Tracks 1, 2 & 5 =

Cloudbuster said:

what about track # 4 (innocence)?

The duets could've really been something special.

http://www.wade.org/online.htm

IstenSzek said:

Yeah, it's okay, probably a grower. Same with Hope.
The other half of the album I'm not keen on at all.
I love Antony's voice but I think his talents are wasted here. Shame.
And the packaging is wank!

Cloudbuster said:

i like the music and the vocals a lot but i can't get
past those horrible lyrics. they're so teenagerish.

does anyone know if the special edition will come in a jewel case?

it's just that i hate these digipacks and this one looked horrible
so i didn't even buy it



i did the same with musicology. i only bought it once it was there
in stores in a jewelbox edition.

fcuz, if it's not released in jewelbox edition at all i will go and
buy the digipack but i'm reluctant to right now.

Bjork plays well with others. For her sixth studio album, 'Volta' (due May 8 via Elektra/Atlantic, one day earlier internationally), the Icelandic artist collaborated with longtime partner-in-music Mark Bell, Congolese outfit Konono No. 1, Antony Hegarty (of Antony & the Johnsons), Malian musician Toumani Diabate, hip-hip guru Timbaland, Chinese pipa player Min Xiao-Fen and others.


"Since I was a child, singing and writing melodies have always been quite a solitary process," Bjork says. "More and more, since I`ve become savvier on the computer, I spend perhaps 90 percent of the time working on the album alone. So, collaborations are the treat at the end of the stick."


"With every collaborator, there is a completely different method," she continues. "It is probably part of my philosophy, a little romantic, I know, that one of the main targets is to communicate, to merge. Then magic happens - when one plus one becomes three. It is easy to do solo albums where you play absolutely every noise, but merging is tricky. It takes courage to let go like that."


Yet no matter who Bjork works with, she still enjoys following the beats and rhythms of her own beautifully off-kilter drum. The array of musical instruments on 'Volta' encompasses a Chinese lute, French horns, a brass band and, Bjork being Bjork, major slabs of electronic programming. Aggressive instrumentation intertwines with suspenseful cinematic rushes, but there are also quiet and meditative moments like "Pneumonia," which builds and builds with no release. Bjork says she wrote the song at the piano in one take, after seeing the film 'Pan`s Labyrinth' - and after having pneumonia for two weeks.


"There is a physical sadness to wheezing away with that disease," she says. That, coupled with "the determination of the little girl in that film to believe in her imagination, whatever it took, even though no one believed her," struck a chord with the singer. A few days later, the song was recorded with seven horn players.


While lyrics on 'Volta' frequently veer toward motherhood and religion, other tracks could very well have been ripped from today`s headlines. One of the latter - the war-themed "Earth Intruders" - recently made headlines of its own. One of three Timbaland collaborations on 'Volta,' it became the first Bjork track to appear on The Billboard Hot 100 in 13 years, since 'Big Time Sensuality' in 1994. Though its chart visit was fleeting (one week, attributed to 16,000 download sales), "Earth Intruders" is being spun by 31 modern rock stations.


But whether exposure for the single translates into sales for 'Volta' and helps turn around the downward slide of each of Bjork`s past solo studio albums, remains to be seen. Her solo debut, 1993`s 'Debut,' sold 918,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. 'Post,' issued in 1995, has sold 810,000 units. 'Homogenic' (1997) stands at 501,000 sold, 'Vespertine' (2001) at 402,000 and 'Medulla' (2004) at 235,000.


Still, Bjork`s label is optimistic that this trend can be reversed - and for good reason. Her head-turning performances on "Saturday Night Live" (April 21) and at Coachella (April 28) have been widely covered. She has just commenced a yearlong global tour, and her online activity is up.


As of April 27, for instance, the video for "Earth Intruders" was in the top 10 of downloaded videos at iTunes, while pre-orders for 'Volta' were in the top 15. Bjork also supplied iTunes with an exclusive six-part podcast series.


Dane Venable, senior VP of pop/rock marketing at Atlantic Records, says, in fact, that all marketing for 'Volta' has been initially launched online. In March, for example, 10 15-second webisodes covertly introducing snippets of the album`s music were seeded to various sites to get fans talking. Expect the label to explore other Web opportunities with the July release of second single "Declare Independence," with an accompanying video lensed by Michel Gondry.

And for the first time, Bjork has agreed to license her catalog for ringtone and video ringer use. "This offers additional ways for us to get her music out there," Venable says.


While the label execs focus on extending Bjork`s reach, the singer herself remains focused on her music. "One of the reasons I have headspace on this album to take on issues like the Earth, suicide bombers and so on is possibly because all things are pretty good at home right now - as good as it gets."

Declare Independence is the second single

Björk hits Chicago this coming Saturday, supporting there will be Ghostigital. This will be the first time Ghostigital support Björk, but they are not strangers as this is Einar Örn's band, but both Björk and Einar were in the Sugarcubes.

just got this via myspace:

Anx said:

Oh my! Well that's late-breaking news!
Konono No.1 had been slated but this sounds waaaay more interesting. I wonder if there's going to a any sugarcubie surprises??

regarding the album's content i don't want to say too much about it
just yet.

all i know is that i like most of it except for vertebrae/pneumonia
and even my juvenile.

but that means nothing since i didn't like "unravel" for the first
six months or something



can you imagine that? i'm still ashamed of that lol.

so no doubt these tracks i don't like right now will become sort of
favorits in the future once i tire of the rest of the album.

still, i am hoping there will be at least one bouncy poppy thomping
b-side non album track that i will be able to use as lubricant for
the album's dull patch inbetween vertebrae and pneumonia.

that's why i don't wanna come down too hard on this album just yet, because it usually takes a while for a bjork album to sink in with me. also, seeing a new album performed live can change how i hear it, so after this weekend i may have a whole new take on it. or not.

The duets could've really been something special.

i hated anthony's voice at first but now i'm at a point where i dislike his vocals so much that i actually kind of don't mind them, in that very unique "bjork makes ugly things sound nice" kind of way. i'm not going to run out and buy a bunch of antony & the johnsons cds or anything, but i've gotten more used to his presence than i thought i would have when i first heard volta.

i don't really understand why they wouldn't release "innocence" as the
second single and then a balad as the third one.

perhaps "i see who you are"

or first the ballad and after that as 3rd single "innocence".

eleven said:

ya know it's gonna be on everyone's minds...i love that, even if nothing happens.

Cloudbuster said:

I think "Dull Flame of Desire" is the most musically impressive song on the whole thing. And "My Juvenile" is truly touching.

Anx said:

You confuse me all the time Anx.

How could you come down hard on the album? You gave it 4 and a half stars! Do you feel guilty for not giving it 5?

oh, my review could have been meaner. i was listening to it in a very "glass half full" mood when i wrote the review, trying to picture where my ears will be with it by the end of the summer.

I actually don't out and out dislike DFOD, it's just overlong and too repetitive, I wish they had taken it somewhere lyrically.
I don't think it's a particularly bad track, just not really for me. The music is fine, tho'.
My Juvenile does nothing for me, sadly, although I can understand why you like it.

Anx said:

What are your criticisms?

oh, same as what a lot of people are saying...it's a little pudgy around the middle, it loses momentum and picks it back up too late, it meanders, it sounds a little unfinished in places...but these reactions seem really initial. i won't trust my own ears until i've had more time to live with it, because what i like on 'volta', i REALLY like.