Bjork-Vespertine

 

Okay....so maybe it's not soooo heavy. Maybe even the least "heavy" of all of Bjork's albums. This is the esoteric "swan dress" album. The lush atmospheric one. You could probably say that about all her albums, but most had bumping beats. She'd be chilling with Goldie (one time James Bond villian and ENIT Festival mainstay) and do crazy vocals over some techno. This one didn't have the beats.

The thing I always think about with this album is that it came out some 6 months after KID A. You know...the album that suddenly every music kid decided they liked "weird" music and OK Computer and guitars weren't popular anymore. But no one could afford a Moog....yet Squiers were still easily accessible. 

The reviews at the time were basically saying Radiohead and Bjork were the only artists that were creating something "new" and were the only important musicians of 2000 and 2001. For some reason Vespertine was Bjork's "answer" to KID A. Like she had directly listened to KID A and said "Well...because of that...I'll do this."

The big difference was that Radiohead was a guitar band using synths and Bjork was a synth artist using strings. Big difference. Suddenly the beeps and bops of Bjorks past work were replaced by natural instruments that were being manipulated by electronics. Almost like Bjork became the guitar band when Radiohead gave up on that. 

I'll say this. I've never owned KID A. I thought it was really overrated when I heard it 1000 times living in the dorms. I was heartbroken that one of my favorite bands of the last few years forgot that they were a weird Brit pop band. That they had pop hits. That they wrote Creep and Just. 

Bjork on the other hand created something that sounds crazy and fresh and whimsical all at the same time. Still today I don't feel 'burnt out' on this one. Maybe not as fun as Homogenic or Post, but those whispers and everything being almost hushed made this much more compelling than that British guy with a lazy eye.