Bjork – Volta (One Little Indian/Polydor)

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While Bjork has always been special, the teaming up with Mark Bell as producer for 1997′ Homogenic ushered in an era where every release came as a sublime, complete package, peaking with the incredible vocal-only Medulla in 2004. On Volta, all the bits are still there, and all are still remarkable, but the whole is not the uniform opus of her last handful of albums.

The two Timbaland collaborations are the most immediate tracks on the album. ‘Innocence’ sees Timbaland pulling off a fine sonic impersonation of Mark Bell, while updating the rhythms using his own cyber-r&b template. “I once had no fears/none at all/and then when I had some/to my surprise I grew to like both”, Bjork intones, lyrically reinforcing the happy tension of the sound. Bell himself helps out on nearly half the tracks, most of which feature appropriate levels of refined distortion. And Antony of the Johnsons delivers some decidedly non-melodramatic vocals to ‘The Dull Flame Of Desire’ and ‘My Juvenile’, in perfect counterpoint to the star of the show. It is, after all, Bjork’ album, and her meticulous electronic programming underpins everything, bouncing off muted live brass arrangements, West African kora and likemba and Chinese pipa, amongst other instruments, in a continually surprising manner.

Of course, centre stage on any Bjork recording is her voice, and on Volta she continues to impress. While the rhythmically dominated tracks force more hook-oriented melodies from her, it is the tracks where the music and vocals swim around each other abstractly that her voice has always shone. Three tracks at the centre of the album – ‘I See Who You Are’, ‘Vertebrae By Vertebrae’ and ‘Pneumonia’ – highlight the success of using musical backing as a non-rhythmic harmonic bed above which Bjork improvises beautiful, decidedly non-pop melodies. The introspection of the sounds echo the repeated lyrical motifs of Björk trying to free herself from her own expectations and those of others. “Vertebrae by vertebrae/please release this pressure off me” (Vertebrae By Vertebrae). “To shut yourself up/is the hugest crime of them all” (Pneumonia). “I clumsily tried to free you from me/one last embrace to tie a sacred ribbon” (My Juvenile). Each is sung in the wandering, searching melodies that have always been her strength. When the sounds open out and picks up the pace, the vocals become more direct. The lyrics, likewise, look out at similar issues of confronting expectation, but on a more global scale. The opening two tracks, ‘Earth Invaders’ and ‘Wanderlust’, and particularly ‘Declare Independence’ (“Start your own currency/make your own stamp/protect your language/declare independence”), see Bjork cut her syllables shorter, an aural signpost of the pleading lyrics.

Volta is not as concise and compact a work as her recent releases, and probably suffers as a whole for that. Think of it as a greatest hits package, however, just with completely new songs, and the merits of all its parts add up to a considerably impressive album.

Adrian Elmer

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About Author

Adrian Elmer is a visual artist, graphic designer, label owner, musician, footballer, subbuteo nerd and art teacher, who also loves listening to music. He prefers his own biases to be evident in his review writing because, let's face it, he can't really be objective.

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