Its infectiously giddy mood is potentiated by the sound of an Indian orchestra, recorded in Mumbai by Talvin Singh. Venus As a Boy (1993)Īpparently Björk’s most-covered song – something like 30 different versions exist – Venus As a Boy sounds utterly lovestruck: “His wicked sense of humour / Suggests exciting sex”.
It is a fizzing, electrifying blast of beats and distorted thumb-piano that embodies the lyrics: “metallic carnage ferocity”. Earth Intruders (2007)ījörk has always had great taste when it comes to collaborators – never more so than on Earth Intruders, which pitches the hip-hop auteur Timbaland against the Congolese “all-powerful likembe orchestra” Konono No 1 to startling effect. But Army of Me also works as a ferocious statement of individual artistic intent (“Self-sufficiency, please! / And get to work”) bedecked with John Bonham drums and dirty synthesiser. The opening track of Post was, apparently, the sound of Björk telling her brother to buck his ideas up. Co-written with the Bond composer David Arnold and Jah Wobble, Play Dead keys into the era’s revival of interest in soundtracks and easy listening, but never sounds like a pastiche: the song is too dramatic and powerful. Play Dead (1993)ījörk’s first two albums often feel like scrapbooks of musical ideas floating around the non-Britpop 90s: house, trip-hop, the Chemical Brothers’ distorted breaks, Aphex-y electronica. It gradually builds momentum until it sounds unstoppable the melody, meanwhile, is gleeful.Īlready electrifying … Björk in 1995. The perfect example of Medulla’s ability to conjure up magic from unlikely ingredients, Triumph of a Heart is built around a cacophony of rhythmic voices, recalling human beatboxing and the vocal representations of Indian percussion on Sheila Chandra’s Speaking in Tongues. Björk sounds as if she is barely keeping her emotions under control.
Vulnicura at its most agitated the arrangement would be beautiful if it weren’t for the fact that it is allied to sudden sampled vocal interjections and a furious barrage of post-drum’n’bass rhythms that seem to stop, start and shift randomly. There is a particularly spicy and formidable version included on the Vespertine Live album. An overlooked gem, tacked on to the end of her fan-selected Greatest Hits collection, It’s in Our Hands is a sublime slice of future R&B conjured up in collaboration with the avant-techno duo Matmos.
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