Reviews
Björk – Biophilia
12th December 2011
The Icelandic Queen of the Alternative gives a scientific, half-hearted offering for the technological age.
Much hype arose in the music world last year, as it was announced that Björk - one of the most innovative sounds in music – was working on a new musical project. With little word following her last album, Volta in 2007, a sudden change to heavy African percussion following the acapella Medulla of 2004, both fans and critics were left anticipating the next release.
Biophilia is not just an album – it is also an enormous musical and scientific overdose of iPod apps, concerts, and re-inventions of musical instruments; an example being the ‘Gameleste’ – a hybrid of a celeste and a gamelan that produces a delicate chiming sound providing a constant backing throughout the dubstep inspired ‘Crystalline’.
Yet that is the fatal flaw of Biophilia. Although the instruments created by Björk are indeed nothing short of genius, the album feels as if the singer has given up, well, singing!
Björk croons listlessly throughout the 12 tracks, leaving little room for emotion and attempting to let the instruments do all the work for her, ‘Dark Matter’ being an example of this. The results: a confusing string of songs of empty noise that leave the listener puzzled and slightly disappointed.
That said, the album does give some positivity. The soft choir and water-like harp of the opening track ‘Moon’ is a triumph of delicacy, and ‘Mutual Core’ – an electric and powerful song that leaves one reminiscent of possibly her best work, Homogenic. And then there’s ‘Cosmogony’, a beautifully wistful reflection upon creation that consists of swirling choirs and Björk’s emotional lyrics: ‘Heaven, Heaven’s bodies/Whirl around me/Make me wonder…’, that never fails to stun and entertain.
All in all, it’s not her greatest work, yet an entrancing and interesting record that gracefully nods back to albums such as Vespertine – possibly Björk at her finest. Although a little dull and perplexing, we are given an album that’s also full of wonder and some tracks that are kind to our ears. And still, it beats anything dominating the charts at the moment.
Henry Cosh