Bjork: DEBUT vs. HOMOGENIC

(Medulla is her best though)

Collection of her best remixes and b-sides >>>>>>> all of the above.

Verandi
So Broken
Scary
Generous Palmstroke (how the hell was this left off of Vespertine)
Domestica
Mother Heroic
Sod Off

I could go on and on..

OTM

Vespertine>Homogenic>>Post>>>Medulla>>>>>>>>>Debut

i love homogenic but sometimes it's a little too thick for me, like too heavy

*only placed so low due to unfamiliarity...I don't own this, but heard it when it came out. I liked it, though not so much that I've ever been compelled to buy my own copy.

i could write a song about these babies:
http://static.flickr.com/33/99272403_0856de77e5_m.jpg

Debut is consistently under-regarded in these kind of contests. I'm also a little suspicious about the nature and motives of anyone putting Medulla first, and about how exactly they appreciate her music basically.

What do you mean by this? I like it the most, is it that hard to believe?

i think homogenic feels more like a landscape (didn't she record it in the mountains?) and debut is more about songwriting

x-post

Well by mainstream I sort of meant just what you said: it's more focused on songwriting, less on soundscape. That might actually make it outside the mainstream at this point though. I don't know.

yeah i love homogenic, like a whole lot, but sometimes the soundscapiness is a little bloated for me

mix some of that with the soundscape

x-post

Well maybe I will like this new one. I'd like to hear it at least.

and there seems to be a large difference between the pre- and post-Homogenic audiences as far as how much they value her more "innovative/ground-breaking/uncommercial" side over absolutely anything else about her music.

I don't think she has deliberately fostered this slightly anti-pop, ass-backwards tendency in her followers (although Medulla/DR9 haven't helped dissipate it either!) but god it grates when it's completely antithetical to what she stands for musically.

Anyway I'm not really aiming that at you personally Brainwasher. I respect Medulla immensely but I don't feel like the final package came together nearly as well in reality as it probably did in her imagination. Her reach exceeded her grasp a bit for once. It's a great album but no slam dunk compared to most of the others.

i love the sparseness

homogenic >>>>>>> debut >> vespertine > post > selmasongs > medúlla

Besides frantic drumming != Merzbow or anything. Unless you're a real UGH! NOT ROCK poptimist cheesehead I can't see what the worry is...

I've got high hopes for this new one!

Debut

Medulla = Vespertine > Homogenic >> Post = Selmasongs >> Debut

Medulla and Vespertine are like companion albums to me...

I feel like one of those crazy Bjork fans from the 4um lol.

I wasn't trying to make you fit with that cliche (like I said, not personal) but I've seen it played out far too many times now...

Medulla is -always- far easier to go back and listen to than I imagine, and the sequencing is often effective enough but somehow it just doesn't flow like it could have(?) overall. It takes a bit more effort than her other records, it's not without it's rewards though. Maybe the songcraft took a bit of a back seat to the sonics (for me) in too many places. I dunno, it IS a great album regardless!

Debut is really nothing special when compared to any of her other albums; the only song on it I ever am in the mood to listen to is "Big Time Sensuality". Conversely, "Bachelorette" is easily one of the greatest songs ever written. So, in this comparison, Homogenic all the way.

As far as comparing all of Bjork's albums is concerned, she has never released anything as consistently great as Post. Aside from "Army Of Me", that album is perfectly conceived and sequenced.

and i like army of me too

and isobel is so cool

oh god and it has hyperballad on it

I really do love Homogenic too; on many days "Joga" is my favorite Bjork ballad.

it makes you like

crumble

it's close though, "nothing special" wtf!

OTM

and hummalongability is massively overrated.

Anyhow, I adore both, but Homogenic is ultimately more beautiful.

this had better be an arrested development reference or i want my money back

Oh, shit. yeah, it probably is. I can't keep up with the kids today and their pop culture references.

i now officially own Medulla so i can give it a proper listen.

has there been a bjork album poll?

i like that i started this thread. hi plax! i am listening to debut, so long since i put it on. it's so clean

#BigTimeSensuality

yup. my favorite song in the 90s.

Debut.

http://devonrecordclub.com/2014/11/04/bjork-debut-round-73-nicks-choice/

how can you even pit these against each other, homogenic owns Debut.

this aged well https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/debut-197568/

I hadn’t considered the fact that old school rockism was Europhobic on top of everything else.

"Rather than sticking to rock & roll, Debut is painfully eclectic."

Christ, even for rockism, that's... unsubtle.

Today for the first time I noticed a bass part on Human Behavior that sounded like something from a 70s cop drama. So if someone tells you great works of art keep revealing new things, tell them that's not always a good thing.

checked whosampled and turns out human behavior was sampled by Todd Edwards for Winter Behavior and now of course it's so obvious

It's always going to be Homogenic for me, but I'm a lot closer to this being an actual contest than I've ever been before

I love her debut.

Post above the two of them imho.

It's always going to be Homogenic for me, but I'm a lot closer to this being an actual contest than I've ever been before

― Rich E. (Eric H.)

