Bjork: Every Album Ranked From Worst To Best
Ranking the dazzling output of the Icelandic songwriter.
Bjork has consistently proven herself to be one of the most innovative, interesting voices in modern music. She has a distinct style that has influenced countless artists such as Kanye West, FKA Twigs, Lady Gaga, and Death Grips. And yet, she is still able to stand apart from those she has influenced due to a stylistic reinvention with every successive album. Her records contain her own unmistakable narratives that can each stand alone without building upon each other lyrically or musically.
She can be pointed to as the impetus for the trip hop movement of the 90s, as well as bringing electronic artists such as Aphex Twin into the public consciousness. As much as she is a creator, she is also a curator. Directors such as Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, and Spike Jonze have all worked with Bjork at some point in their careers, often creating some of their most iconic videos.
While pushing those who work with her to their creative extremes, she is also known for pushing her own work to its extremes in both an emotional and a physical sense. On one album cover, she will render herself as a woman physically altered past the point of recognizable humanity; in a separate video, she will string a wedding dress through her skin while professing an all-consuming marital love.
If anything absolute can be stated, it is that Bjork has an intensity very seldom seen in other musicians.
8. Biophilia
Biophilia is what happens when an artist tries to go further than the idea of an "album" and put out an "art project." Constructed as an album exploring links between nature, music, and technology, the album was partially composed on a tablet and released on a series of apps.
In addition to these gimmicks several new instruments were constructed for use on the album, one of which being a tesla coil heard on the song "Thunderbolt." The focus on these "new instruments" bogs down the album, not allowing it to evolve very far past its novelty instrumentation.
There is a lot of what people may call "stereotypical Bjork" if they had never listened to her before - plodding songs about nature with odd time signatures that ultimately go nowhere. This isn't the album to introduce to someone who may want to get interested in her music.
Despite songs such as "Crystalline" and "Hollow," which stand apart from the crop as genuinely interesting compositions, Biophilia is an album that ultimately goes nowhere.