#Lionsong you have my whole heart

[shmowder]

I'll forever be thankful to the person who introduced me to Björk music on here; it completely changed the way I view and interact with music, I can't comprehend the possibility of going my whole life without having discovered her music just living in my limited bubble for eternity

[marcmyworks]

Ranking the albums of Björk

Today I will be ranking the albums of the fantabulous and wonderful Björk. She has been an influence on me ever since I first heard “It’s Oh So Quiet” back in 1995 and since I have been following her career extensively. Although her later albums are a bit less accessible commercially to her early work, I don’t believe she has released a bad album. I will be charting her work starting with her first solo album in 1993, and not including her work with Icelandic Punk-Pop group the Sugarcubes. I also will not be including her soundtrack to the film ‘Drawing Restraint 9’, as this was mostly instrumental.

10. Volta (2007)

Volta seemed like Björk’s attempt to gain radio play again after having an experimental phase working with her ex-partner/filmmaker Matthew Barney. The album’s first two singles, “Earth Intruders” and “Innocence” were both produced by hip-hop giants Timbaland and his protégé Danja and featured a very electronic dance aesthetic. Though the album did quite well critically and is packaged beautifully, it does not feel cohesive or really as forward thinking as most of her work. Also, the Mark Stent remixes of each single, released separately, seem to outshine the album versions.

Listen to: Earth Intruders, Declare Independence, Wanderlust, Innocence.

9. Utopia (2019)

Most Björk fans find this album to be a triumph but I currently still cannot enter the world of Utopia or find it interesting enough to warrant repeat listens. The album is her lengthiest (at over 70 minutes) and is a mixture of folk, electronic and studies more ethereal themes. Björk works with the brilliant producer Arca to help shape the landscape of each song, and at times it really works, but overall it feels overly long, and almost like a Björk parody.

Listen to: Arisen My Senses, The Gate, Sue Me, Saint

8. Biophilia (2011)

A concept album that deals with nature meeting technology. Each track is tuned to a different note on a tuning fork and sets of these tuning forks were even released as exclusive boxsets. Overall the album is well conceived and produced but does suffer from being a bit ‘samey same’, as some of the tracks blend together. I did see a concert on the three year tour for the album and I was incredibly impressed with how she was able to translate the sound live.

Listen to: Mutual Core, Crystalline, Thunderbolt, Moon

7. Selmasongs (2000)

This is the first soundtrack album conceived by Björk and contains the songs written for the film Dancer in the Dark. The film is a wonderful and sad story of an immigrant woman named Selma who is going blind, and who makes her days brighter by conceiving there is a musical happening when things seem to go wrong. The songs are quite good but not her strongest, though this may have been due to her tight time constraints and working with an orchestra.

Listen to: Cvalda, Scatterheart, 107 Steps, Overture

6. Debut (1993)

Björk’s first album post-Sugarcubes is a trip-hop masterpiece that not only launched her career but also brought London’s underground dance scene to the mainstream. This was thanks to producer Nellee Hooper who had previously won Grammy Awards working with Soul II Soul and Sinead O’Connor. Five singles were released from this album (four initially, and one on the re-issue) and all charted on the UK singles chart, with the album selling around 4.5 million copies Worldwide.

Listen to: There’s More to Life Than This, Venus as a Boy, Violently Happy, Human Behaviour, One Day

5. Vulnicura (2015)

Vulnicura in my opinion is probably the first album in Björk’s career where there were no radio-friendly tracks but rather a continuation of her wanting to push the experimentation of song constructs. Rather than release singles to promote the album Björk decided to create innovative music videos which tested new technology, such as 360-degree cameras. This later lead to a virtual reality exhibit entitled “Björk Digital” which went on an 18-month tour around the World. I still kick myself for missing it. Each song is produced by either her now long-time collaborator Arca (whom she met on her Biophilia Tour) or new collaborator The Haxon Cloak.

Listen to: Lionsong, Stonemilker, Family, Notget, Mouth Mantra

4. Medúlla (2004)

Being asked to write the theme for the 2004 Summer Olympics is an honour, but also to have its musical themes continue onto a full-length album is superb. Björk started writing Medúlla as “The Lake Album” in which she would strip all instrumentals from tracks and simply focus on voices. As she called it, a “very introverted” album and the title changed to the latin word for bone marrow, as it is the base building block of a person. Though some of the tracks do contain some synthesizers, 95% of the album’s beats and rhythms are made by mixing the voices of throat singers, beatboxers and choirs.

