2001 08 26 Björk "Vespertine" Review Observer

POP CD OF THE WEEK

Strange but true

BJORK Vespertine
(One Little Indian 046026)

BJORK’S place as one of the defining acts of the Nineties isn’t in doubt - like Massive Attack, her individuality and fusion of forms has been much copied - but her last album proper, 1997’s Homogenic, made me wonder whether she wasn’t in danger of replicating her achievements for diminishing returns. It was fiercely modem, and rumbled with drum’n’bass beats, but charmless compared to 1993’s Debut and 1995’s Post. Since then, there has been her Oscar-winning role in Dancer In The Dark, but the soundtrack she supplied for Lars Von Trier’s grand folly proved as unconvincing as her millennial Icelandic cockney performance.

Bjork has wisely moved on for Vespertine (‘active in the evening’), toning down the stark volcanic soundscapes of Homogenic in favour of ethereal backings laden with dreamy harps, heavenly choirs and washes of sound. It’s an intimate album, whose songs revolve around moments of tender romance and flashes of passion. The latter include ‘Sun In My Mouth’, whose lyrics, taken from an e.e. cummings poem, celebrate ‘the mysteries of my flesh’, an image which captures Vespertine's Lawrentian themes.

Bjork talks about her latest creation as an ‘indoors album to play in the kitchen’, but its heart is in the bedroom, its soul out in the glacial snows where ‘aurora goddesses sparkle’.

Like D.H. Lawrence, from whose poetry a line such as ‘swirling black lilies, totally ripe’ might have been plucked, Bjork is an artist who attracts extremes of devotion and disbelief. One of her problems is that, no matter what she is singing about, her vocal presence is so strong that one is plunged back into much the same complex emotional drama. Likewise, no matter what backings she concocts, it’s that wayward voice and its distinctive inflections that dominate proceedings.

Here, at least, she manages to tone down her feral presence for the more delicate songs like ‘Harm of Will’, and when she sings, a cappella, ‘I love him, I love him’, it’s a declaration that goes way beyond conventional pop. Interestingly, when she has yoked her talents to standards like ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ and ‘Feels like Someone In Love’, the results have been outstanding.

For the devoted, Vespertine is a true return to form. Next, maybe it’s time for an album of cover versions.

NEIL SPENCER

To order this CD for £14.99 incl. p&p, call 0870 066 7813