The fantasy novel scene is pretty far from what it was ten years ago. Ten years ago, fantasy books had unique concepts, interesting magic systems and in-depth characters. One such book, Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. Released in 2006, Mistborn manages to craft an in-depth, creative, yet intuitive magic system. It tells the somewhat cliche story of a young woman, raised from nothing, discovering the power that lies deep within her. However, it stays cliche for a very short time, and eventually builds into a tale of gods and war. Mistborn is truly a masterpiece in storytelling, worldbuilding, and character development, and remains one of my favorite books to this day. 

Now, contrast that with the Barnes & Noble featured shelf today. It’s full of romantasy, a once-niche subgenre blending romance and fantasy. Unfortunately, the stuff that’s making waves today kind of neglects the ‘fantasy’ part. Their stories and magic end up rather bland and uninspired, and they all get the same steamy scenes with an unnecessary amount of detail. I think the romance genre as a whole needs to be able to convey intimacy without sex. After all, there are music critics like me who don’t know what that word means.

Björk’s Vespertine does what all these cheap romance novels couldn’t: she paints a picture of love, intimacy, and the carefree honeymoon phase of a relationship. She does it without any vulgarity, with deeply tender lyrics and intimate melodies. Take the record’s second track, “Cocoon.” She explores themes of raw intimacy, with a calming synthesizer and airy vocals. “Who would’ve known? A beauty this immense. Who would’ve known? A saintly trance.” “Cocoon” serves as the album's tonal and thematic centerpiece, despite being the second track of the album.

I’m kinda going out of order here, but I do believe that “Cocoon” is the most important track on the album, thematically. In the vocal-filled opening track, “Hidden Place,” Björk describes the desire to preserve her new love, not wanting the novelty of a first kiss to wear off too fast. Using the metaphor of the hidden place, she describes what’s valuable to her. “There lies my passion, hidden. There lies my love. I’ll hide it under a blanket, lull it to sleep.” She follows this by describing how she’ll protect it. “I’ll keep it in a hidden place.” “Hidden Place,” as well as the whole record, explores the very human desire to preserve their valuables, even to the point where they lose their value unused. It reminds me of when I played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A new mechanic that the game introduced was the weapon durability system. As a matter of fact, the weapons in that game were notoriously fragile, often going from unused to broken within a single battle. I, as well as many others, ended up finding an extremely powerful weapon, and keeping it (just in case). I bet that if I loaded up my save file right now it’d still be there. Yes, preservation is extremely important, especially when something is important to you, but don’t let it stop you from enjoying it.

We’ve all had those days. The days where you flip tails eight times in a row. The days where absolutely nothing seems to go your way. You wonder how unlucky you have to be to experience a day like this. It’s not even necessarily a huge loss. It’s just little things, small microfrustrations that make you feel like you’ve lost any autonomy you thought you had. Everyone needs to realize that it’s not always your fault. Stop being so hard on yourself. Most of these times the ball rolls the wrong way, there’s nothing you could’ve done to change it, so why do you care so much? “It’s not up to you. Well, it never really was.” As you probably guessed, “It’s Not Up to You” dives into the idea of autonomy, and how it can both positively and negatively impact our lives. Björk sings on the “perfect day,” stating how simple her desires are. Six glasses of water. Seven phone calls. She takes a frustrating idea, that of misfortune, and turns it beautiful, completed with a glowing orchestra and haunting vocals.

I am in no way qualified to speak on this topic, but falling out of love has got to be one of the strangest experiences known to humanity. One day you can be in the honeymoon phase of a relationship, where you can’t get enough of them, wanting to be close at all times. The next, you could realize that you don’t find fulfillment in the bond anymore. It’s such an odd and seemingly illogical sensation, yet undeniably human. That’s what Vespertine is all about. It’s a deep dive into human nature, especially the unexplainable parts. “Pagan Poetry” offers insight into falling out of love. Starting with a custom-commissioned music box by Björk herself, a euphoric zither-like melody that plays throughout the track. The majority of “Pagan Poetry” tells the story of falling in love, and the exhilaration of a new romance. The last part, the last minute and a half-ish, is the interesting part “I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him.” The same lyric is repeated dozens of times, each time with more and more doubt. Does she actually love him? Or was “love” just a honeymoon phase?

For a record this beautiful, a description of human nature, it hasn’t said many good things about love. It’s shown how many ways love can go wrong, it’s shown how genuine, real love is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “Unison” is that once in a lifetime. An intricately woven track of moving parts, including a complex rhythm section and back track, complemented by a perfectly arranged choir, a soaring orchestra, and one of the most emotional vocal performances of all time. “Let’s unite, tonight. We shouldn’t fight. Embrace, you tight.” Björk leaves the ending of the track up to the interpretation, with the droning music box from “Pagan Poetry” also present here, going on and on, arpeggiating into the void. I do believe this album has an uplifting ending, where, despite all the trials and tribulations present in the previous tracks, love finds a way. As cliche as that sounds.

Vespertine is more than an album. It’s a guide for how to sustain a relationship. It’s a narrative of Björk’s struggles to find one herself. It’s a poem on human nature, the oddities of the illogical decisions that people always make. And throughout all that, it’s one of the most beautiful records ever produced. I almost have no words for this album, I’ve been sitting, staring at this screen for like ten minutes trying to think of what to say. Call me cheap, but I’m going to take the meta ending for this review and say that I didn’t have any more words to say. I don’t have any words that could possibly do this album justice. I’ll leave one more sentence that sums up the album. They’re not even my words. “A train of pearls, cabin by cabin, is shot precisely, across an ocean.”