Listen to: Oceania, Where is the Line, Pleasure is All Mine, Sonnets/Unrealities XI, Triumph of a Heart

3. Vespertine (2001)

It took me a few years to get into this record as Vespertine was so far and beyond what anything Björk had created. I was used to the incredible experimental electronic sound on first three albums that when I listened to #4, which contains mostly micro-beats and soft vocals, and not to mention the infamous swan dress on the cover, it was a bit of a shock. Björk felt the energy of her 1997 release Homogenic was very masculine and aggressive and she wanted her new album to sound more feminine and explored her mindset during the filming of Dancer in the Dark as well as her relationship with Matthew Barney. I always felt Vespertine was a winter album as it feels quite Nordic in its soundscape. I’m glad I kept listening as it turned out to be one of my favourites. 

Listen to: Harm of Will, Pagan Poetry, Hidden Place, It’s Not Up to You, An Echo A Stain

2. Homogenic (1997)

Wowser, already at number 2. I remember the first time I heard this record with my friends; they would think it too strange though I would think it magical. It became one of my most listened to records of my teens. Its glamorous and punk and the artwork is extreme. Björk’s album look was envisioned and created by genius designer Alexander McQueen, who would be her frequent collaborator until his death in 2010. Homogenic was produced by Howie B and Mark Bell, and Björk wrote the album as a tribute to Iceland, wanting the songs to create the landscape of her homeland. The album released five singles, three which would enter the UK top 40. 

Listen to: The whole thing.

1. Post (1995)

Post is probably one of my top 10 favourite albums of all time. I could listen to it over and over again on repeat without being bored. The year 1995 was big for me in terms of musical discovery. I was 13 around the time I started buying my own cassette tapes and CDs. My Aunt came home from a business trip in London and brought back this CD. “It’s Oh So Quiet” was a massive hit in the UK and she wanted my brother, my cousins and I to hear this unusual and brilliant artist. The next year the Mission: Impossible film would come out and the song “Headphones” was featured, to which Björk sings to a friend about the feelings she has listening to his mixtape. I in tow would listen to that song every night on my Walkman before I fell asleep as it was a perfect way to end each day. Post was incredibly influential to me and to this day is a staple in my life. I can’t thank Björk enough for creating this iconic piece of music history.

Listen to: The whole thing.

Please, if you are so inclined to let me know in the comments how you’d rank Björk’s albums.

[thesinglesjukebox]

BJÖRK - THE GATE [7.00] Björk found this dressphere at the La Brea tar pits.

Will Adams: A study in musical pools. The verses read like fragments, like notes scribbled before they escape the mind. They sink into the arrangement's depths until they're no longer visible in the murk. Rising up, however, is the plea of "I/You care for you/me," a devastating summary of the reciprocal nature of care. With "The Gate," it's easy to forget that it's pulling you in with the well-worn slow build formula because the resulting churn of emotion is too captivating to ignore. [8]

Eleanor Graham: For all it reveled in minute-long string jags, towering and disintegrating tangents from recognisable melody, and general, you know, Björkness, Vulnicura was a bracingly direct break-up album. Shrugged "Lionsong": "Maybe he will come out of this loving me - maybe he won't." Cried "Stonemilker": "Show me emotional respect!" This song is not a departure, hanging all its hopes for emotional resonance on four agonised words - "I care for you!" - repeated against synths that exhale rattlesnakes and ghosts and inhale Disney panpipes and computerised bubbles. Ultimately, "The Gate" suffers the same fate as "Black Lake" in that there is too much emptiness in its sprawling sonic wasteland. The latter at least was a thing to be felt; this is just a thing to be admired. Its desolation/infatuation/desperation is apparent but lacks urgency. As far as stirring church-y atmospherics go, Susanne Sundfør accomplished far more in under three minutes. [4]

