Day 26- Bjork is Complete or fullkominn in Icelandic

This morning I finished Bjork and am finally ready to give my synopsis of 4.5 hours of the Icelandic songstress.

First to address a few questions...
How did I get into Bjork?
When Bjork first become popular (approximately 1991) with the single Human Behavior off of Debut, my friend Justin's sister had the CD. I really liked the video of the bear walking around the woods and of course liked the song. At the time I got the CD and generally liked the album... Fast forward to my sophomore year of college where I had since forgotten about Bjork. I met this crazy music buff Langer who had a ton of Bjork. We're talking every single and EP. So I borrowed them all and listened to everything. I couldn't get enough of it. I suddenly became a huge Bjork fan. A few years later I was lucky enough to see Bjork perform at Radio City Music hall in 2001 (pictured above) with Langer. This was after the release of Vespertine and as I recall she was accompanied by a choir and a bunch of strange electronic or computer instruments played by one random dude.

I also journied to Iceland with Langer and some other friends (I'm using the term friends loosely here) in 2004 to find Bjork. Unfortunately we didn't find her but did have an amazing time. Iceland is insanely expensive but a great place to visit. Amazing night life, incredible glaciers, geysers and other natural wonders. I highly recommend it. The picture is of us (minus Wart) at Blue Lagoon.




But why Bjork?
I can't really explain why I enjoy Bjork's music other than typically her songs have amazing beats and unique vocals. I think part of the attraction to Bjork is that she is just so different and has such an incredible voice.



Did you survive listening to 4+ hours of Bjork?
Actually it was not as painful as I had thought. I guess I realized why I bought all these CDs in the first place. There were definitely some rough spots - the entire Medulla album, but for the most part Bjork makes great music.

Here is a run down of some rankings of Bjork albums and my favorite songs:

1. Post- Any of the top three I have listed could be ranked first. I chose Post first because I love "Hyper Ballad" (there is an amazing live version of this song from the Woodstock cd but I some how lost that), "It's Oh so Quiet" and "Isobel" which is my favorite Bjork song.
   
2. Homogenic- "Bachelorette" and "Alarm Call" are both amazing.
   
3. Debut- Her first solo album which has "Human Behavior", "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy". But I think my favorite song from this album is "Anchor Song". The simplicity is what makes this song along with the harmony. The song isjust Bjork and what I think is a trumpet, saxophone and trombone (Whaley). The harmonies are powerful and it's worth a listen. Here are two live versions I found on youtube unfortunately both are sung mostly in Icelandic. Brass version and String Version.
   
4. Vespertine- Much better than I had remembered. "Hidden Place" is easily the best followed by "It's not up to you".
   
5. Selmasongs- The soundtrack from "Dancer in the Dark". Great soundtrack horrible movie. If you are really happy and need to cry or possibly kill yourself watch this movie. Nothing positive ever happens in the movie. I own the DVD so let me know if you need to borrow it.
   
6. Medulla- This album is dreadful. There is one song where Bjork is singing with two other people and everyone is singing in a different key. It actually makes you feel sick and dead inside.
   

Lastly one of the best videos of all time has to be Bjork's "It's Oh so Quiet" by Spike Jonze. Definitely watch it on youtube Shhh Shhh. Who doesn't love dancing mailboxes?

And if you're bored definitely check out "Big Time Sensuality". I could go on but I have a feeling not many of you are still reading at this point.

More to come tomorrow- Black Crowes, Black Eyed Peas, Blink-182 and Bloc Party.