Bjork

[Sam]

Anyone like her? I think "Homegenic" is fantastic. She's wonderfully idiosyncratic. Arty and unique without being prenentious and twatty. Good pair of lungs on her too.

Any fans?

[fanny splendid]

I have to say I preferred the Sugarcubes, but she is great. Songs like Venus As A Boy are just perfect pop songs. I just prefer a little wackiness with my gorgeous elfin, Icelandic girls.

Sugarcubes - Birthday (Icelandic verison)

[The Region Legion]

I just prefer a little wackiness with my gorgeous elfin, Icelandic girls.

Surely you're stretching the definition of gorgeous there when referring to Bjork.

I quite enjoyed Batchelorette and Army Of Me when they came out - Oh So Quiet pisses me off no end.

[sore bottom mum]

From what I've seen of her live (...on television), she always sounds and looks amazing.... and I think "Wow, she sounds and looks amazing". But I find her recorded material very over-produced, and fitting too neatly into the collection of bald Graphic Designers with thick-rimmed spectacles and black polo-necks. I do love her though... there's something refreshingly optimistic about her... her.. her.

[didgeripoo]

Love Homogenic, it's the lovely strings sounds and that there Joga song. And Bachelorette. Post is also wonderful. So is Debut. Absolutely  HATE Vespertine, just a fucking awful pretentious annoyingly over-personal indulgent pile of dross. And what do you mean DevlinC? She is completely gorgeous.

And Selma Songs pissed me off cos it was all different to the film versions. And it had Thom Yorke bleating all over it. For what it's worth he ruins the tracks  that he's on off've PJ Harvery's Stories from The City too. And I like Radiohead.

[Dirty Boy]

Wasn't too keen on Debut actually.It's a bit too dancey and housey, but there's some larrvely stuff on there ('Come To Me' being the larrvliest by quite a way) and have hardly listened to Vespertine, but i remember there's a couple of really nice ambient/trip hop style fingys on there.Must listen again soon.

Really like Post and Homogenic though when the right mood hits.It's not something i can whack on after a hard days graft and unwind to, as it tends to annoy the piss out of me.Actually, i think that most of the musical criticism i've heard directed at her was because of her voice, and i think a lot of people have a hard time with her work for that precise reason.

[The Region Legion]

And what do you mean DevlinC? She is completely gorgeous.

HI, MY NAME'S BJORK. LOOK AT MY IRRIATING FACE.


LOOK, I CAN EVEN AGE SEVERAL DECADES WITH A SINGLE FACIAL EXPRESSION! AM I JAPANESE OR ICLANDIC?? EVEN I CAN'T DECIDE!!!


As you can probably tell she annoys me. Having said that I did find some pictures while I was searching Google where I thought "hmm.. I would". But that would have proved me wrong and we can't have that.

[Macerate and Petrify]

I like Bjork a lot, all of the albums. Including this really odd one that I found called "Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar" called Gling Glo. It's some kind of crazy icelandic jazz.

I think homogenic is easily the best album, mainly because it has Joga on it, which is a gorgeous song. I picked up the live box set a few weeks ago, which is decent and recommended.

[Speciality meat product]

I managed to find a copy of Gling glo in a record shop in New York last year. It's a very strange piece of work, completely different to anything else she's ever done, but I think it's great. I think it was recorded when she was about 16.

And she is most definitely gorgeous. That's why I have a 6ft life sized poster of her on my wall! Although she's getting on a bit now, 37 I think?

[terminallyrelaxed]

I still think Debut is a superb pop album, one of the best, but have been left a bit cold by her subsequent stuff although I've probably only heard the singles, certainly not heard any of the albums. Especially don't like her big band-y stuff, and I like a bit of Big Band and Swing.

[Rats]

Bjork is unbearably gorgeous and is the best pop female singer since kate bush. I too like the sugarcubes better than most of her solo stuff but it's still smashing.

she's getting on a bit now, 37 I think?

I think she just keeps getting nicer.

[falafel]

Got 'Family Tree' when it came out - shoved it on the VW Top 1000 list a couple of days back. It's great, it's got stuff from all over the shop, including from Gling Glo and way back before. It's also got her own personal 'Greatest Hits' as opposed to the fan-compiled one, and comes in a spiffy soft pink case (albeit a very fragile spiffy soft pink case), and a nice thick cardboard sleeve with some pretty pictures on it.

[chand]

I was late into Björk because for the longest time I was sufficently ignorant to think of her as the woman who did 'It's Oh So Quiet', which was a mildly irritating novelty song and the main reason people think of her as a bit of silly bugger.

But my girlfriend's a massive fan and I slowly got into all the albums, and now I won't hear a word against her. Ya bastards.

[It Was Cancer]

Bjork is unbearably gorgeous and is the best pop female singer since kate bush. I too like the sugarcubes better than most of her solo stuff but it's still smashing.

she's getting on a bit now, 37 I think?

I think she just keeps getting nicer.

Your taste is impeccable.  I love Bjork.  But I love Kate Bush, Ute Lemper and Polly Harvey more.

[fanny splendid]

Yes, Ute Lemper in leather. Have you heard polly and bjork's duet of 'I can't get no satisfaction'?

At least i think it was them...

[It Was Cancer]

Yes, Ute Lemper in leather. Have you heard polly and bjork's duet of 'I can't get no satisfaction'?

At least i think it was them...

Ute Lemper is a goddess.  Yep, it was Polly and Bjork at the Brits in...1996 I think.  Those two and Tori Amos did a beautiful cover for Select once, t'was sexy.  If not, "Eccentrics R Uz" writ large.