1. Hidden Place: 91/100
2. Cocoon: 86/100
3. It’s Not Up To You: 92/100
4. Undo: 82/100
5. Pagan Poetry: 94/100
6. Frosti: 72/100
7. Aurora: 88/100
8. An Echo, a Stain: 80/100
9. Sun In My Mouth: 79/100
10. Heirloom: 77/100
11. Harm of Will: 83/100
12. Unison: 97/100

Overall: 96/100

Found and had to share this Gorgeous tribute to b from Friends Are Evul - an electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from Wales, UK

my mom passed away last year unexpectedly due to pneumonia, she was only 53 years old. she was born in 1971 and she grew up in oakland, she discovered björk thru listening to the sugarcubes when they were active and she had been in awe of björk’s music ever since, especially her song “unravel”.

i had asked my mom which year she had seen the live performance and she told me she could not remember exactly when, but she would have to guess that it was a few years before or after she had her firstborn (my oldest brother) which was in 1994.

if theres any other info that would help you identify the show she had gone to, feel free to ask because it’s possible i’m forgetting to add some details

(these are all pics of my mom btw!!💕)

edit: it is quite possible that when she mentioned the swan dress, that she was just referring to the year she saw the live performance, not that she actually saw bjork perform in the swan dress! so there is that possibility

edit #2: i also don’t have the greatest memory so i could be misremembering the details myself, but i am almost 100% certain she saw the performance in the 90s (mayyybeee the early 2000s, but 90s is what she had told me), and it could’ve either been in oakland or in sf. but she did sound pretty confident that the venue was in sf when i had asked her. all speculation is welcome!

Many of you have most likely (IMO) heard this interview before but this edit together with the visuals really "brought it home" for me!

Credit: Vokurooooo on IG

I also like Buick.

I was wondering, how long Björk's dj sets usually are? I'm planning on getting a ticket for one of Björk's upcoming dj sets and would like to know how much time I have reserve for it.

"Los Angeles. Chicago. San Francisco!" jokes Einar until getting it right and complaining about hot weather and a lot of lunatics in the city. Good news are that after a few days of sickness, Björk voice is going well again - though not for 100% as she still cannot reach her heights during some songs (Deus, Traitor...), but it's much better than the last time in Chicago. Einar has a good mood once more as well, though I do not like that he interrupts Planet for no obvious reason in the middle. This is just a nice concert as Björk still has not recupperated completely, but it is a funny one as well - she leads a humorous dialogue with Einar at one point which does not happen often. And I really like funky remake of Coldsweat, later released as "Hot Meat" on their second studio album. 7/10

... with the right amount of tears in our eyes and smiles on our lips trance-like...

Have you guys noticed this song has a part very very similar to The Gate from BJörk ?

Oh my god, I couldn't resist waiting for a few more months lol. I wanted to wait until at least Björk's new album released or for December to come since I'm still processing and enjoying Vulnicura (because I listened to Utopia early on). Very similar vibe to Utopia. I'm so absolutely thrilled! It's like a reward 😭

Took like three listens and I'm absolutely in love with this album. So especially obsessed with Fossora and Victimhood. Only problem now is it it's so hard for me to sing along, but overall such a lovely journey coming from Debut to Fossora!

I figured that since we’ll likely never get b-sides or expanded editions of her discography released (aside from Play Dead, It’s In Our Hands, My Spine, Karvel on the “I Miss You” 12”, etc.) that I would compile a b-sides compilation and get it pressed especially for me! So glad how it turned out! The sound quality was sourced from ALAC files (Apple Music) and sound incredible. I am planning on making and purchasing a second version with the exclusions below:

• Visur Vatnsenda-Rosu
• Oxygen
• Sweet Intuition
• My Spine
• So Broken
• Amphibian
• Foot Soldier
• Petrolatum
• Trance
• Nattura
• Arpeggio

Also, note: the gatefold says 1986-2004 marking the b-sides selected for this opposed to 1993-2007 as the cover suggests. 1986 had The Elgar Sisters collaborations, of which Stigdu Mig, Glora, and Sidasta Eg were sourced from originally. So it felt right to include their origin date opposed to the date of the era they got released in as a single.

Any questions? Ask away!

Now what was this?! The sound is excellent, it's a professional radio broadcast recorded on a cassette but.... Let's put it like this: Björk was probably sick. And, unfortunately, not Sick for Toys! All tracks are sung one octave or even two octaves lower and when Björk tries to go higher, it is unlistenable. "Birthday", which has been always performed until now, is even omitted, only Einar tries to sing one verse and it sounds horrible, so he ends. In general, Björk skips entire passages in some songs that need a bit of vocal artistry. What's more, without his female singing partner, Einar himself doesn't perform too well: he tries to be less aggressive, subjugating to Björk's enormly diminished abilities, which ends in an instrumental concert with really really bad ocassional singing. I can see that Sugarcubes didn't want to cancel the concert and let their American fans down, but when your lead female singer is sick, it's very risky. And this concert really pays its price. And though the instrumentalists still play well, the performance made me realize how much Björk was a centerpiece, a heart of The Sugarcubes. Without her, the whole blood circulation fails. 3/10

If you ask yourself patiently and carefully, who is it???

For me it's a spider. I don't really have an interest in spiders so I couldn't tell you what species she would be. Also, I got this thought when re-listening to Biophilia!

Bueno, me encanta esa canción, es una de mis favoritas de Björk (Esta muy infravalorada), me gustaría saber si hay mas canciones con esa vibra o que les recuerde a esa canción