The new Björk album doesn't suck
I just wanted to chime in real quick on Björk's new album, Volta, which is definitely her most "M. Barney" album to date.
On first listen, I dig it more than Medulla.
Critics have been writing pretentious tripe like "For a record ostensibly about tribalism and reconnecting with our animal sides, much of Volta plods." I say this: Are music critics so hard-up for instant-gratification pop, a la the caffeinated sensation of, say, the new Feist album, that they don't have the patience for an album like Volta, which by no means packs an immediate electrical charge?
The idiots at Rolling Stone, though giving it a pass, were equally as dense and misguided in their appropriating of the album's sound. "Volta is arguably Bjork's loosest and most ruminative record," they wrote, which I totally disagree with. If you look back, Vespertine is the album that flows, feels organic and ponderous--probably cos she was a bit of a fish out of water, working with Matmos and their live samples and experimenting extensively with IDM for the first time.
Probably the thing that pisses me off the most about the reviews is the use of the term "Martian" to describe the beats. Ooooh: Title a song "Earth Intruders," and everyone gets all extraterrestrial. How would I categorize it? Hmm ... probably a kindler, gentler version of Atari Teenage Riot and Squarepusher. And, for the record, I like the grittiness of "Earth Intruders." This isn't some fucking Nelly Furtado album, and I don't care about Timbaland's reputation polished, porcelain-glow beats. The contrast on with Björk's scintillating vocals and Antony's doleful baritone on "The Dull Flame of Desire" with said grittiness--complemented by a crescendo of horns--is so unexpected and like nothing I've heard from a duet before.
So that's where I stand. Nice album.
6 comments:
Medulla is my favorite Björk album, and my enthusiasm for it has not waned over many listens. So I am reluctant to listen to her new album, because I have an irrational fear that it might ruin Medulla for me. It would be like if Beethoven had written a tenth symphony. There is no way it is gonna be better than the 9th.
Anyway, I agree with you about the obtuseness of the critics. I listened to the NPR review, and it didn't give me much insight into what the music was about. I think maybe the problem is that "rock critics" just don't know what to listen for in electronic/dance music. Their expectations of what it should sound like is too shallow.
That's interesting because I'm not the biggest MEDULLA fan and rarely listen to it. That said, I foresee repeat listenings of VOLTA.
I think mainstream critics in general have a hard time with "dark" and "abstract" albums, regardless genre, but especially with electronica. They try to hard to tag the "concept album" label on it (OK COMPUTER, NEON BIBLE), but if the label doesn't apply, they get flustered and lean on the crutch of pretentious, unfocused babble (my favourite crutch, no doubt).
nice dig at feist. i am so sick of hearing about her.
stylus liked it
http://stylusmagazine.com/reviews/bjork/volta.htm
"Volta is filled with the dual disembowelings of our place in time—the explosions and the dissections both. It’s tempting to either praise or condemn it on the way it wears its political wonderings on its sleeve."
Why didn't he just write that VOLTA is the coffee shits? I think critics are a lot more eager to dissect than Bjork herself--which perhaps is a regrettable byproduct of the avant-garde.
What'd you think, jz?
honestly, i've kind of lost interest in bjork the past few years, so i haven't bothered to listen.
but whenever you're ready to watch "drawing restraint 9" i'll send you a dvd. :)
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