The New Classics #39: Vespertine, Björk

Title: Vespertine
Artist: Björk
Year: 2001
Label: One Little Indian

It's a shame that, for many people in this country, Björk is synonymous with swan dresses, angry attacks on hapless journalists and lazy SNL impersonations where every third work is "snarf." Sure, she can be a bit eccentric now and then, but the Icelandic singer has quietly had one of the most critically successful and artistically challenging careers of anyone in music over the past twenty years. Her first five albums have all been massively successful, establishing her as Iceland's most important cultural export and as a beloved international icon. She's dabbled in film, again to great acclaim and has branched out into music production as well. So, it's time to stop giggling about her kooky mannerisms and finally give her actual music a chance. I can't imagine a better starting point for someone interested in Björk's career than 2001's Vespertine.

Compared to her earlier works, Vespertine find Björk eschewing the "filthy troll techno" (her words, not mine) of her 1990s recordings in favor of shimmering keyboards, bells and string sections. This is profoundly pretty music, first and foremost, but also somewhat icy and melodically warped. The single "Pagan Poetry" is a prime example, with its crystalline musical structure and Björk's skewed syntax and emphasis. Similarly, "An Echo, A Stain" has sweeping harps and a full-blown chorus chanting in the background, but the result is still ominous and subtly creepy. It's the kind of music that makes you subconsciously think of Iceland before you even realize it: beautiful, but mysterious and more than a little magical, in possibly frightening ways.

Björk's voice is definitely the make-or-break element of her music for most people, though. Highly emotional, dramatic and affected, it's certainly understandable why some people find it off-putting. However, not unlike the music on Vespertine, Björk's voice takes on a certain unearthly beauty itself over time, as all those weird octave leaps and enunciations began to create their own, strange little logic. Vespertine seems to have less rough edges than any of her previous albums, possibly because the majority of these songs seem to deal with emotional and sexual relationships between a man and a woman. "Hidden Place," "Cocoon," and "Unison" are actually quite blatant, with lyrics like "embrace you tight, let's unite tonight" allowing for some fairly obvious interpretations. Yet, throughout these songs, that eerie voice and odd lyrical sense complicate matters, as themes of innocence and undeniable carnality interweave.

The other songs on Vespertine, such as "It's Not Up To You" and "Undo," convey a sense of going with the flow and accepting life as it happens. Compared to her previous work, which can often be quite forceful and immediate, these songs seem to mark a definite shift in her general outlook. Again, this ties into the themes of love and relationships touched upon elsewhere on the album. Perhaps most telling of all is that in all the music videos made for the album, Björk appears boldly and shamelessly naked (and thus unavailable on YouTube). While artistic statements like these only seem to reinforce perceptions of Björk as a weird and socially deluded artist, they actually make a great deal of sense when put in the context of Vespertine as a complete work. For the first time in her career, Björk stripped back the aggression and opted for a lush, almost romantic sound. Vespertine is a very vulnerable record, but Björk implies that we must let down our defenses for love to enter our lives. Across a dozen tracks, Vespertine tells a tale of a woman's new found acceptance of love and her joy at how it has changed her life. Not too shabby for a girl in a swan dress, I'd say.

Next up on The New Classics: Ys, Joanna Newsom