Björk - Homogenic (1997)
alternative dance, art pop, progressive pop, trip-hop
Following the release of Post (1995), Björk had undergone numerous obstacles that she never had before in terms of her love life, music, and near murder. Sticking with her single word naming conventions, Homogenic (originally titled Homogeneous) is a testament to the poetry of her intuition that this creative watermark so beautifully corresponded with the most turbulent time in her life. Björk’s creative rebirth invited her to re-evaluate the way she had handled herself in the wake of such fame. For someone who had spent the past four years continually undone by travel and tour, concepts of home and belonging resonated strongly to her. Thus, the record is all about her embracing her homeland and reclamation of self as home.
Harnessing artistic bravery and strength, not only did Björk charge with full force in unusual sonic textures, but she wrote and co-programmed it entirely by herself. In addition, she collaborated with a few friends and idols including Dravs, Howie Bernstein, Guy Sigworth, and LFO’s Mark Bell to help her create the exact sounds that brewed in her head. Björk, therefore, gathered all her outrageous concepts and molded those ideas to create sonically captivating paint-on-canvas-like music. As a result, Homogenic consists of a strange but effective mixture of hard electronic beats and string octet performances embracing the beautiful glimmer of ice and rock. As for vocals, Björk stepped up extremely far, screaming out pain in such songs like Pluto and reminiscing tranquility in such songs like Unravel. From dramatic shell shock, Björk returns with a flaming album of fierce poetic expression. Let's delve into the songs more.
The paranoid snares and aching violins work in excellent and darkly contrast with Björk's haunting vocals opens Homogenic in the song Hunter, which explains the omnipresent fear of abandonment. Following Hunter’s chaos is the poignantly gorgeous tune, Joga, which is a track of gratitude for her friend Joga. The song’s beats were unbelievably constructed and manipulated from Icelandic volcanic bubble sounds adjacent to patriotically played strings. Rising and falling to the actual sounds of Iceland's volcanoes, the lyrics explain how love and hate as parallels disappear with greater love. Unravel is one of the most heartbreaking songs of Björk's career, accentuating her misfortune in a gentle yet brooding atmosphere within the pit of a gently thumping heart and blood coursing through the veins. Here, Björk effortlessly combines hope and disaster majestically. Additionally, the lyrically metaphoric song of Bachelorette surrounds listeners in gorgeously haunting violins, chaotically toxic beats, and powerfully painful vocals. The thickly textured tune describes a woman who personifies herself as this loving passive object, while the man she loves is an active animal (or person who comes and goes as he will). The crunchy distorted tune, 5 Years, is Björk’s frustration for a guy—who is acting as if afraid of love—to be straight up with her. Similar to Joga, 5 Years is constructed by manipulated earthquakes, dancing with a Nintendo-like synthesizer tucked away behind the punches and pounds of the beats, and the always brilliant harmonious strings. Trance styled, Immature takes the listener to a less aleatoric surrounding, showing how lyrical repetition is highly effective without any tedium. The rhythmic beats with Björk’s emotional vocals turn infectious within seconds. The track begins with stunningly eerie Björk humming to her own tune, before she scolds herself for being immature, and questioning her actions. Alas, the album ends a massive duo of songs encompassing a contrast sonically and similar brilliancy. Pluto is the most hardcore and audacious songs in Björk history. Consisting of extreme, outrage of shrieks, it is a song of Mars, but radiantly composed. About ending rebirth; shedding your skin on purpose, Pluto is undoubtedly conjured up from a great deal of aggravation. In complete contrast, Pluto follows up with the album closer, All is Full of Love. The tune is none other than pure driving and uplifting beauty. Beginning with an almost electrical serge sound and the gradual enter of cold crisp strings, All is Full of Love is stripped from beats from the aforementioned songs and left with shimmers of enigmatic tones. The rain comes crashing down on all physical matter in its molecular density containing seeds of love. Björk then enters with an umbrella in the dead of night staring at the starry sky and lamenting for one last time. I am in awe by this album, I really am. Not only did Björk show her most inner deepest and darkest soul, she created an unforgettable world to mourn in.
Homogenic is unquestionably a tour-de-force. Riveting form start to finish, the album overflows with brilliant and intellectually structured songs: creative sounds and one of the greatest voices of modern electronic music. Every track is indispensable, genuine, astounding, each flowing to the next perfectly like blood streams. This is the record that characterizes Björk completely: eccentric, emotional, childlike, reflective, distinctive, and forevermore changing. Within Homogenic, Björk manages to present herself fearlessly. As a result, the album displays exterior textures of robustness and intensity, and interior textures of warmth and emotion.
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