Thank you for posting ~ very beautiful. The track listing is sublime ~ I'll try to get it posted later.

Declare Independence - crappy with a big C. Just monotonous noise. Seems like something almost anyone could've composed. Had this been on a Prince album I would've considered it a super filler.

No one is carrying the version I want around here.

sweet! thanks!

I'll talk about the music portion of this release, because god knows when I'll get around to watching the DVD's with my limited attention span for visual entertainment. I saw the show in Detroit in 2007, so I feel no pressing need to watch it yet.

Anyway, the music... 3 stars.

The first disc is recorded live in the studio with her touring band prior to going on the road for the Volta tour. I have to say, I think I'm kind of over the french horn. Actually, I'm kind of over the gimmicks of all over her last 3 studio albums. Vespertine was gorgeous with its micro-beats, found sounds, strings, music boxes and glockenspiels. The songs were beautiful and it set such a perfect winter mood. Some of her best work, really. Medulla, with its all-voice and beat-boxing gimmick was really very interesting, but I think it was let down by a lack of actual songs. There are some, but my overall feeling about that record is that it's about half SONGS and half sort of noodling interludes experimenting with the concept. And when you get to "Ancestors" ... well. I like Volta very much, but I think the horn section throughout gives everything a dour, melancholy feel. Which is fine, but even on songs that probably aren't meant to come off that way, it kind of depresses them. Ever since Homogenic (which I love), she seems to feel the need to give each album a sonic theme. Homogenic was strings and volcanic beats. Vespertine was micro-beats and music boxes. Medulla was voices. Volta is a horn section. But does she remember how fresh and joyful Debut and Post were, with their eclectic influences, beats, and moods? I'd kind of like to see her return to that.

And we come to the "live" disc of Voltaic, in which she takes songs from her set-list for the Volta tour, both from the album of the same name, and older material, and gives them the Volta treatment. Why she felt the need to re-record and release a Volta tracks played "live" (in the studio) in the Volta style, I do not know. They are barely distinguishable from the album versions. And this is something that has always kind of bugged me when I've seen/heard live stuff from Bjork. Actually, from any electronic-based act. The songs are so specificly beat-oriented a lot of the time, so sonically tied to the the sounds of those beats, that you end up with 2 or 3 guys playing them on machines onstage, trying to recreate so perfectly the sound on the recrod, that they might as well just play the backing tracks over the PA while she (or whoever) sings the song. It was a joy to see her live. But sometimes I wonder about acts like this... why bother bringing 2 or 3 guys on stage to play on their computers when they're just re-creating what's already on tape with no deviation in tone, tempo, etc. I'd much rather see musicians trying to recreate or re-invent those sounds with actual instruments. Take it somewhere new and different. Something raw and organic.

That's just kind of a tangential gripe, really. But I can't help but express it when I listen to these "live" tracks. Everything from "Hunter" to "All Is Full Of Love" to "Pagan Poetry" to "Wanderlust" and "Earth Intruders" and "Innocence" and on and on rely on the exact beats and programming that were found on the original versions that I wonder what the point of releasing them as "live" tracks. This is especially evident, as I said before, on the Volta tracks. There is almost no difference between what is on that record and what is found here, except for a new lead vocal track.

That said, a few tracks do stand out. The horn arrangement on "All Is Full Of Love" is absolutely gorgeous and adds a layer to the song that even the original, as beautiful as it is, doesn't have. "I Miss You" does something kind of different, but I'm sure if I scoured my iPod, I'd find a remix from one of the singles that sounds somewhat similar.

The other disc... well, it's a remix disc. It is what it is. As always with these sorts of things, some are better than others. Some take the tracks to a trippier, funkier place. Others not so much. And it gets kind of repetitive, considering that the 12 tracks found here are remixes of only 4 songs. I mean, they could have at least included that alternate mix of "I See Who You Are" that added a beat to the album track and was found on some import and special editions of Volta.

All told, I'm not that impressed with this. I do hope she does take more time to come up with the next album, as she has said she would. I think she needs to find the fun again. There were sparks of it on Volta ("Earth Intruders," "Innocence," "Declare Independence,"), but this release seems kind of pointless from an audio stanpoint and drowns everything in the depressing Volta-sound. I realize it's an in-betweener and a capstone on the Volta era, but it kind of points to some of the things I find lacking in her output this decade.

PS: I really wish she (or her label) would knock it off with the convoluted album/box set packaging. Another sticker to hold things together? Another sloppy russian doll rubiks cube to get to the actual content, which ends up encasing the discs in paper sleeves? What is it with the deluxe packaging of music these days. I know they're trying to create an enticing, fabulously lavish package to get people to actually BUY music - the physical product, rather than downloading it legally or otherwise - but if I buy one more deluxe re-issue, box set, or whatever only to find the discs themselves slid into a scratch-friendly paper, plastic or cardboard slipcase, I'm going to scream.

I realy don't mean to be negative, because I do love her. Immensely. But this entire affair points to some of the problems I have with modern Bjork (or music releases in general) and she's going to bear the brunt of it with this review. Maybe watching the DVD's will make me lighten up. We'll see. Some day.

anybody else? or is there a newer thread around here somewhere....?