[Reverend Minge]

Can't say I'm a huge fan, but Bjork went waaay up on the Reverend Minge respect scale when I saw that clip of film where she lays into a woman who said something to her as she's pushing her luggage through Bangkok airport.

Go girl!

[All Surrogate]

I'd recommend finding 'vísur vatnsenda-rósu'.  It is very beautiful, and is an arrangement of an old Icelandic song.  More info here http://www.geocities.com/bjorkfanatica/Temp/Projects/chasonsdmf.htm

I like her a great deal, and learned about her from my roommate, who had Debut.  Her shrieks, squeeks and bits of Icelandic are so funny, and her voice is so ...  sharp and clear.  Like ice, I suppose.  And I thought she looked good in that swan dress.

[mrpants]

Bjork is someone I've always meant to get into (couldn't think of a less rude way of saying it, sorry).  I hate the "all so quiet" song but love "All is Full of Love".  Bearing that in mind, what albums of her's do you recommend?

[Harfyyn Teuport]

I'm a big Bjork fan as well. Homogenic is a great album, favourite tracks are Unravel and Alarm Call. Vespertine has some real beauties on it as well, though. Cocoon is absolutely stunning and Hidden Place is very lovely too. Some of it isn't fantastic though.

Cocoon's also got some of the greatest lyrics she's ever recorded, speaking of sex in the most dementedly beautiful language I've ever heard;

Who would've known?
Miraculous breath, to inhale a beard, loaded with courage?

And also, pronouncing the 'l' in half;

He slides inside half awake - half asleep

[Sam]

I love the weirdness of the song "It's Oh So Quiet " off " Post" I find a lot of similarities vis a vis qurikiness between Bjork and Tori Amos. I wonder if either one has influenced the other?

[Rats]

Just checking, you all know it's a cover don't you? She was class on later with joooools around about when post came out, she looked gorgeous and did hyper ballad and possibly maybe. There's a dvd of her later appearances I'm getting and I'll have a dvd drive soon so I'll rip hyper ballad and put it up for everyone. To jog your memory, bloke with wacky hair going mental on a drum with a couple of them metal paint brush things that go shshshshshshs and her licking her lips and pulling up her knee highs at the end (can't think why that stuck in my head)

[Marcus Or Relius]

I loved Bjork when I was at Uni, I had that massive 'Debut' poster that size of a football pitch on my wall too. Her 2nd album was horribly weak, I thought, and I largely lost interest in her for a while, although I've always loved the Gling Glo album.

My interest  was recently revived when I downloaded the video for 'Pagan Poetry' where she's whirling around with her boobies out - phwooar, etc - and then I nabbed the Vespertine album which I reckon is the best one since Debut. I'm trying to hunt down a song she did with Thom Yorke, can't remember it's name.

[boki]

Sounds like you're after the soundtrack to the film 'Dancer in the Dark', there. Haven't heard it but I think Yorke appears on a couple of songs.  Not sure that I want to see that film cos I'm sure it'll make me utterly miserable for about a month afterwards from what I know of it.

[didgeripoo]

Sounds like you're after the soundtrack to the film 'Dancer in the Dark', there. Haven't heard it but I think Yorke appears on a couple of songs.  Not sure that I want to see that film cos I'm sure it'll make me utterly miserable for about a month afterwards from what I know of it.

Yeah. It will. But watch it anyway cos it really is a great film and the songs are just fantastic. Which is why I was so disapointed with the soundtrack - it was all different. Thom Yorke certainly wasn't in the film. So why replace the perfectly good performance of the actor that sang I've Seen It All with that whinging git? Ooh the closing song from that film still brings a lump to me throat.

[Capuchin]

Love Bjork and have done since the days of Debut, in fact I got myself some sort of DVD documentary thing about her just last week so I must give that a whirl..

[chand's girlfriend]

i have liked bjork since 1993. i listened to her "on the side" for 10 years. and then, something happened to me last year, and i completely stopped listening to any other music. Over the past one years time, ive only been listening to bjork and bjork only. Dont know why.
Suddenly, after 10 years i just feel I cant stand anyone else's vocal anymore. I always wish they'd do her pitch. Or some special sound. Or anything.
I think she is a rare vocal talent in todays world.
I can totally understand how people can be annoyed by her, she is rather extreme at some aspects, has a very specific singing style and technique and dresses strangely, looks strangely, talks strangely, etc, and those are always things that you either love or hate, not likely to get much inbetweenness.
But I like her.

Personally, I dont give a fuck about what her songs mean. Im not interested in the lyrics at all. They are just the way they should be. Non-stereotyped and hard to decode. Which is fine with me, allows me to apply them to myself however I wish and feel like at the moment.

And I also know nothing about her personal life, and I dont want to. I just know shes from Iceland and she was in Sugarcubes. And thats enough for me.

Bjork is just music. Her voice is an instrument. Not many singers treat their voices like instruments nowadays. She does. And thats why the right way to listen to bjork is just to relax and enjoy the wonderful notes and sounds and melodies that the voice creates, giving them meaning of your own, whichever suits your mood.

In my opinion.

[Rats]

I got my dvd drive today so here's hyperballad as promised

25mb Bjork - Hyperballad (Later With Jools Holland) (xvid, mp3 192kbs) Encoded by Faceiess

[NobodyGetsOutAlive]

Oh how I love thee Rats.

Mundays sent her to me through the post though, to give me a special one-off private gig, so nyer.

[Almost Yearly]

I saw her live at a festy and she commanded the audience's attention absolutely. The most absolutely I've seen since Ozzy. She performed perfectly.



Look at the skull on that. ( It was a photoshop tennis shot. )

And fair play to her for this, that and the other too.