esp "The Big Four".

You can thank me later.

Paul Smeenus

Aveenvp

I agree with you completely: This album is a masterpiece.