Vulnicura

On paper, I should absolutely be in love with this. I like Bjork's voice usually, it's got beautiful strings but also some harsh electronic beats, Arca and the fucking Haxan Cloak co-produced it, what's not to love?

I keep forgetting that I don't actually like Bjork, until I listen to her, then I'm like "oh. right." A problem I consistently have with Bjork, especially this album, is that her voice just kinda does whatever it wants while an instrumental happens to play behind it. I don't like how formless Vulnicura is. My favorite song on here is Quicksand, and not only is it the shortest, it's the closer! We spend most of the time on the album listening to songs kinda...draaag themselves out. It's frustrating. BUT I still think it's a beautiful listen and emotionally captivating, even though I don't see myself coming back to it.

Björk's whimsicality has lost its charm to me. I'm starting to feel like once you've listened to one of her albums, you've heard all there is to know.

Det er meget smukt, og jeg synes også, det er bedre end "Debut", som vi har været igennem.

Jeg er dog stadig ikke Björk-fan, og der er også nogle ting på albummet, der ikke giver mening for mig.
Tror, jeg kunne condition mig selv til at nyde det mere over tid.

Jeg gav Debut 2.5, så det her må være en:

3.0

Vulnicura is an album that i feel like had a lot of potential but ended up not realizing it throughout most of the album. This does make me think of that one FKA twigs album that i heard a while back but this one definitely is better for having more of a structure. The big issue with this album in my eyes is that it has so many points where it feels like its building up to something and then when it reaches the apex, nothing happens, it just slides right back where it came from. This problem was mostly apparent during the first half and while the second half fixes the issue, its still too little too late. Overall, a pretty disappointing listen.
Best Song: Atom Dance
Worst Song: Quicksand

nothing new here

I have a hard time with Björk. I really like a few of her songs. Most of them just get on my nerves. It’s kind of the same with this album, except that I’d already lost patience before I found a track I liked. I didn’t want to sit through all that pretentious mumbling and hissing. 2/5

Just not a fan of Bjork’s singing. Music was ok, just on the weirder side. Vocals were off putting to me. 2/5

How the fuck does this have an average score below 3?! This album is a masterpiece. This lady is heartbroken, and you're giving low scores because she's interesting? (I assume). I'm sorry that it's too challenging for you Men.

Anyhow, it's not my absolute favourite Björk album but it's deffo up there. Just heartbreaking and gorgeous with those beautiful strings xx

I quite like some early Bjork, and the Sugarcubes, but this leaves me pretty cold. After a couple of songs, I'm over the exaggerated, prolonged pronounciation that Bjork seems incapable of avoiding these days, and I didn't find the incessant bleeping and random noises that passes for 'production' interesting enough to keep my attention. And why are all the damn songs so long? I love a long song at times, but it has to have enough going on to justify the length, and these ones just don't, I'm afraid.

I’ve head a lot of good things from bjork and I didn’t really like this I hope any other entries on here are better.

I've only ever listened to one other Bjork album. I don't think I recognize any of these songs by title.

Once again, I don't really like this, but I don't hate it either. I _do_ respect it though.

Björk sings art songs like she is some sort of post-modern troubadour. This is not a judgment, a criticism or an opinion - it’s straight fact. She is an anachronism - or I guess more properly, she is a prochronism, as she apparently is from the future. But, I’m not totally sure that’s correct either, because I don’t think she IS from the future - I don’t think Björk is actually from ANY rime or ANY place - I think she’s fucking insane and her music is Björing as shit. There, I said it. Musical genius my ass - you wanna impress me? Take the wheel for a little while, motherfucker!

This record resembles Homogenic with its strings and ambient mood. It’s more classical with electronic beats laid on top. And when you have Vulnicura as the title, the album reminds me of Iceland and the volcanic force of nature.

It's definitely a difficult listen than the pop Bjork records I discovered this year. But I appreciate her toying around with the border between familiar and unfamiliar music. Now I can enjoy more songs in this list by having this in my memory.

I won't have as much to say on this one as Vespertine, as Vespertine is just the superior album, but this one is still very good. A little too on the calm side for a lot of the album, but it does have some really great bangers like Notget.

