BjA¶rk - Homogenic

Damned good!

This collection of tracks is superb.
Perfection within the very notes and programming.
I love each song on this LP for different reasons.
Each song has it's own personality. May 20, 2008

Bjork is the universe....

I adore Bjork. Not only is she an amazingly beautiful and beguling woman, but she's one of the greatest musicians working today, and this is one of my favorite albums of hers. This was the first album of hers I got, and I still play the tar out of it. The opening song, Hunter, is filled with tension and beauty, but my favorite song has to be Joga, the 2nd track. The chorus is so powerful and moving, and the string section gives it a really beautiful feel. The final track, All is Full of Love, is wonderful as well. When Bjork sings, that voice penetrates your soul. It gets to you emotionally first, intellectually second. She has such an aura and a magnetism to her that is undeniable. Unfortunately, many in this country think of her in the swan dress at the Oscars (For the record, I love that dress. She looks adorable in it). It's easy to make fun of a real artist like her. She's immensely popular in the rest of the world (and with good reason). She is worth every accolade that has come her way. She is life, love, happiness, and sadness. She is universe...

October 26, 2007

amazing

Bjork is absolutelly a genius. Bachelorette must be one of the most moving songs I know. September 12, 2007

A Fascinating Timeless Album: Homogenic Is Still Fresh After 10 Long Years

Okay I never really knew a lot about Björk. I mean I've seen her on TV plenty of times wearing that infamous 'Swan Dress,' but I never heard her music. That is until I was watching SNL and she preformed "Earth Intruders" and I enjoyed it because it was new, original, and I needed a break from all this rap/hip-hop stuff that is 'in.' So... I was like, 'what the heck, I will give it a try,' as I was looking at her albums on Amazon.com. As I saw the album cover to Homogenic, I was shocked and amazed all at once. It was so beautifully scary and just looked like wild chaos was contained beneath. By far, the best album cover I have put my eyes on. (And if you look really close at her eyes in the picture, you can see they are all black with a big white ring in the inside of her black eyes. I also love her hair! WOW! Oh and her fingernails lol, its so bewitching) I just have never seen anything like it before and basically I bought it for the cover and all the hype about "Pluto." (Volta wasn't out at this time) So I ordered Homogenic as my first Björk album, and waited to see if I liked it. I was wrong. I LOVED IT! But not at first. You see, the album grows on you. You have to take time to really appreciate it and each song for what it truly is.

Hunter: A- (4.5/5) A curious, but brilliant way to start the album. Actually it is the perfect choice. I expected this video to have Björk preparing to go out into the woods to go hunting. But she was bald and morphed into a bear on and off. Oh well, still love the song! "I'm Going Hunting!"

Jóga: A+ (5/5) My favorite ballad off of this album. It's so well done and composed. Great choice for the first single. Deep and meaningful lyrics. It's true in every sense. The video to this song fits it very well, and should be re-done with all the new technology today. I can't wait to buy the Jóga Singles CD. 'Emergency is where I want to be!'

Unravel: A+ (5/5) I didn't like this song at first but it grew on me, a lot. When I am fully into the trance of this song, it is already over and it leaves me wanting more. Every time I listen to it, it makes me want to unravel like a ball of yarn, as it is, and just relax. Very peaceful song. Almost Heartbreaking.

Bachelorette A (4.5/5) I don't think this was the best choice for a single, as there are other, better songs than this one, but it is still good, don't get me wrong, it's just that Unravel or All Neon Like is more deserving of the title. However, I do love the ending to this song. Who would have thought an accordion would make such a perfect ending? Oh, and the video is so outlandish! I can't even describe it, but the tide will show you the way... (Some of the beats to this song are reminiscent of "5 Years" if you listen closely.)

All Neon Like: A+ (5/5) Clever Lyrics: "Not till you 'halo' all over me" or "Nourish Your Turtle Hearts..." (although I still don't understand some of the lyrics in the song, I love it all) But I enjoy the vibe to this song. When I am in the car I like to have this one on full blast. Such a shame this wasn't a single. It would have loved to seen the video for this neon-beauty.

5 Years: A (5/5) Good song. Sounds like Björk is a little upset and wants revenge on someone as 'she dares you... (and) what's so scary, there's not a threat in sight' :) I also really enjoy the beat to this song as well. It's like the speakers are shuffling and melting at the same time.

Immature: A-- (4/5) My least favorite song of this album. I don't know why, but it just doesn't seem as strong as the other powerful songs. Maybe because it is the shortest song on the album. I still like it, but when I am fully into the song, it's over. However, I do like the lyrics a lot, it's just the weakest of the ten.

