With her distinctive voice, Bjork sings like she's telling a secret - sometimes whispering it in your ear, sometimes screaming it for all to hear. And her voice is just amazing. I want to know how her vocal cords do that.
I've always been a fan of Bjork, but I can't get over how good "Vespertine," her latest album, really is. With this album, she adds a pious, more intimate element to her usual stylistic mastery.
Bjork, the most famous Icelander in America, is also one of the most endearingly eccentric musicians and personalities of our age. She does her own thing, always. Even her accent (Icelandic? British? Plutonian?) is unique. Her music - and that voice! - is no exception. There's no need to copyright her songs; no one else could pull them off. And her preference for singing live barefoot without a microphone is not a gimmick. She's just more comfortable that way.
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Once, when asked what she would have done if she had not been given the gift of music, Bjork replied, "I cannot imagine it." She has been involved in music since the age of 5, when she was enrolled in music school. Since then, she has been a focal part of several bands and finally struck out on her own in 1993 with her album "Debut."
After two more full-length solo albums and a soundtrack ("Selmasongs," music from "Dancer in the Dark," in which she made her acting debut), Bjork is going strong. And with "Vespertine," she has quite possibly reached her zenith.
Bjork's "Vespertine" focuses on having and holding a sanctuary. The album's title refers to vespers, or evening prayers. With this collection of songs, Bjork's music achieves an intensely intimate and spiritual level, almost holy in its rejoicings. Yet it is humble, with no pretensions, and quieter than much of her earlier stuff.
The cover art of "Vespertine" depicts a picture of Bjork (wearing that infamous swan ensemble from last year's Academy Awards) superimposed with a swan drawing. It's fitting - this album features Bjork as she simply is, without the bombastic defiance of her previous albums. She seems to have grown into herself. Her creativity and innovation still know no bounds, but her music has evolved into a more self-assured, mature, subtle breed. Her voice has a sort of secure bliss about it, a quiet, tranquil happiness. And the swan is an apt symbol for this transformation.
"Vespertine" starts off with "Hidden Place," the first single and a song that introduces the theme of inner sanctity. Bjork focuses on the sanctuary of hidden places throughout the album.
"Cocoon," the second song, is full of softly skittering beats above supersubtle synth tones, giving emphasis to Bjork's voice and words. This song, like the first, deals with the intimacy of escape, and how the union of two people can create such an escape.
The masterpiece of the album is "Pagan Poetry," where harps swirl in mystical runs alongside the sweet tinkerings of a music box. In the song's final few moments, after a vocal and orchestral climax followed by a second or so of silence, Bjork softly sings, "I love him, I love him, I love him... " with a vulnerability and control that soon escalates into near-frenzied passion. This is Bjork at her finest.
Also worth mentioning is "Aurora," a song that showcases and epitomizes Bjork's ability to create nearly supernatural music. With celestial harp plucking as a backdrop for soaring "ooh"s, "aaah"s and lyrics about "moments of shine from twilight to twilight," the song could be the musical equivalent of Van Gogh's "A Starry Night."
One of the most telling of Bjork's choices is her decision to use the words of an e.e. cummings poem in her song, "Sun in My Mouth." Cummings, an early-20th century artist and writer, is most well-known for his work with typographic and sound poetry. His words fit well with Bjork's vocals - just as every letter is painstakingly placed in cummings's poetry, each separate sound and tremor is painstakingly voiced in Bjork's songs. Her interpretation of cummings adds a new dimension and is wonderful to hear.
"Vespertine" is undoubtedly an album which must be looked at as a whole. As such, I must mention "Unison," the album's last song. It kids around like a charming 5-year-old while weaving in and out of its all-too-serious "let's unite tonight" chorus; its adult side is amplified by the influx of beseeching strings. A brilliant way to end the album, "Unison" puts even more emphasis on the theme of intimate unions but also provides a welcome sense of closure.
I know my gushing is becoming tiresome. But try as I might, I can find nothing substantial to criticize. If some songs don't stand out, it's not for their weakness; it's only because the other songs stand out so very much more. In any case, Bjork has made an album to be proud of. If she gets any better, I'll have a heart attack and die happy.
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