Post
Reviews :
Exclusive Review from Rolling Stone
Björk Gudmundsdottir has always been a strange one. The
eccentric ex-Sugarcube draws her fashion sense from fairy
tales, her voice from some alternate heaven and her music? Well,
she once cited nature-show host Sir David Attenborough
as her biggest musical influence, saying she identified with his
thirst for exploring new and wild territories. At least
Attenborough went into dangerous jungles with a crude map;Björk
charges headfirst into uncharted sonic terrain with little
more than her intuition as a guide. Nine years of exploration
have led her from the Sugarcubes' skewed New Wave pop to
the trancy end of dance music to over-the-top show tunes and
beyond. The results up till now have always been mixed :
Björk's refusal to play it safe has always repelled mediocrity
and has proved a large part of her charm.
On her second major solo album this 29-year-old native of
Reykjavik, Iceland, embarks on her most unlikely journey yet;
"Post" comes up as victorious and gallant as any of her
Viking forefathers. Chock-full of curious noises, mesmerizing
vocals
and musical surprises, "Post" provides a much-needed
escape route from alternative rock's dull offerings of late.
While leagues of boys sporting goatees spill their
dysfunctional guts over Ted Nugent-esque guitar licks,Björk
forages for
inspiration in the soundscapes of orchestrated jazz, ambient
techno and classical. On "Post" she uncovers a range of
specific sounds -- not broad styles -- that best express her
emotions and color her arrangements. With little awe or irony,
Björk blends these recognizable scraps and otherworldly snippets
into a striking pattern of her own design, making
"Post"
an album that's "Post"-everything but akin to nothing
else.
Bj'dcrk's now reaping the benefits of all that earlier trial
and error. On her 1993 solo album, "Debut," she finally
toned
down the rowdy theatrics of the Sugarcubes and began to fiddle
with jazz rhythms and electronic effects with some success.
"Post" sounds like the culmination of her quest. It's
full of fantasy, humor and the grandiose, melodramatic, wide-open
feel
of old film scores. Most importantly, the music here finally
challenges her voice.
Bj'dcrk sings in smooth and subdued moods next to a delicate
harpsichord, blasts out a la Judy Garland alongside
screaming trumpet and growls over a tough, bottom-heavy beat. Her
previously unbridled vocal swoops, from primal
creature to flighty pixie, now cooperateand flow with the music
around them. She communicates in creamy coos and
guttural, bluesy belts. In both modes she emanates grace and raw
power without forfeiting her uniqueness.
In "Blow a Fuse," a saucy big-band number originally
recorded by World War II poster girl Betty Hutton,Björk saunters
out like a sex siren in a smoky nightclub. Against the blare of a
20-piece orchestra, she purrs, then slips into a throaty
growl and then releases a shrill "Wah!" that would
shame both the Tasmanian Devil and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna.
Most of "Post" isn't quite as flamboyant, however.
The elegant "Isobel," yet another number featuring
string arrangements
and a smaller orchestra, snakes along like a patient desert
caravan; the minimal "Cover Me" features nothing more
than
harp, hammer dulcimer, the sound of crashing surf underBjörk's
whispers.
The surreal hum and gurgle of ambient techno motivates
"Army of Me," on which DJ Graham Massey of 808 State
lends a
hand. His approach -- muted, bass heavy, Beasties-like -- melts
into transcendental lightness besideBjörk's voice.
"Enjoy,"
co-written with ex-Massive Attack member Tricky, contributes a
menacing feel to "Post" via some seriously dark,
seething
undertones.
Bj'dcrk enunciates her words carefully and clearly throughout,
as if the slightest clumsy slip would shatter their meaning into
a
million pieces. Inside her delicately constructed English,
bizarreBjörkian imagery materializes. On "Modern
Things" she sings,
"I listen to the irritating noises of dinosaurs," and
turns fantasy into morbid but honest wonderment for
"Hyperballad." Here's
what she sings over a sweeping, panoramic vista: "I imagine
what my body would sound like slamming against the rocks, and
when it lands, will my eyes be open or closed?"
