Bjork Album Recommendations: "Homogenic"

Album Recommendations: Homogenic

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Bjork

[#] Homogenic (1997)

As beautiful as Iceland; as incomprehensible as Iceland.

Reviewed July 25, 2018

Coming into a record like Björk's Homogenic is strange. It's consistently cited as a genre-defining trip-hop record, despite being ridiculously unclassifiable on its own. Much has been said about it, much has been written about it, but it's not a record I would look into myself had it not been requested by fellow Neosteader PotassiumMCR. I'm conflicted with it, too. I find the themes of it pretty fascinating. I think it's got a ton of character to it. I see the appeal. I even find it appealing at times—but I also find it to be pretty overwhelming. Don't take that as a negative, however, because it has an awful lot to offer an open ear.

At first, Homogenic is an absolutely cracking listen. Björk's accented belt demands attention, moving mountains of abstract rhythms and Icelandic string sections with ease. Tracks like "Jóga" and "Pluto" perfectly mix these lavaball beats and her confrontational delivery, and I really can't recommend them highly enough. "Jóga" in particular absolutely soars, the first real beautiful moment on the album after the slinky glitch bass of the opener, "Hunter". The problem comes with this style being stretched over a full album. The song structures are pretty abstract, everything tends to bleed together (ironic, given the name), and Björk's voice is absolutely uncompromising—fatiguing, even. Maybe it's just not my thing. Homogenic is a challenging listen, but it is vibrant, passionate, and full of personality, if you can keep up with it.