BJORK SINGLES POLL (debut-vespertine)

obligatory shoutout to "unravel"

Jóga 4EVA

The only ones I wouldn't at least consider voting for:

Human Behaviour
Play Dead
It's Oh So Quiet
I Miss You
Bachelorette

harder than you'd think this.

I guess "Jóga" is objectively the best among these, but's it's hard not to ignore the memory of the emotional rush I had as teenager when the "Big Time Sensuality" would play on MTV, there was such sublime joy in the tune and her performance in the video, it wasn't like any dance music I'd ever come across before that.

Human Behaviour as a peerless statement-of-intent
Pagan Poetry for the utterly complete, mature, full-bodied emotional punch-out

In between multiple absolute glories... some of her tracks may seem more minor than they once did with age and perspective but at her best she could be incredible. The way her songwriting became so dropped off/phoned in/predictable since Vespertine though. Damn. All/most artists do though (said like an old man).

I thought she was poised to finally soar, become more & more complete and instead she increasingly covered up whimsy & vague concept with sound design to the point of self-parody. I'd like to think she'd still surprise one day but can't help feel she's just to rarified to ever connect with simplicity again.

first pretentious rambling post on ilx in years wow. Back to lurking....

also Debut still her best album (no slight on the others) kthxbye

voted hyperballad because it's untouchable, but even my least favourite tracks on the list i like a lot.

i feel like i should write something gushing about her, particularly this amazing 10 year stretch, but everything that comes to mind feels so inadequate compared to just reading the list itself presented without comment.

As soon as I read the thread title, I knew I was going to be voting for 'Hyperballad'. Didn't even consider anything else!

I went through all this before I woke up!

i went with hunter.

the only one i would never consider voting for is It's Oh So Quiet, which sounds like the soundtrack to a credit card company's christmas commercial

End to end this is an amazing sequence, with just a couple of OK songs.

Accidentally voted Possibly Maybe instead of Hyperballad so when the final results are in, mentally adjust the numbers.

Very tough choice, but probably "All Is Full Of Love" and all its remixes. Such a simple but moving song. Her best video too.

For me it's got to be either "Isobel" or "Alarm Call"

I voted "BTS" but almost voted "Alarm Call"

for me it's between "hyperballad," "joga," and "pagan poetry"

a case could be made for each of these, especially the ones on post and homogenic, but for me it is hyperballad.

and when it lands / will my eyes be closed or open? is like, a tattoo-worthy couplet.

some of these sound super-dated right now, that mid-90s triphoppy electronica sound

hyperballad was always my favorite though

they sound dated in a good way, though: 90's retrofuturist

agreed, very '90s (especially the skittery, trebly distorted idm beats) but still dope. i voted 'bachelorette' because that was always my favorite, but now i'm listening to 'joga' and i made the wrong choice.

will be listening to bjork the rest of the day, ty.

retrofuturist otm.

the mid-to-late 90s was such an interesting time for music and culture, so many mainstream artists exploring electronic music, the internet starting to become more widely used, raver fashion seeping into the mainstream, a new century in view, there was just this sense of living in "the future" and that this music made by computers was part of it.

man bjork from post through verspertine was such intimately personal music for me, i spent so many late nights with this by myself on headphones in my dark bedroom. i smoked a lot of weed during this period in high school and i think it contributed to this enveloping, cocoon-like feeling i'd have when listening to her. often i'd drop my friends off and smoke weed in my car and drive around by myself listening to bjork with the windows down in the winter.

Though it's not included in the poll, I began listening to Biophilia today after ignoring it in 2011 (and since). Different, but I'm loving it.

i so strongly associate these albums with winter, too, perhaps because of the icelandic cliches the press always mentioned with bjork but also because it was in winter one year when i first started listening to all this stuff, maybe the year kid a came out? 2000-2001?

cocoon is a magnificent song

Very tough. "Alarm Call" I think, because "Homogenic" is her best.

the mid-to-late 90s was such an interesting time for music and culture, so many mainstream artists exploring electronic music, the internet starting to become more widely used, raver fashion seeping into the mainstream, a new century in view, there was just this sense of living in "the future" and that this music made by computers was part of it.

Interestingly though, the early-90s straightup dance/house tunes on Debut sound much less dated than the "futuristic" mid-90s stuff like "Army of Me". I guess your basic minimalistic 4/4 beats have a more timeless quality than the larger triphop and big beat sounds.

oh yea i totally agree. debut sounds much less dated

man, i'm oddly bummed to learn that the Human Behavior timpani/surdo bassline was a whole-cloth sample. never thought to investigate it before.

Apart from "Alarm Call," Homogenic still kind of sounds like the future to me.

probably between Play Dead and Bachelorette for me.