Alarm Call: A (5/5) Okay back on track, this song has a 'Jungle Beat'. This is an incredible song, and I love how she chants, 'it doesn't scare me at all .... I'm no f*ucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment' The video is a little racy, but it is all good! Now, since track 3, Unravel, all of the tracks have flowed nicely. Finally 'Immature' morphs into 'Alarm Call' and you expect this song to flow with 'Pluto' because the songs have been flowing. But when 'Alarm Call' ends, it doesn't flow with 'Pluto' because 'Pluto' is on it's own different level, it's own different planet if you will--pardon the 'pun.'

Pluto: A+ (5/5) WOW, that's the only thing I said when the song was over. I couldn't believe what I just heard. It was like the whole entire album had been leading up to this moment. This explosion. This crazy world-wind of a song. Now I love techno/electronica/dance, and all that kind of music, but as the song starts out, I thought I knew what I was going to get, but I was wrong. The song got stronger and stronger still until she screams and screams and releases just about everything for this triumphant song. Icelandic Techno is what I have heard it called. (And what a beautifully crazy thing it is.) It's like this song is a super-sonic blitz filled with jack-hammering pulsating vibes that never stop. And I don't want this song to stop either. I thought I have heard everything, but not when I heard this. You are either going to love or hate this song, and I hope you love it as much as I obviously do. Oh and as a word of advice, don't sing to this song too much, as you will most likely lose your voice. Trust Me! This should have been a single, but, I don't think the "general" people would understand, what this song is truly all about. Whenever I am infuriated and mad, I play this song to release the pressure off me, and it works!

All Is Full Of Love: A+ (5/5) After the 'climax' of this album, (Pluto) everything stops. It slows down and changes into this beautiful song. I like this version, but the video version is much, much, MUCH better. But the album flows so better with this version, so I can see why she chose the 'original' one over the video one. This song, in my opinion, gave 'Homogenic' its name. If you have seen the video, these two robots are obviously kissing and making love. Now it seems to me that both robots are neither female nor male. But they are the still the 'same.' It's my favorite video off the album and possibly the most touching song to me.


**As for a favorite song... I can't choose. I obviously love "Pluto," just because it's so mind-blowing, but I fell in love with "Jóga," and I'm still falling in love with it. "All Is Full Of Love" is so heart warming and loving. (And we can't forget, "All Neon Like" or "Unravel.") I guess I don't have a favorite because each song is like its own little gem, each one a different shape, size, color, and sparkle. You can't compare something so different from one another. Although 'Homogenic' does mean one in all the same, like pebbles. It is an interesting title for a lovely interesting 'different' kind of album.**

- You could skip all I wrote up there, just read this:

It is well worth your time and money. As this album is way (and still) ahead of it's time. I gave Björk a try, and I am hoping you will too. I was so glad I did. This album is amazing and I love it to death. One of the greatest album I--and will ever--own. It's a Masterpiece in every sense. And give Homogenic Live a try too. September 1, 2007

Still Bjork's most dignified and accomplished record

I recently picked up a copy of Volta, and while her most recent album is, as usual, lovely, quirky, and challenging all at once, its finest moments only sent me back to Homogenic, where Bjork increasingly seems to have been both entirely herself-- she pronounces "luminous" as "lumin-KNEE-us" on "All Neon Like"-- and forced into becoming something else, something representative, aggressive, and expansive (her voice even dwarfs the sweeping violins on "Joga"), a metamorphosis that appears to have been rather painful but resulted in one heck of a record. Even the non-singles here are deeply impressive in their musical spareness and emotional, poetic sharpness; particular favorites of mine are the assured "5 Years," where a rough snow-stomping beat occasionally transforms into a snickering background to Bjork's semi-amused, semi-frustrated charge that her lover "just can't handle love," and "Immature," where she accuses herself of laziness for thinking anyone could "replace the missing elements in me." This kind of unforgiving directness was lost on the pretty harps and crystalline complexities of Vespertine and the more universalized Medulla and Volta.

Bjork's Homogenic character, of course, can very definitely handle love, and her principal point seems to be that the life of caring for others, of vulnerable trusting, isn't soft or easy; it takes as much and more energy as rage or willed isolation. Heavy stuff for a pop record, and these austere soundscapes make much of the meanderings on her other releases seem insubstantial. Listen to the appropriately hellish middle of "Pluto," where an unrelenting machine-gun beat meets Bjork's fuzzed-out groaning, which she manages to cap off with a careless scream, that song concluding to meet the underappreciated glacial slowness of the album version of "All is Full of Love." Bjork lifted herself up (into a a state of emergence in the truest sense) and outdid herself on this record, and I'm glad I can quickly wheel back my iPod from "V" to "H" to hear Bjork on this fantastic release.



May 21, 2007

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