In 2015, Bj\u00f6rk was heartbroken.
\nVulnicura was an album of pure heartbreak. Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s most lyrically direct and distressing work to date. It was the sound of an artist who could seem so God-like, crashing down to earth. Hard. It was a hard album to listen to at times as a result. But I have no reservations in saying it was Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s best album.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Bj\u00f6rk was\u2026 well\u2026 happy?
\nNo, I don\u2019t think \u201chappy\u201d is the word. If Vulnicura was Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s \u201cit\u2019s over\u201d to her husband Matthew Barney then Utopia is her \u201cIt\u2019s complicated\u201d to everyone else. Bj\u00f6rk tries her best to resurrect herself from an emotional grave and in the process, surrounds herself in a lush collage of the pastoral and electronic, culminating in one of her best albums.<\/p>\n
Utopia is also a difficult listen, but for different reasons to Vulnicura. Ever since 2004\u2019s Medulla, Bj\u00f6rk has drifted further and further away from the pop-format that most of her early writing embodied. Utopia is the end product of this. Verses build to nothing; choruses follow one another as if by accident; bridges are cut short or hover long enough to distinguish a melody. It sounds like a hard listen and there is no denying it is. However, Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s remarkable melodic sense appears after about the fifth listen, arguably this is on purpose. It\u2019s taken Bj\u00f6rk a long time to find happiness (or as close to it as she can with herself) and it\u2019s as if we, as listeners, shouldn\u2019t forgo a journey of ourselves across the album\u2019s hour and ten minutes run time to meet Bjork at the end.<\/p>\n
Utopia, as an album, is an aesthetic masterpiece, with each song seamlessly flowing into the next both musically and lyrically, with Bj\u00f6rk finding her \u2018Utopia\u2019 in the natural world.
\n– Kieran Baddeley<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe album lunges forth from the opening track, Arisen My Senses<\/em>, lighting up the pleasure centre of your brain like a Christmas tree. Slabs of synth hit you in one ear and then the other, opening themselves up to twinkling electronics only to come crashing back in on you and then her voice. It seems almost clich\u00e9 to say but Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s voice is still probably the most idiosyncratic and beautiful in the music industry (save for Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins) and from the first line, she melts into your subconscious. \u201cJust that kiss, was all there is.<\/em>\u201d And for that moment, all there is, is Bj\u00f6rk and her kiss and you.<\/p>\n
The first three tracks on the album, Arisen My Senses, Blissing Me <\/em>and The Gate <\/em>play like a suite, all communicating the newfound happiness that Bj\u00f6rk has discovered, whether it be isolating a moment of romantic innocence with a \u201ckiss\u201d, playfully chronicling \u201ctwo music nerds\u201d in love or her \u201chealed chest wound\u201d finally allowing new love. These set the tone of the album with remarkable aptitude. From Utopia\u00a0<\/em>onwards, we are greeted by the visual of the album, with bird calls and flutes, the latter of which supplied by the 12-piece flute section from her Icelandic home, dominating. Utopia, as an album, is an aesthetic masterpiece, with each song seamlessly flowing into the next both musically and lyrically, with Bj\u00f6rk finding her \u2018Utopia\u2019 in the natural world.<\/p>\n
But, why say \u201cit\u2019s complicated?\u201d Some residual feelings against her ex-husband, Matthew Barney, stop her Utopia from being complete. \u201cSue Me\u201d is the epitome of this, with Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s previous heartbreak translating into anger with retrospect. It\u2019s scathing but cathartic. And that\u2019s what Utopia is, cathartic. With help from producer Arca, whose electronic flourishes dominate the album to mind-bending affect as on \u201cLosss,\u201d Bj\u00f6rk has found a way of exorcising her emotional demons but some still plague her Utopia. Just be thankful she\u2019s healing. Be thankful that we\u2019re there with her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2015, Bj\u00f6rk was heartbroken.
\nVulnicura was an album of pure heartbreak. Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s most lyrically direct and distressing work to date. It was the sound of an artist who could seem so God-like, crashing down to earth. Hard. It was a hard album to listen to at times as a result. But I have no reservations in saying it was Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s best album.
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