Leah Isobel: Vulnicura was one of the most heart-shattering pieces of music I've ever listened to, direct in form but utterly despairing in content. It was my gateway to Björk, and introduced me to the dizzying emotional heights she can scale within a pop structure, but its sense of sheer hopelessness keeps me from returning to it much. "The Gate" goes in the opposite direction. Arca's production lights up like one of those freaky deep-sea fish, but the electronic edges are blunted, leaving only the eerie neon luminescence. Björk, meanwhile, lets her voice unspool a patient melody that seems to float in the ether. I like the slow development on the theme, and her candid admission that she wasn't always "so needy," but I'm more excited by the implicit promise that better things are to come - both for Björk-as-song-narrator, and on her upcoming album. [7]

Anthony Easton: The spaces between the verses, filled with glacial movement and rigorous, almost minimal electronic declarations, make the proposal of caring not one of warmth or of love but of difficult obligation. She sings "care" somewhere between a phrase book and a declaration of unpleasant moral necessity. The song is easier about caring than how she sings about it, but it is still cold, and a little lonely. [9]

Alfred Soto: Years experimenting with the expositional and dramatic use of space and spare synth string effects culminate in "The Gate." I haven't heard so many nuances wrung out of the word "care." But by the four-minute mark Bjork has reached the limits of nuance, drama, and exposition. [5]

Tim de Reuse: Bjork's vocal performance takes center stage, as it often does, but an equal star here is producer Arca's production work. It's a marvelously unfriendly backdrop, as icy and alien as any take from his solo work: arrhythmic, woody kick drums, dramatic faux-orchestral trills, moaning detuned melodies, uncomfortably high clicks fed through oceans of reverb. This instrumental is fragmented and difficult to keep track of, with only a vague overarching trend of growth, and it's just as temporally disorienting the whole way through as Bjork's freeform lamentations. By totally refusing the listener basic metrical or structural points of reference, its individual sections feel slippery and formless in memory, and it makes a bright blur of an overall impression even as it's difficult to recall exactly how the beginning differs from the end. That kind of effect doesn't always pan out in a song's favor, of course, but every piece of this song's construction seems to have been tweaked to accentuate this effect; a jumbled, half-ordered cloud of dramatic, interrelated events floating in a bubble of space. Listening through it is like trying to remember a fantastic, weird dream. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[thepapermixtape]

FYF Review

By: Cam Vernali and Ciara Mandich

Crowd surfing at FYF

Introduction

Music festivals teeter on the fine line between popularity and niche markets — too many popular headliners, and you got yourself a Top 40s playlist devoid of any personality. On the other hand, too many niche bands run the risk of alienating festival-goers. The lineup itself is only one part of the larger event at hand; when you factor in the setup of the festival itself, the vibe of the crowd, and other uncontrollable factors, there are numerous ways a festival can turn out. As someone who has been through a range of good and not-so-good experiences at music festivals, I can vouch for the fact that a thoroughly enjoyable festival is hard to find.

Whereas other music festivals could have faltered under the pressure of such large headliners, FYF created a music-going experience that was easily enjoyable and entertaining due to a well-planned format and a wide diversity of genres. FYF brought a refreshing mix of music to Exposition Park for the weekend, allowing widely-recognized names to draw in crowds while a cohesive mix of R&B, electronic, and garage rock bands kept the energy going.

Homeshake performance

Colors in crowd

Friday

“This one will cool you down,” Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils told the crowd before launching into “Sleep Apnea.” The alternative rock group performed at the Lawn Stage in front of a more mellow, laid-back audience — after all, it was only an hour into the extensive three-day long festival and the energy was just beginning to climb. Besides playing classics like “Calyer,” Beach Fossils also brought out Rachel Goswell of Slowdive to perform “Tangerine.”

A walk past merchandising tables and water-refilling stations led to the Trees Stage, where jazz trio BadBadNotGood played for 50 minutes. The surprise of the set was when rapper Denzel Curry came onstage to perform “Ultimate,” leaving the crowd more energized than before.

As the sun wound down, FYF gained a whimsical atmosphere as colorful lighting covered the festival in almost every casual sense. Blue and green lighting accompanied festival-goers as they walked around the Coliseum from stage to stage, striking a careful balance between being too faint or too overpowering.

Bjork was a much-anticipated act of the night, with Arca’s place as her DJ bringing the tunes in sync with sharp visuals ranging from peaceful landscapes to a pulsing heart. Bjork herself wore a multicolored frilled dress that contrasted against the squeaky “thank you’s!” she proclaimed after every song. Playing songs from “Isobel” to “Lionsong,” Bjork covered a whole spectrum of her discography. Watching the whole set was akin to watching a Planet Earth documentary: beautiful, emotionally moving, and a tad unbelievable.

