289. Björk, "Post"

 


I had a really interesting (and unusual, for this project) experience with this album, which I had never listened to all the way through before.  The first time I listened to it, I noted the standouts, like "Army of Me," the album opener, which I had heard before and liked quite a bit, and "It's Oh so Quiet," which I had also heard and did not like, specifically its Gap-ad brassiness.  The rest of the album, eh, not so much.  There was some interesting trip-hoppy kind of stuff, and some just avant-weird shit that turned me off.

Then I went to bed and then I listened to it again today and I have changed my mind.  This is an excellent, fascinating album.  Maybe I just needed to pay better attention!  In fact, I'm listening to it again right now and I think I like it even better every time.  Everyone knows Bjork has a magical voice, but it's really put to great effect here, really all over the place in the interest of illuminating the songs.  Even in that big band jazz song "It's Oh so Quiet," she belts it out like a Broadway pro but also yelps and yowls like a trapped animal.  Just fascinating.

The trip-hop here is strong.  Take "Enjoy," for exanple, which sounds almost industrial but is built on a trip-hop skeleton.  "Possibly Maybe," quieter, more reflective, is that kind of floaty song you could imagine slipping quietly behind an intense conversation over the second bottle of wine at a very small table.

"Headphones," the album closer, could speak to anyone for whom, like me, music was absolutely formative growing up.  ("My headphones/They saved my life/Your tape/It lulled me to sleep, to sleep, to sleep," uh huh.)  

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Yes.

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