Same boat. The older I get the more I’m appreciating Debut and feeling nostalgic over thar era.

My personal ranking of Bjork albums, from best to least-best

Post > Debut > Biophilia > Vulnicura > Medulla = Homogenic > Vespertine >>> Fossora > Utopia > Volta

Those top seven are all Very Good Albums and the top three are Classics Of All Time IMHO

Wow. I do not hear what you do in those amelodic, painful recent albums.

?? you mean "I like Biophilia"? (Vulnicura isn't at all "amelodic")

afaic Björk's shown diminishing returns whenever she looks back (in any way) on her clubby beginnings; the "singles" off Volta are some of the worst music I've ever heard. Conversely, I am increasingly more-and-more impressed with her "new music"-style work (esp the Drawing Restraint soundtrack), and consider Biophilia to be as remarkable a second-career achievement as "Outside" or "The Drift"

I directed my comment at the high placement of Vulnicura, which singed my eyebrows. Listening to that thing -- over and over in 2015 fruitlessly to re-discover what I loved about her -- was one of the decade's most grueling experiences.

But it's been nine years and I'm ready for reappraisal.

(and as you know I love 1. Outside and The Drift).

I do know! And that's fine if you don't like Vulnicura :) A large part of the pleasure I derive from that album is the strings, I love her arrangements on that album

I prefer Outside and The Drift to any album she's made since 1997 but then that isn't really saying anything. I am generally pro-21C Björk - Medulla and Volta especially - it's just that nothing since (my beloved) Homogenic is without at least one song I'm usually tempted to skip.

Homogenic > Vespertine > Debut > Post

xp otm, the very specific pain Björk brought to that album resonated less with me (and indeed was kind of at odds with) my joy that she'd returned to a string-heavy arrangement for the first time since Vespertine

Post > Homogenic = Vespertine > Debut > Vulnicura > Medulla > I haven’t revisited the rest.

Post has good songs but terrible sequencing

I do like the arrangements on Vulnicura a lot but the production by Haxan Cloak and Arca is sometimes too… angular for my taste.

ANCHOR SONG

When I last did a deep dive, which was for the ILM poll (so, like, six years ago?) I decided I actually slightly preferred Utopia to Vulnicura, but I have no idea whether that still holds. Found the subsequent album left me a bit cold but I didn’t give it enough of a chance.

Biophilia probably the Bjork album whose rep is most chameleonic - people seem to struggle to frame it as a work in itself rather than just as a brief water contact point in the skipping stone trajectory of her career arc.

I like the Sugarcubes debut better than anything except Vespertine.

I boringly only really like the first four albums plus Selmasongs.

This poll is hard, though. I lean toward Debut for its range and looseness, but Homogenic is an achievement in its coherence and sonic ambition. Probably I've returned to Debut more over the years, but even that's hard to say.

One thing I find fascinating about Debut is that sonically it can sound tentative compared to her later albums but it also seems so ahead of the curve compared to any album that preceded it? The early nineties were such a trip

“I see who you are” from Volta is incredible

One thing I find fascinating about Debut is that sonically it can sound tentative compared to her later albums but it also seems so ahead of the curve compared to any album that preceded it? The early nineties were such a trip

― Tim F, Sunday, June 23, 2024

Listening to it today, I thought of Saint Etienne's debut.

Does anyone have a definitive account of the recording of "There's More to Life Than This"? I see conflicting reports about how much of it was actually recorded at the Milk Bar (and in the toilets).

Xpost: I do not like Volta at all but “I see who you are” is definitely a highlight and one of my favorite songs of her. Mark Bell and her have a chemistry missing elsewhere in Volta.

vespertine is her best and utopia is her worst

out of her post-vespertine albums i like biophilia and vulnicura the best but not everything on them works for me.

Re-listening Vulnicura atm and Stonemilker alone is worth the price. Lionsong and History of Touches coming next confirms this is - at least for me - her most vital work since Vespertine. Maybe I should listen again to Biophilia and Fossora… don’t think I gave them much of a chance.

Yeah it's chilling to think of Vulnicura as the denouement of Vespertine but in a sense it is. Bleak almost to the point of horror.

My fave song on Volta (and maybe the only keeper from it, for me) is "Vertebrae By Vertebrae", but I really like her in Scott Walker mode, and Damien Taylor's production

Re-listening Vulnicura atm and Stonemilker alone is worth the price. Lionsong and History of Touches coming next confirms this is - at least for me - her most vital work since Vespertine. Maybe I should listen again to Biophilia and Fossora… don’t think I gave them much of a chance.

The only two Bjork albums I've wanted to relisten to since Vespertine are Vulnicura and Fossora, so I'd say give that one another chance

It seems I am alone in this but I really love her three last albums, and Vulnicura in particular. I do find Volta and Biophilia to be a bit lacking, though; to my ears they’re like a clunky, awkward transitional phase between the first and the last decade of solo output (both fantastic in their own ways).