ButBjörk is also affected by the everyday. On "You've
Been Flirting Again," a number as seductive as the poppy
field in "The
Wizard of Oz," she softly croons, "Give her some space,
give her some time." She makes this benign piece of advice
for the
lovelorn feel like profound philosophy.
There's no point in trying to place Björk or her music in
some bigger social picture. She thrives on fantastic
impossibilities rather
than existing realities. When "Post" comes to an end,
it feels like getting back from a good vacation: The last thing
you want to
dois re-enter the real world.
LORRAINE ALI
Rolling Stone Network.
Exclusive Review from CMJ New Music
Considering all that time she spent with Madonna, it's not
surprising that Björk's new album Post is just too
post-everything.
In an obvious bid for today's postmodern audience, it not only
includes a track called "Hyperballad," but also a
post-industrial
take on Nine Inch Nails ("Enjoy"), a post-Vegas Hot Box
Girl number ("Blow A Fuse"), and the postpunk fantasy
"Modern
Things," in which she surreally declaims, "All them
modern things like cars and such/Have always existed/They've just
been
waiting in a mountain for the right moment/To come out and
multiply and take over." Which is not to say that Post
is
irredeemably random: The mix of disparate digital textures and
Björk's wacky post-diva-ism gives the album an odd coherence,
and occasionally produces songs worth lip-synching to. But all
too often, she transgresses the boundaries of acceptable
coyness. Cruising breathily through the Björk-harp duet
"Cover Me," she intones, "This is really
daaaaaangerous!" That may
be so, but there's no sense pretending it's sexy.
Andrea Moed
College Media, Inc.
Exclusive Review from CMJ New Music Report
Björk Gudmundsdottir easily has one of the most recognizable
voices in pop music. Though it initially bristles with a girlish
innocence, it quickly reveals innumerable rich dichotomies: her
voice is both witchily dark and angelicly sweet, painfully
bruised and gleefully happy, fabulously forward and sheepishly
shy. While her 1993 Debut was an impressive self-definition,
broadening the scope of her earlier work with the Sugarcubes,
Post stakes out refreshingly untrodden territory. The album
assumes nothing, gouging its own musical foundation out of a raw,
boundless expanse of sound and apace, rather than
predictably building upon established formats. It's all held
magically together by that striking voice, which is so unique
that
it has had folks wondering which mother planet actually birthed
and raised her. The cadence of her strange lyrics ("Your
flirt
finds me out/Teases the crack in me/Smittens me with hope"
("Possibly Maybe")) is just as odd as the structure and
sound
of the songs on Post. From the sultry pop of Army Of Me to
the hot-spotlight swing of "It's Oh So Quiet"
(featuring a
20-piece big band) to the quiet, moody almost-love song
"Possibly Maybe," Post works so well as a suggestive
soundtrack
it'll have movies appearing before your eyes in no time. Also
climb "Hyper-Ballad" and "I Miss You."
LYDIA ANDERSON
College Media, Inc.
Quick Quotes :
Tied for #7 in the 1996 Critics' Poll.
Rolling Stone 1/25/96, p.41
Ranked #13 on Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '95.'
Spin 12/95, p.63
Ranked #7 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics'
Poll.
Village Voice 2/20/96
Ranked #48 on Melody Maker's list of 1995's `Albums Of The
Year.'
Melody Maker 12/23-30/95, pp.66-67
Ranked #35 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995.
New Musical Express 12/23-30/95,
pp.22-23
4 Stars - Excellent - "...POST comes up as victorious and
gallant as any of her Viking forefathers. Chock-full
of curious noises, mesmerizing vocals and musical surprises, POST
provides a much-needed escape route from
alternative rock's dull offerings of late..."
Rolling Stone 6/29/95, pp.41-42
8 - Very Good - "...Björk is a bit more controlled this
time around, so when she does let loose with the PSYCHO
screams...her extremes pack more impact....Whether her
accompaniment is punk guitars, disco beats, jazz horns,
or symphonic strings, Björk always comes across as her own wacky
and seductively weird creation."
