After seeing a couple of her CDs at the hmv store I've been to last Sunday, today I found on Facebook an interesting article about a book released by the Italian photographer who shot the picture for some of her albums. All of this brought me to listen to the (few) songs of hers I have in my library, and so why not post one of my favourites here? I think she's a genius and she's one of those whose discography I really should explore further (when will 40-hour days come?!). For the time being let's stay focused on Emily Bronte's book... ah, we ain't talking about that?
Scrolling down my Facebook feed (as I do multiple times every day, damn me) I found an article posted on Janis Joplin's page about 10 of the most difficult songs to sing; apart from feeling satisfied as I could count 7 of them among my favourites, I couldn't do without noticing that n°1 was one of my favourite Björk songs, namely 'It's oh so quiet' and I watched the live video featured in the article, a (great) performance of the song she delivered at Jay Leno. Given that I had already posted the song on the blog in its early days, I went on looking for something else to feature this sunday, and I decided to look back at what I was listening to 5 years ago, back to my June 2011 playlist. And what do I find there? Well, if it isn't Björk herself..! And with one of her best songs, probably my absolute favourite of hers. I think the poetry in the lyrics (and melody) of 'Unravel' is unmatched by any other song of hers, and that's a quite remarkable thing to say. I take my leave to this first week of June 2016 with this gem, which I hope you will appreciate as much as I do!
People have been referring to this as "keyboard farts", stating that "the end of Thunderbolt sounds like a fart machine". I don't feel like easily dismissing these comments as worthless, because there is some truth in them. I mean, the end of this song and the idea of a fart machine are not the most different things in this universe. But not even the closest. Because, notwithstanding the result that can be more or less enjoyable, with more or less "artistic" value and gaining more or less the favour of listeners, the research behind is commendable. Taking new roads (and the risks that come with them), making use of the latest tools and even creating new tools to produce sounds is a great way to progress. And, come on, how cool is it to make music with a Tesla coil (a.k.a. as fart machine)?!
I came in late with Björk's (not anymore) latest album, Biophilia. I actually started approaching it just a few days ago, as her new work came out. I think I needed a pause with her, as after her first three albums (that I loved), it's been pretty hard for me to get through her later discography, but you know that already, it's not the first time I'm telling about this difficult relationship! Fast forwarding to now, I felt ready to approach her new work and I must confess that I didn't devote much attention to Biophilia yet, but after a couple listens I didn't feel a block as I did with Vespertine or even somehow with parts of Medulla and Volta. It's not straight-forward, accessible music of course, but I think I can get it through with a few more listens. I'll keep you updated about that, for now enjoy the one song that got through to me already!