Missy Elliott continued the strong female energy on the Main Stage, acting like queen of the stage and fittingly donning a hat with “Queen” on it. Elliott constantly called out for her “Missy fans from Day 1” before proceeding to play classics such as “Pass That Dutch��� and “I’m Really Hot.” Of course, she didn’t go without the hits as her DJ and backup dancers helped bring the energy for “Get Ur Freak On” and “Lose Control.”

Whereas Missy Elliot got the crowd energy raised, Anderson Paak and the Free Nationals took that energy and ran with it. The entirety of the set was a fast-motion energetic whirlwind of Paak leading the crowd and his band through clean beats such as “Come Down.” Their rendition of “Glowed Up,” a song created in collaboration with Kaytranada, was cohesive and funky. Paak took the show up a level when he went to the drum kit halfway through “This Season / Carry Me” and continued to rap and drum for multiple songs, showing that his musical ability ranges across multiple facets of music.

There was only one way to end the first day, and that was with Flying Lotus. Three-dimensional glasses for FlyLo’s set were sent with every wristband; those who remembered to bring theirs took them out of pockets and bags as they waited for the set to begin, while others bought last-minute yellow-rimmed glasses nearby. As soon as Flying Lotus graced the stage, 3-D graphics added to the bass-heavy energy of the electronic music. Songs such as the Twin Peaks theme song and Thundercat’s “Friendzone” kept the energy high; multiple mentions were also made towards “Kuso,” Flying Lotus’ latest horror movie. While his set was impeccable, the jury is still out on “Kuso” — you’ll have to see that for yourself.

Friday was like the appetizer round of FYF; it had enough musical talent to bring forth an eventful day, but was nothing too physically or emotionally draining. That would be saved for Saturday, the day to buckle down and watch the emotional heavy-hitters.

Saturday

While Saturday would become reverent and touching as the day progressed, it started off in the Club Stage with only high spirits. Princess Nokia had a fully-hyped crowd within seconds of starting her performance. The 25-year old R&B singer started off with “Tomboy,” encouraging the audience to jump and dance along to the beat. She then launched into other high-energy songs such as “Kitana” and “G.O.A.T.” By thanking the crowd multiple times for performing at FYF and crowd surfing, Princess Nokia definitely left an impact on the Cub stage.

Over on the Lawn Stage, Thundercat kept his setup simple with just a three-piece ensemble; however, his personal appearance was anything but. Pink dreads and a bright purple robe kept all eyes on him. Thundercat’s hallmark jazz and R&B elements were heard throughout the set but especially during the improvisational points, which may have lost more casual fans but kept genuine followers firmly glued to their spot.

In case anyone needed a flashback to the mid-2000s, MGMT performed under the glaring sun to a crowd that ranged from old men to young teenage girls. At first, Andrew VanWyngarden and the rest of the band seemed out of place on the large Main Stage, but soon set into their groove after a couple of songs. Fan favorites such as “Kids” and “Electric Feel” were played and left almost everyone grooving to the beat, while newer songs such as “Michael and Me” only had a couple concertgoers dancing along.

London-based King Krule also created an eccentric look with bright orange neon shades as he cooly performed during sunset. Songs such as “Easy Easy” kept the crowd bopping their heads but pensive, a mood that is present in the most of the London musicians’ tunes. The gem of the set was when King Krule closed with “Baby Blue,” allowing for a brief but touching moment of FYF.

A Tribe Called Quest had a clear goal in mind for the night when they graced the Main stage: to honor Mailk Taylor aka Phife Dawg, a member of Tribe that recently passed last year. Q-Tip let the crowd know that this was the last Tribe Called Quest show in Los Angeles, further adding a sense of nostalgia and poignancy to the show. Although a Tribe Called Quest show without Phife is not truly the band at their finest, the constant honoring of Phife through pictures and shoutouts on stage gave the set a more meaningful atmosphere. The band also played groovy crowd favorites, such as “Electric Relaxation” and “We the People…”.

