On new record 'Utopia', the Icelandic songstress moves on from the hurt of her 2015 break-up album and rediscovers the sublime bliss of intimacy felt in the bucolic natural world.
Bjork/ Utopia
'Just that kiss/Was all there is/Every cell in my body/Lined up to you," sings Bjork in the first verse of Arisen My Senses, the opening salvo of her latest album Utopia. It's clear from the get-go that the 52-year-old artist has recovered from the heartache that had inspired and underpinned her last record Vulnicura. "Legs a little open/Once again/Awaken my senses/Head topless/Arisen my senses," she coos amid twittering bird calls, conjuring up an outlandish version of a Disney princess dueting with the feathered critters in some enchanted forest.
In her recent interview with The Guardian, Bjork mentioned that she "wanted this album [Utopia] to go towards the light". She added: "You indulge in the grief to a certain point, but then you have to be a little bit Pollyanna". This notion of escaping darkness to find a ray of positivity and optimism was briefly addressed on Vulnicura closing track, Quicksand ("We are the siblings of the sun/Let's step into this beam") and continues to unfold throughout her latest output.
Lead single The Gate gives us the first glimpse of her emotional transformation from being "split into many parts" to the wholesomeness of "proud self-sufficiency". Set to sparse chorale melodies, various hushed noises and fluttering beats supplied by collaborator Arca, it finds her at her most Zen-like contemplative ("My healed chest wound/Transformed into a gate/Where I receive love from/Where I give love from").
Blissing Me, in essence, echoes the introverted sentiment of Vespertine. Through simple, almost innocent language, she sings about falling in love with someone through their shared love of music: "Two music nerds obsessing … Sending each other MP3s." (It's well worth noting that she's also "weaving a mixtape with every crossfade" on Arisen My Senses). The production is ethereal and weightless, thanks to gossamer strings and other wondrous elements like multi-tracked vocal harmonies and what sounds like a whale song.
The album's 10-minute, fugue-like centrepiece Body Memory is lyrically dense as Bjork details the phases of her life from a love-hate relationship with her home country to navigating a custody battle of her daughter with her ex-partner ("I'm trapped in legal harness/Kafka-esque/Farce like patriarchy/Avoided to confront it"). The latter takes on its own female empowering narrative on Sue Me ("Let's break this curse so it won't fall on our daughters!") and Tabula Rasa ("Clean plate: Tabula rasa for my children/Let's clean up, break the chain of the f***-ups of the fathers").
While airy flute motifs appear throughout the album alongside a myriad of birdsongs (Courtship, Paradisa, Saint), they come to the fore on the title track. "Bird species never seen or heard before/The first flute carved from the first fauna," she muses before contending that the utopia is, in fact, right here on earth -- we'd just need to "purify the air here".
At 71 minutes, Utopia is a sprawling record in which Bjork revels in a matriarchal paradise through her own personal field recordings of birdsong, Arca's glitched-out beats, an Icelandic choir Hamrahlioarkorinn and a 12-piece flute ensemble which lends a serene sonic relief when the more dissonant elements become overwhelming.
THE PLAYLIST
Singto Numchok/ Tok
Tok is the latest taste from Singto Numchok's forthcoming third studio outing Just Have Fun With It. Here, the good-time troubadour steps away from the laid-back surf-pop sound and adopts lounge music to his repertoire. Set to serpentine bossa nova rhythms, the track tells the story of Tok, a mysterious musician whose Orpheus-like virtuoso ability has people desperately seeking for him. We love how playful and clever the overall production is, with the percussion constantly going tok tok tok, imitating the sound of titular protagonist.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds/ And If Love is the Law
Intentional or not, it's fun to think that Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds has dropped their new cut And If Love is the Law to herald the upcoming holiday season. Lifted from their new album Who Built the Moon?, the song offers up an intriguing blend between Americana and jangling Christmas music. "I didn't come here to make up your mind/I do believe that you were wasting my time," Gallagher sings alongside Johnny Marr's guitar and harmonica. "There's no more tears left to cry myself blind/If love is the law, then this is a crime."
Sigrid/ Strangers
If, like us, you're getting a bit weary of Swedish pop provocateur Tove Lo, good thing Sigrid is here to rescue us all. Her latest cut Strangers finds the rising Norwegian artist fusing the best of fellow Scandi-pop songstress Robyn (and her seminal heartbreak anthem, Dancing On My Own), Lorde and Haim all in one infectious jam. "Like strangers/Perfect pretenders/We're falling head over heels/For something that ain't real," she intones with all her might dedicated to the dance floor.
Tame Impala/ List of People (To Try and Forget About)
There are two types of people in the world; those who stay friends with their exes and those who don't. Tame Impala's Kevin Parker finds himself in the latter camp with List of People (To Try and Forget About), the first track from the band's Currents B-Sides & Remixes EP. "And as the years go by/Your name will fade out gradually/Don't think my heart will try/But it was waiting here," Parker muses in the chorus over a swirl of psych-rock melodies. "And as the years go by/You're still a banished memory." Apart from List of People, the five-track EP includes two other unheard songs and two remixes.
Sufjan Stevens/ The Hidden River of My Life
Sufjan Stevens' 2015 grief-themed album Carrie & Lowell is a gift that keeps on giving, and that gift has now birthed its companion piece. Aptly entitled The Greatest Gift, the album contains outtakes, remixes and demos from Carrie & Lowell. A follow-up to lead single Wallowa Lake Monster, unreleased title track The Hidden River of My Life comes with a rousing banjo and the lyrics that underline the many facets of American life ("I'm a walker, I'm a dreamer/Treehouse greeter, Pentacostal preacher/I'm a rocker, yeah I'm a schemer/Compost preacher, pioneer believer").
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