Classic Albums: Vespertine by Björk

So it’s Valentine Days today, kiss someone for me! This is an album which I really do think is very romantic so is it to anyone else out there? It’s very romantic in a Björk way of course, I guess.

Last month I kind-of started adding some of my favourite albums by artists from Europe with my most unsuccessful post ever, no one has yet to even look at my The Young Gods’ TV Sky album, maybe someone will now look/read it now I’ve said that? Now Iceland is not on the mainland but I’m thinking she might be another more popular post just for the fact, it’s Björk! I do like to write about music no one knows here on my blog, it could be a another mistakes because it’s a bit pointless if it’s not interesting to anyone to even look/read. People seem to like to know what you’re writing about, all these Classic Albums posts are should or were supposed to be seen or listen to as a kind-of set but that’s not really going to happen, I don’t think? Maybe I’ll intro something to someone, sometimes? Now everyone should have heard of Björk by now, right?

Anyway this just has to be my favourite Bjork album of all-time. Not that I think she ever made a bad record but some would disagree that, you just have understand what she is going after on each release. This album called Vespertine is her real and totally just electronic, not just used a one element of a whole but it’s music here on the album is all made from it. Almost nothing else was used in these sessions, Björk has always champing music made on computers but it’s like she trying to prove the point after years of listening to people say shit like it’s not real music or some such rubbish. It’s her at her most inspired too, after the hell on earth project of being a movie star in Dancer In The Dark film. It’s a time when she started a long-term relationship with the visual artist Matthew Barney which has only just ended a couple of years ago now and you can hear the end of the relationship  on her last album Vulnicura from 2015, just like the two polar opposite of the same thing.

Björk was pretty much written of as mad around this time by the mass media because of her turning up at the oscars in her swan dress and laying an egg on the red carpet. Which was just so brilliant and just seem like she was saying I don’t give a fuck about your silly award show or something along those lines. After her early band The Sugarcubes and then the big success of going solo and a great run three very popular albums, here on this album she sets up her future as Björk push the envelopes beyond her mainstream success.

Just like say Radiohead around the same time with their Kid A album, moving forward and doing something different might be see as they’re not going to be pulled into a box they don’t want to be in. As a listener this stuff is so much more interesting than say if they continue down the path and became the next Madonna and/or U2, they’re both now totally written off now because they’re just so boring and have not done anything really creative as artists for so long, how can they be still be called artists? I guess the very mainstream artists have never been much interest to me, I love it when artists huge success just say fuck this and go and something that’s labeled weird or odd by the mainstream.

  Off course albums after Vespertine became even more experimental and so-called crazy but I love them all too but this one kicked it all off and I still love it the most. Is there any point in saying again I was intro to Björk on that Rage TV show again? The one and only time I got to see her live was at my first Big Day Out in the 90’s before this album, it was her Debut solo album. It was quite a show, she was sandwiched in-between Ramones and Soundgarden at that festival, she fell over and face planted on the stage plus all the power when out in the middle of her set and she just started screaming into the darkness because what hell else would you do if you were Björk?

So just gotta ask, who else still loves Björk now?

Vespertine tracklisting and times:

1. Hidden Place – 5:29
2. Cocoon – 4:28
3. It’s Not Up To You – 5:09
4. Undo – 5:38
5. Pagan Poetry – 5:15
6. Frosti – 1:41
7. Aurora – 4:39
8. An Echo, A Stain – 4:04
9. Sun In My Mouth – 2:40
10. Heirloom – 5:12
11. Harm Of Will – 4:37
12. Unison – 6:48

 

Today Bjork’s album counts as number 50, not that they’re rated in any kind-of order, it’s only the order I’ve written them in. So here’s all my Classic Albums tagged in one spot or each post/album is linked below now in all white so you can’t really see any of them anyway, LOL!

1. Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
2. Station To Station by David Bowie
3. Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
4. Rust In Peace by Megadeth
5. Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
6. Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
7. Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three
8. Gala Mill by The Drones
9. Black Monk Time by The Monks
10. Ex Tropical by Lost Animal
11. Work (Work, Work) by HTRK
12. In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra
13. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
14. Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen
15. Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
16. The White House by The Dead C
17. Silence Is Sexy by Einstürzende Neubauten
18. Lulu by Lou Reed & Metallica
19. Kaira by Toumani Diabaté
20. Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants
21. Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth by Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males
22. Aerial by Kate Bush
23. The Future by Leonard Cohen
24. Rock For Light by Bad Brains
25. Last Splash by The Breeders
26. Sex by The Necks
27. Emergency Ward by Nina Simone
28. Paradise by My Disco
29. Batman by Prince
30. Sings Christmas Carols by Mark Kozelek
31. What Are Rock Stars Doing Today by Magic Dirt
32. Love Of Life by Swans
33. Big Name, No Blankets by Warumpi Band
34. Blue Valentine by Tom Waits
35. In The Pines by The Triffids
36. Where Joy Kills Sorrow by Various Artists
37. TV Sky by The Young Gods
38. King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime by Faith No More
39. Jean Lee And The Yellow Dog by Ed Kuepper
40. Law Of Nature by Laughing Clowns
41. (I’m) Stranded by The Saints
42. Super Ape by Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Upsetters
43. The Soft ‘N’ Sexy Sound by Dave Graney ‘N’ The Coral Snakes
44. Mutiny/The Bad Seed by The Birthday Party
45. Bahdeni Nami by Omar Souleyman
46. Ascension by John Coltrane
47. The Definitive by Blind Willie McTell
48. Rid Of Me by PJ Harvey
49. Horses by Patti Smith

So the idea here is simply for me to write a post about each of my favourite albums that I consider total stone cold classics. Please do leave a reply below and tell me what you think about each album and/or artist or whatever you’d like to say about it?