::pick of the week::

by now a couple of weeks old, this album has taken a lot of time to digest. what i have to say here will be grossly insufficient, but sleep beckons and i worry to be disappointing the reader inthat i have been silent for an entire week now.

i'd also like to add that, whilst bjork is brilliant, her website is understated and i'm more likely to encourage a visit to itunes and simply download the album and ponder it for yourself. here we are...

credit to bjork.com for jpg

a decade from now, if not sooner, modern music students will be studying the music, this album in particular, by the unbelievably brilliant bjork. recently i was questioned on where music is headed today, here, as we round the cusp of the twenty-first century. this, folks, is where it is headed. i have yet to hear a more daring album to date and i could not imagine anyone other than this icelandic princess to create such an outstanding work. words, as always, flounder and fail before me as i try more & more urgently to convey my excitement and amazement for this music. but, alas, i will keep trying.

what is it? what does she do to imagine such bountiful texture? a veritable cornucopia of modal experimentation, vocalized moaning, sighing and gutteral explosions, precise manipulation of beat & tempo, and ethereal choirs of angelic voices. my favorite track? thusfar, mouth's cradle wins out. i'm a big fan of driving, percussive beats. in this, bjork backs her primary vocal line with syncopated rhythms, voices, and just, ohmygosh, a beautiful recipe of music composed with some unlikely ingredients. the entire album is extremely challenging vocally because of the diatonic/modal harmonies and odd textures. lyrically, bjork is a poet at heart as well as a composer. sonnets/unrealities xi is an obvious example, but it has always flowed from her music, even back to post. i'm no poet myself, i couldn't provide any sensible analysis of her lyrics, but it is so clear in the music she writes.

is this her most accessible album to date? well, goodness, i'd have to pick a bone with those people because it certainly took a while for me to want to listen to this album a second time. i've spent some time in music theory classes, i've been subjected to the bizarre if you will. berlioz and schoenberg to name a couple of composers who challenge me in the realm of contemporary music. but perhaps that, in turn, is what allowed me to brave yet another listen. that and the immense respect i have for bjork, whose voice is truly one of an angel. every sound that eminates from her throat is crystal clear, precise, perfect. few singers i know will move me to say such compliments.

Therefore, i say. Go. Listen. Rinse & Repeat. Hope to Absorb her Brilliance. Towel dry and wait with me in rapt anticipation for whatever's next.