Homogenic - Bjork (1997)

Ideated From: A fun article on “essential winter albums” on Treble. Even though winter is almost over, I’ve cued them up for the next few days.

I’m not sure if i agree that this one is very evocative of winter. Bjork’s voice is plaintive and, i guess, kind of cold-sounding. But there’s so much personality, not just to her voice, but to the music, that I don’t know if it really communicates iciness or cold or distance or whatever you associate with winter. Maybe it’s wintery in the sense of when you’re in the house and you have the heater blasting on you, beating back the waves of cold outside.

The thing about Bjork in general, and this album in particular is that it seems like nothing is quite what you’d expect and yet nothing feels the slightest bit out of place. Her delivery of the vocals can be wildly erratic and the lyrics very opaque, but it always seems to suit the song. The beats are loud and untamed, until they’re interrupted with strings or other instruments, and sometimes they clash but sometimes they complement each other perfectly.

Tracks I Liked

Bachelorette - Just when you think it can’t get any nuttier, some new layer chimes in. Orchestral piece? movie soundtrack? dance number? All of the above. The crashing piano layered in under the strings is fantastic.

All Neon Like - drum machine beat maintains throughout but gets lots of stuff layered over it.

Alarm Call - A serious 90s jam that sounds of its time but also timeless.