Björk Vespertine by: Daniel Grimsey Tue:03-Jul-07 Label: Year: 2001 WB rating 70 out of 100

There are two kinds of people in this world, people who love Björk, and people who hate Björk. You can generally tell a lot about someone depending on which category they fall into. But as an artist you get the impression that Björk cares little either way. As someone that has publicly declared freedom to be the biggest aphrodisiac; an artist individual enough to cover 2 Unlimited’s ‘No Limit’, and a person who has continually adapted her already eccentric pop style, Björk’s career is defined by her very ability to divide people.

When listening to Björk’s first two albums there was this constant curiosity about how pop and dance would turn out when translated through Björk’s imagination. By Vespertine we had our answer; no longer did she scatter her songs with sections of Icelandic. This combined with her improved English – thereby reducing her previous delightful lapses into Engrish – and less experimental humour led her sound to mature from youthful zest to adult intimacy. But not all ‘growth’ is natural and carefree and Vespertine is not always listener friendly, at times verging on confronting: “when I wake up the second time in his arms/ he’s still inside me!!!!”.

Lyricism such as this suggests that Vespertine is Björk’s sex album, and as sex albums go it totally kicks the arse out of Madonna’s Erotica, its refined approach far more measured than publishing a coffee book of yourself getting mauled by Vanilla Ice. As such Vespertine is less for actual shagging, but more for the spooning afterwards and a great romanticism is spilt all over the album. While the majority of the world’s music is love focused, it is only rare artists that truly detail the complexity and bliss of the emotion, something Björk achieves without a reliance on the perverse.

While Vespertine is undoubtedly a more mature album, it is not completely removed from the Icelandic singer’s back catalogue. The sunniness of ‘It’s Not Up To You’s chorus, suggests the same que sera sera, be patient, it’ll happen of Debut’s ‘One Day’, similarly ‘Heirloom’ is reminiscent of ‘Hyperballad’, again detailing Björk’s nocturnal adventures. Here Björk is at her very cutest, revisiting the coy pop of her past two albums. While artistic maturity ensures that Vespertine is both interesting and diverse, the trend away from this initial appeal means that this may no longer be the girl many fell in love with. 

Part of Björk’s early adolescent charm was linked to her ability to appear effortless and carefree, as if music was a wonderful game. The obvious and meticulous labour of Björk on Vespertine is a denial of this, and in ways the lack of spontaneity is to the album’s detriment. Although, judged by typical pop standards, these are still wild musical experiments – which would only get wilder on Medulla – the laboratory is feeling increasingly sterile, more intimate sadly meaning more controlled.
   
Fortunately the album is not a total rejection of the anarchist in Björk, the chillingly beautiful ‘Pagan Poetry’s – featuring a harp sounding astonishingly like the X-Files theme – soaring chorus lets go, screaming from the back of her throat.  It is the closest thing to a Björk odd pop classics, and if the random ravings of other moments have caused the listeners thoughts to drift away, ‘Pagan Poetry’ brings their affections rushing back.

Unfortunately ‘Pagan Poetry’ and other magical moments such as ‘It’s Not Up To You’, ‘Heirloom’ and ‘Unison’ are in the minority, and consequently Vespertine is a challenging and meandering album. Björk’s tendency to over-sing and go off on mighty arias veils her melody, her experimentalism flawed and forced. The opposite can be said of her arrangements, as ‘An Echo, A Stain’, ‘Sun In My Mouth’ and ‘Harm Of Will’ have a stripped minimalism that drones, lacking the needed dynamics to empower the ambitious vocals.

Despite all this you’ve got to feel that those Björk haters are misguided. Vespertine’s intimacy, its ambition and the sublime ‘Pagan Poetry’ ensures that it is still a  rewarding listen, even if not Björk’s best. And as the songstress sings in the beautiful and simplistic ‘Let’s Unite Tonight’, “we shouldn’t fight” it is hard not to agree, as Vespertine may be the much needed artistic step between the realisation of ‘mature’ ambitions in Medulla.