After Homogenic, certainly the most innovative pop album of the Nineties, and one of the most beautiful, I just wondered what could have followed such a masterwork. Bjork simply released another piece of beauty and genius, Selmasongs, the soundtrack to her touching acting performance in Dancer In The Dark.
Then I realised Homogenic wouldn't have been an isolated case, but in fact Bjork had evolved into one of the most important artists ever lived, sure enough the greatest woman. Vespertine is just what you can expect from such an artist, she takes further the evolution and stands at unbelievable levels of excellence. And this time without Mark Bell, the producer so essential in the development of her sound! She self produces the work, with the help of other electronic pioneers like Matmos.
The sound is as innovative as Bowie and Eno's Berlin trilogy that started with Low, and finally her vocal interpretation doesn't just sound as great as Billie Holiday's, but even better! This album is like a final renounce to commercial pop, it's contemporary "serious" music, sometimes it could sound difficult for the untrained ears, but a little effort of attention will be hugely rewarded.
After the emotional storm of Dancer In The Dark Bjork tried to produce a more relaxed mood and a minimal sound by composing on her portable computer in her kitchen in Iceland (the album should have been titled Domestika) while outside snowed and you can definitely hear that, though there are still so many special, touching and grandiose moments on this album and orchestras and choirs are such an important part of the instrumentation, like in the single Hidden Place, where Bjork sings of her man he's "the beautifullest, fragilest, still strong, dark and divine": well, I couldn't describe her music better than those words.
On Cocoon she really sounds like Billie Holiday when singing "who would have known a beauty this immense". On It's Not Up To You there are Vince Mendoza's string arrangement and some fabulous electronic noises. Undo, with its wonderful minimal keyboard sounds like a sort of answer to Radiohead, while the orchestration is raising over some amazing vocal editing, one of the best thing of Vespertine is how Bjork played with her voice.
The second single is Pagan Poetry, where Bjork revelas herself also as a great bassist; she sings over a music box, a tool much played on this album, a chorus which is pure beauty. And it's not the best of the album yet, which comes when the music box solo of Frosti ends in Aurora, her most touching song ever with Scatterheart of Selmasongs: her vocals are absolutely extraordinary over a celestial atmosphere, it could easily happen you actually cry tears for this. The comparison with the most experimental Bowie is just appropriate in An Echo, A Stain, a song so dark it would have been perfect for Dancer In The Dark, as the soundscapes of Sun In My Mouth and Harm Of Will. God knows what she would do with Craig Armstrong, the string composer who also worked with Massive Attack...
Over the deliciously weird electro of Heirloom Bjork sounds some of her weirdest lyrics ever first in first person ("I have a recurrent dream"), and then plural doubling voice ("We have a recurrent dream"). After the serene final of Unison you're left with another splendid masterwork from a genius who seems to never run out of the most excellent inspiration.
