Thursday, December 23, 2004
Björk
I've always been fascinated by the singer Björk. She's so outlandish that I don't quite know what to think of her, but then, there's something that seems completely natural about the stuff she does. This is the woman who performed at the 2000 Oscars in a swan suit. Not much "natural" about that, I'll admit, but sometimes her music is really good, although a bit of an acquired taste.
I'd forgotten about my favorite Icelandic pop star for a few years during my love affair with sub-pop Christian folk music, but a series of events has rekindled my interest of late:
Calla Maria and Jamie and I rented the musical she did a few years ago, Dancer in the Dark. It's an exhilerating, excruciating film that I wouldn't really recommend to anyone, but I was totally amazed by her performance. That week one of my friends at Taylor's said, "It's surprising to me that Björk is such a natural actress because her music is usually so full of pretense."
Never having expected one of my favorite artists to be implicated in such a dastardly crime, I took silent offense to her casual statement, and quickly changed the subject. But my subsequent investigation into the accusations reawakened my curiosity regarding the crazy gal, and I started back listening to her. This time I found a whole new depth of artistry that I hadn't understood in high school. Jonathan said, "Björk is amazing because she makes these things that are so ugly, and yet they're beautiful at the same time." Part of you is irritated--outraged, even--but you can't stop listening.
Maybe she is pretentious. I'm not sure. I can't decide if making an entire album using only human voices is organic or artificial; is her new album, Medulla, brilliant or pathetic? I bought it today, sort of on impulse, and I'm glad I did. I was a little thrown off at first by how weird it is--pretentious, even, perhaps. The whole thing is performed with the human voice: beat boxes and Inuit throat singers, a full choir, rhythmic panting and moaning. Some of it really is just annoying and silly, but then the rest of it is...Björk.
Doing something different on purpose, simply for the satisfaction of being unheard of.
We can call that pretentious, or we can call it groundbreaking. It's up to how much we like it.
Criticism is so arbitrary, isn't it?
I liked her from the start, so I think she's a genius.
My friend never liked her so much, and she thinks she's a phony.
This is a clip from my favorite song on Medulla:
Who is it?
his embrace, a fortress
it fuels me
and places a skeleton of trust
right beneath us
bone by bone
stone by stone
if you ask yourself patiently and carefully,
who is it?
who is it that never lets you down?
who is it that gave you back your crown?
the ornaments are going around
now they're handing it over
handing it over
he demands a closeness
we all have earned a lightness
carry my joy on the left
carry my pain on the right
Who she's singing about I'm not quite sure, but if I didn't know her better than I did, I would think this was the most creative worship song I've heard in a long time. I think this is the first single, so you can maybe hear the whole thing on the radio sometime, beat box and all.
I'd forgotten about my favorite Icelandic pop star for a few years during my love affair with sub-pop Christian folk music, but a series of events has rekindled my interest of late:
Calla Maria and Jamie and I rented the musical she did a few years ago, Dancer in the Dark. It's an exhilerating, excruciating film that I wouldn't really recommend to anyone, but I was totally amazed by her performance. That week one of my friends at Taylor's said, "It's surprising to me that Björk is such a natural actress because her music is usually so full of pretense."
Never having expected one of my favorite artists to be implicated in such a dastardly crime, I took silent offense to her casual statement, and quickly changed the subject. But my subsequent investigation into the accusations reawakened my curiosity regarding the crazy gal, and I started back listening to her. This time I found a whole new depth of artistry that I hadn't understood in high school. Jonathan said, "Björk is amazing because she makes these things that are so ugly, and yet they're beautiful at the same time." Part of you is irritated--outraged, even--but you can't stop listening.
Maybe she is pretentious. I'm not sure. I can't decide if making an entire album using only human voices is organic or artificial; is her new album, Medulla, brilliant or pathetic? I bought it today, sort of on impulse, and I'm glad I did. I was a little thrown off at first by how weird it is--pretentious, even, perhaps. The whole thing is performed with the human voice: beat boxes and Inuit throat singers, a full choir, rhythmic panting and moaning. Some of it really is just annoying and silly, but then the rest of it is...Björk.
Doing something different on purpose, simply for the satisfaction of being unheard of.
We can call that pretentious, or we can call it groundbreaking. It's up to how much we like it.
Criticism is so arbitrary, isn't it?
I liked her from the start, so I think she's a genius.
My friend never liked her so much, and she thinks she's a phony.
This is a clip from my favorite song on Medulla:
Who is it?
his embrace, a fortress
it fuels me
and places a skeleton of trust
right beneath us
bone by bone
stone by stone
if you ask yourself patiently and carefully,
who is it?
who is it that never lets you down?
who is it that gave you back your crown?
the ornaments are going around
now they're handing it over
handing it over
he demands a closeness
we all have earned a lightness
carry my joy on the left
carry my pain on the right
Who she's singing about I'm not quite sure, but if I didn't know her better than I did, I would think this was the most creative worship song I've heard in a long time. I think this is the first single, so you can maybe hear the whole thing on the radio sometime, beat box and all.