But I'll say it again. After years of trying to stockholm myself into liking Björk and not getting anywhere, it's kinda funny that relistening to her for this project is what has gotten me to enjoy her music. I don't know if Medulla is on the list, but if there's a Björk album I think I still won't be into, it'll be that one. But we shall see.

Really fascinating album. She's really doing something different here and I like it. So many strange things going on in the music, and I think it works. I need to revisit Vespertine after this.

4.5/5.0: Excellent

not as good as her debut but much more listenable than vespertine. there are a lot of cool ideas on this and i think they did a great job with production. the songs had a sort of weight to them that made me uncomfortable, almost like i was drowning in the sound. while i do think that was at least somewhat intentional i cant say i really enjoyed it. i was between a 3 and 4 for my overall enjoyment but given how well done it is im rounding up.

Vulnicura ist ein emotional starkes Album mit faszinierenden Klanglandschaften. Doch die komplexen Strukturen und düstere Stimmung machen es schwer zugänglich. Interessant – aber kein leichter Hörgenuss.

'Moments of clarity are so rare / I better document this'; 'Anything peak for clarity.' Björk's breakup record, Vulnicura is not just an honest outpouring of emotion, it's intensely analytical, striving for 'clarity' above all else. She insists on having it: 'I demand all clarity.' Every track resembles some sort of therapeutic procedure, an emotional reckoning that's as philosophical as a novel by Sartre or Camus. In order to get clear about oneself, especially during and after a breakup, one ought to analyze - it's probably not a great idea to chew over things aimlessly and feverishly. The problem is that this doesn't always make for very interesting art. In this case, tho the songs are often beautiful, they drag lyrically + orchestrally: the monotony wears thin.

As someone who considers myself a fan of Bjork, I've owed this a listen for a while. Vulnicura is on the shortlist of greatest Bjork albums in the eyes of many, so I was pretty excited going in, and my expectations were well exceeded. The last Bjork album I listened to was Debut, and I've heard several projects between these two, but the distance is still pretty astounding. After Homogenic, Bjork's music seemed to largely get more and more abstract as a rule of thumb: to divisive, but generally fascinating results. And here, the experimentation is emotionally grounded to her processing the end of the long-term relationship she had with Matthew Barney. This lends the album an emotional intensity and a relatability that tethers things, even if you aren't into the aesthetic here (although, I fortunately am). The sound here consists largely of jittering, rubbery electronic elements, and gorgeous strings: and Bjork herself lives somewhere between the two. This very much follows in the tradition of Bjork's other albums of the 21st century, in which she ensures that she is constantly at the forefront of advancement in electronic music. Here she brings on Arca and The Haxan Cloak, and they deliver: the electronics here are pretty much completely alien, invoking strange, slick forms. But, when juxtaposed with the strings, a beauty greater than either emerges. This really is a beautiful album, and Bjork's phrasing plays into it. She drifts, in her own signature way, over, through and around the music here as her chilly voice takes on way more warmth than you'd think. And her lyrics are as brilliant and idiosyncratic as can be expected of Bjork at this time. For how dense this sounds, it's deceptively simple: electronics, strings, Bjork, and this palette gives the album a really impressive cohesiveness. it almost just runs as a single work. That being said, I do have favorites. Black Lake unfolds beautifully over the course of 10 minutes. Family embraces a uniquely harrowing, jagged sound. Notget features some of the album's most fascinating textures, and it has some of the most intense and emotionally stirring melodies of the album (in my opinion). And Atom Dance features a gorgeous duet with other 1001 albums inductee Anhoni. But there's nothing here that even approaches bad, or even mediocre. There is an attention to detail and level of expertise over the soundscapes that sets the level of quality here *incredibly* high. This kind of just has to be a 5, it's really astounding art.

This is nowhere as experimental and odd as I expected. It just sounds like orchestral pop with electronic music beats in the background. It's a breakup record, and the lyrics are very straightforward to understand within that context. "Black Lake" works far better than a 10-minute orchestral pop/electronic song has any right to. The second side feels more energetic than the slow first side without abandoning the atmospheric qualities present here. It's also where the weirder songs are ("Atom Dance" is especially weird compared to the rest of the album). Overall, this was a pretty good album. It has more range than I would think while also being a fairly easy listen.