Spin 7/95, p.72
"...The fluid textures fashioned by our heroine...have a
subliminal resonance that might undermine a less assured
performer, although its hard to imagine anything upstaging
her..."
Musician 8/95, p.85
4 Stars - Excellent - "...avoid[s] both the usual
follow-up pitfalls of repetition and encroaching
commerciality....she's still
finding the room to embrace the often convoluted twists and turns
of emotion..."
Q Magazine 7/95, p.114
Recommended - "...sonically, it's DEBUT with the edges
filed down...But...the joyful news from the front is that, below
the suspect surface, there is lava..."
Melody Maker 6/3/95, p.35
7 (out of 10) - "...a bit ethnic, extremely mysterious, a
tad on the ooh-blimey-what-was-that??! side and a comprehensive
summary of all that is good, grim and unnaturally groovy about
one woman and her various mates' offbeat musical world..."
New Musical Express 6/10/95, p.46
"...the ex-Sugarcube finds a bizarre and irresistible
connecting point between industrial-disco, ambient-trance, and
catchy
synth pop..." - Rating: A+
Entertainment Weekly 6/23/95, p.55
Notes :
Personnel includes: Björk (vocals, organ, keyboards); Rob
Smissen (viola); Tony Pleeth (cello); Jim Couza (hammered
dulcimer); Gary Barnacle (soprano saxophone); Maurice Murphy,
Stuart Brooks, Einar Orn (trumpet); Guy Sigsworth
(harpsicord); Tricky (keyboards, programming); Marius De Vries,
Graham Massey (keyboards, programming); Talvin Singh
(percussion); Lenny Franchi, Howie Bernstein (programming);
Marcus Dravs (sound effects); Ralph Salmins, Paul Morgan,
Colin Green, Simon Chamberlain, John Barclay, Simon Gardner,
Stuart Brooks, Connie Hughes, Steve Waterman, Peter
Beachill, Malcolm Griffiths, Neil Sidwell, Steve Saunders, Phil
Todd, Ray Swinfield, Bob Sydor, Bill Skeat, Alan Barnes.
Producers: Björk, Nellee Hooper, Graham Massey (tracks 1, 3);
Nellee Hooper, Björk (tracks 2, 4, 7-8); Björk, Tricky
(tracks 5, 11); Björk (tracks 6, 10), Björk, Howie Bernstein
(track 9).
Engineers: Al Fisch (track 1); Howie Bernstein, Steve Price
(tracks 2, 7); Howie Bernstein, Al Fisch (track 3); Steve Price
(tracks 4, 6); Lenny Franchi (5, 11); Howie Bernstein (tracks
8-9); Marcus Dravs (track 10).
All songs written or co-written by Björk except "It's Oh So Quiet" (Hanslang/Reisfeld).
POST was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance.
POST, Björk's second release as a solo artist, mines the
fertile soil of the eclectic musical terrain of post-modern pop.
The
album throbs in and out of ambient cadences with techno beats,
slips into showtune theatrics, then reels back to the dance
floor.
With a full plate of sounds already on the table, Björk adds
her own unique flare to the presentation, proving she is not
easily
pigeonholed. The lyrically-insistent opener, "Army Of
Me," is a relentless electronic grind that is typical of
Björk's vibe, but
POST also digs into Western music's more organic resources.
"It's Oh So Quiet" may be a remake of an old Hollywood
showtune, but Björk's version transcends the song's silver
screen aloofness on the strength of her delightful screams
("Zing,
BOOM!!/You fall in love"). It is directly followed by
"Enjoy," a lurching hypnotic nod with musical help from
British trip-hop
MC, Tricky; and the smooth, Bee Gees-like orchestration of
"Isobel," a swooning accompaniment to strobe light
bongo drums
which announces that the listener is no longer at a rave, but at
a disco.
POST shows off Björk's grasp of technology, history and basic
pop aesthetics. Few modern rock albums have sampled so
many different facets of the atypical buffet and have come up
with such tasty results.