Björk - Volta

Despite her terrible costume choices, I love Björk. For one she came out with Medulla when my expectations for mainstream music where at an all-time low. For those who missed out on that album, Medulla was a strange organic entity of sampled voices, choruses, grunts and moans, a granfalloon cleverly orchestrated into some of the most original music I’ve heard in years. When I found out that Volta I met it with great enthusiasm, especially given the toy box it comes in. Once you get past the clever packaging you’ve got an album that’s much more upbeat than any of her recent releases, and it’s always nice to hear Björk cut lose with some techno and synths backing her inimitable vocals. Pretty much the other half of the album is slow songs that showcase Björk’s range and a variety of ethnic instruments through collaborations.  

‘Earth Intruders’ and ‘Innocence’ are pretty alien and lots of fun, benefiting greatly from Timbaland’s co-production. ‘Hope’, the third song he collaborated with her on has a fascinating background of percussions and flamenco like kora strumming. ‘I see who you are’ is a slow song enriched by the frantic bursts of pipa playing of Min Xiao-Fen, but the doses are small making them more precious. ‘Wanderlust’ and ‘My Juvenile’ are two well calculated duets with vocalist Antony Hegarty, another unusual and extremely emotive singer. Most of the other songs have a film noir quality to them, vibrating and swelling with Björk’s carefully curated brass section.

The only bit I was not too fond of was ‘Declare Independence’, while I’m a huge fan of listening to an artist explore faster and heavier territory, it’s the vocal delivery and lyrics that detract heavily from it. The song doesn’t sound as jarring as it is annoying; it’s not nearly as aggressive as it is obnoxious. I think my best words to describe it are electronic catwalk punk.

‘Declare Independence” does nothing to sink the album and Volta remains at the top of the crop of recent releases. I cannot recommend it enough to Björk fans, although pop fans or the people who “can’t seem to get into Björk” probably won’t enjoy the extreme range of this album, from manic highs, to the slower lows.