Is it so wrong for me to want to cut off a pinky finger rather than choose just one?

We'll accept a finger

I'll heal you. With a razorblade. I'll cut a slit open.

Hyperballad vs Cocoon for me. That is an impressive list of singles.

screw your "dated," I voted army of me

head says "Army of Me", heart says "Jóga"

Army of Me probably the worst single ever recorded by anyone ever....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGS-Z8opqk

It didn't make the cutoff, but Earth Intruders has its moments too.

i swear we did this really recently. why the cut-off (apart from the obvious "she went to shit after medúlla)?

"jóga" and "bachelorette" tower over most music recorded by anyone, including the rest of björk's discography, incredible as it is. there isn't a song here i dislike though i'm perpetually baffled that "hyperballad" seems generally to be considered one of her high points when it's easily in the bottom 5 of this lot for me

She still has some great songs in Medulla and Volta. Not much single material as they're too offbeat but still great songs. biophilia and drawing restraint are the ones that dont do anything for me. I predict her next album will tone the experimentalism down.

i definitely class medúlla in björk's worthwhile years

Army of Me probably the worst single ever recorded by anyone ever....

― fndgo, Wednesday, December 31, 2014 9:38 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one last time before the new year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocGiulPm3IU

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Forgot to vote in this; chalk one up for Cocoon.

Apropos of nothing.... I loathe Gondry's video for Batchelorette to the point that it actually stopped me liking the song for a long while.

Really? I like that video!

If 'Hyperballad' wasn't an option I probably would have voted for 'Bachelorette', so I'm delighted to see it in second place here.

Homogenic still kind of sounds like the future to me.

― J. Sam, Tuesday, December 30, 2014 10:40 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's my favourite album of hers, but for some reason or other I've found myself listening to Post a lot more recently.

Army of Me getting twice the number of votes as Isobel is a travesty

Yeah, I prefer 'Isobel' to 'Army of Me' too, but I don't see anything particularly wrong with 'Army of Me'. As I understand, you always start Post with track 2, DJP? I think I remember reading it was you that said this, anyway...

idgi wtf is ppl's beef with army of me?

It's a lumbering snooze that is worse than every other song on Post

no it's not and no it's not

the lumbering is the point!

(isobel is also good)

Couldn't choose, didn't vote, they're pretty much all great. Seeing them all together it does look like one hell of a decade - you'd think she was really a "singles artist," but then the albums are classics (though with Vespertine things get a little spottier).

I can think of only one song on Vespertine that's weak, whereas Post and Debut each have at least two or three.

army me of me rules
isobel also rules

you know what rules and i intended to vote for? "possibly maybe"

poooossibly maaaaybaaaee

yeah, there were very few terrible options in this poll

Vespertine was an album where I was really psyched for it coming out and then really struggled to get into it. I think the vinyl was sort of badly mastered (?) (lot of sibilance problems, kind of an issue on this very whispery album) which probably put me off too. Loved "Aurora," "Heirloom," "It's Not Up To You," liked the singles okay, had trouble holding the rest together in my head. I guess I should give it another chance, though!

So weirded out by all the love for "Love", I mean, the remixes are great but on the album it is a footnote

No. It is a perfect epilogue to that album. I will not hear it any other way.

The remixes pollute the crystalline beauty of the album version.

I am unyielding on this point.

I volunteer to lose friends to endorse this opinion.

Your phone is off the hook
Your doors are all shut

Maybe not from the sources you are staring at.

the album this poll makes me want to revisit is vespertine

Isn't the album version actually a remix?

"All Is Full of Love" is a song by Björk, released as the fifth and final single from her album Homogenic. The version of the song used in the video is actually the original version of the song, while the version on Homogenic is a remix by Howie B.

Huh! That is very interesting and prob explains why the album version is so sonically divergent

Man I love Pluto so much and its hi-fi expensive drill sound and I guess here's the right place to ask "where can I find more like that"

love "hidden place" & the way it opens up. vespertine my favourite just for its essence, but I am a sucker for ppl breathing in my ear

Oh damn, I had completely forgotten about 5 Years and how much I love it.

I hate the histrionism in Bachelorette half of the time. For me Joga is the real jewel in Homogenic, it could be an instrumental song and it would still be brilliant. Probably Bjork's best string arrangements, don't think she'll ever top them.

Have you heard the Polar Prize version with Ane Brun? Obviously Bjork owns the song and noone is able to perform it as she does, but the backing orchestra makes it one of the better performances I've heard of it. Wish Bjork herself was singing it. You can tell she is moved by the rendition, though. It appears that she is crying at the end of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4RTMsb8bA

Hi!. Here are my picks.

Are you saying Joga from Homogenic prefigured Vespertine?