And then we come to the pinnacle of Saturday, if not all of FYF — Frank Ocean. After not performing in the US for four years and canceling his last FYF gig, whispers of Ocean not showing up at all hung in the air. But to silence all those fears came Frank, who walked onto the Main stage with an “Instant Karma” shirt and noise-canceling headphones he wore all night. Starting the show with “Solo” and then going straight to “Chanel” put Ocean in the driving seat.

Throughout the night, it was evident all the time and thought Ocean put into every inch of the set. A guest appearance by Brad Pitt was a humorous but wildly unexpected moment of the night, reinforcing the fact that the only one who can predict what will happen at a Frank Ocean show is Ocean himself. The whole set was arguably the most polished show from a festival I have ever seen — the audio was balanced and crisp, the visuals were simple yet powerful, the setlist was cohesive and flowed smoothly. There wasn’t a single fully dry eye in the radius of people around me, and justifiably so.

In all honesty, I wasn’t able to fully process all the music I had witnessed until about halfway through the walk exiting FYF. Saturday was about as jam-packed with once-in-a-lifetime musical concerts as one could possibly fathom, leaving me with a sense of disbelief that could only be shaken off with the high-energy day that Sunday would bring.

Sunday

Bringing garage punk to FYF was the job of Ty Segall, who rallied the Lawn stage midway on Sunday. Tunes such as “Finger on It” got the small mosh pit rowdy, while others standing nearby the stage got enough secondhand energy to power through the rest of Sunday.

A familiar face to FYF was Mac DeMarco, whose set on Trees signaled his fifth year at the festival. “Salad Days” was first up and pumped up the crowd. The rest of the set followed with a mixture of older and newer tunes from the Canadian singer. An unexpected break was when DeMarco covered “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton but chose to repeat the lyric, “Making my way downtown” for the duration of the entire song. DeMarco then followed this up with a command for the audience to crowdsurf his friend Brandon during “Freaking Out the Neighborhood,” creating cheers and laughs.

Mura Masa followed DeMarco on the same stage, taking the energy from DeMarco’s set and elevating it to a punchier level. Bonzai, who sang on multiple tracks from the British electronic musician’s recent album, gave extra energy to the songs performed. “Love$ick” and “Firefly” got the crowd excited and dancing their hardest compared to any crowd I had seen over the weekend. The addition of live drums and guitar to Mura Masa’s tracks gave the electronic beats an edge that complimented the live vocals smoothly, creating richer songs with more depth than one would usually expect from an electronic show. The surprise of the set was when Desiigner came on to perform “All Around the World.”

6LACK was the final act on the Trees Stage and closed it out with a devoted crowd. After his hype man played high-energy songs such as Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE” and Lil Uzi’s “XO Tour Lif3,” 6LACK walked onstage and dived straight into songs from his recent project “Free 6LACK.” It was his first time performing without the dreadlocks that has become his signature look, but one could not tell from his performance that anything was different; the transitions between songs were smooth and filled with personable tidbits, grounding 6LACK to the crowd. During the slower, more emotional songs, simple background graphics echoed a Vince Staples-esque setup; this changed when more hyped-up songs were performed, such as “PRBLMS.”

Ending FYF was done with the most seemingly random band of them all: Nine Inch Nails. After not playing live for three years, the band certainly did not miss a beat; they tore through their intense, hard-paced music without faltering. Included in their set was a tribute to David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” which was a softer mix-up for the industrial rock band but touching nonetheless. Fast guitars and drums matched their light and visual compositions, creating a cohesive set.

Sunday took the emotional heaviness and reverence of Saturday and flipped it on its head, creating a fast-paced but enjoyable and at times humorous ending to the weekend. Less packed than its Saturday counterpart, Sunday felt like it had more space to breathe and have lighthearted fun.

Conclusion

I have been to my fair share of musical festivals up until this point and experienced quite a number of exhausting moments through this process, so when I walked into FYF I had braced myself with low expectations of an average festival with above-average music. To my surprise, the festival setup itself was as enjoyable as the home-run lineup itself. FYF has nowhere to go in the coming years but to be bigger, better, and more memorable — as long as they don’t lose the aspects that make it an enjoyable festival to begin with.

Photos and Words by Cam Vernali Photos include: Preview, Friday, Sunday, and Conclusion pictures Photos by Ciara Mandich Photos include: Introduction and Saturday pictures