There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic to human behaviour

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts.

27/02/94 : Debut - Björk


Well, this is a pleasant surprise because I thought we'd already met it. Well, we have (over five years ago!) but that was before the rules were all agreed, so this is our third proper visit with the Icelandic squawkstress - and it's one I own, bringing us to thirteen for the year.

It's also one I really like - all of her first three albums are really strong and there's definitely a sense of her finding her feet here, but it's still a wildly ambitious and varied album. Favourite tracks for me are "Human Behaviour", "Venus As A Boy" (some lovely strings and percussion on this), "Big Time Sensuality" ("I don't know my future after this weekend - and I don't want to"). "Violently Happy" ("I'm daring people to jump off roofs with me") and "Play Dead" (some more lovely strings, courtesy of Jah Wobble and David Arnold). We also have to mention "There's More To Life Than This", at least some of which was recorded live in the toilets of a club. There's a lot of this album that's a bit rough and ready, which she certainly irons out on later albums but you certainly get a great sense of her ambition and somewhat unique perspective here - this is easily one of my favourite albums of the year.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on her 34th week of an impressive 61 week run, with this being as high as it got, also in its debut and 33rd week (it's not entirely clear what was responsible for its resurgence) - it also managed to pop back in every so often for the rest of the decade, last being seen in '00. The rest of the top five were Mariah Carey, Enigma, Dina Carroll and Sting (also experiencing a resurgence, but we won't see him until '93 now), with the highest new entry being Celine Dion (#10). 

Wikipedia has loads on the album (283 milliPeppers) and it tells us that it was produced by Nellee Hooper whose work we've already met this year on both the Massive Attack and Madonna albums, so it's fair to say he had a decent year. I knew that "Like Someone In Love" was a cover version, but I didn't know it was written in '44 by Jimmy van Heusen and was a hit for Bing Crosby in '45 - Bjork's version features Corky Hale who is a famous US jazz harpist (there are a surprising number of them) who's been married to Mike Stoller (of Leiber and Stoller fame) for 55 years. And one last famous name for you - the video for "Human Behaviour" was directed by Michel Gondry - I imagine him and Björk had some fascinatingly impenetrable conversations. 

Critically, the album was very well received over here (9/10 from NME), but some of the US reviews weren't so positive - Rolling Stone found it "utterly disappointing" (which makes me wonder what they were expecting). People's views have only improved over time, but even I, as a fan of the album, struggle to agree with some of the claims made for it - apparently she made house music acceptable to "a segment of the music-dork universe that might've remained deaf to its charms otherwise". Hmmm. Björk herself isn't such a fan of the album compared to her later work, but she does agree it "went the highest up there in terms of what is 'Bjork music'" (whatever that means). Critically, it did pretty well globally, making the top ten in a load of countries but it never made it to #1 anywhere with #2 in Sweden and Iceland being the closest it got - and you have to wonder what album could possibly be Icelandic enough to keep this off the top. It also got to #61 in the US (which feels like a pretty decent effort) selling a million copies over there and five million globally. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for £1.50 (there are a load of them out there) but if you want the 15th anniversary, limited edition, numbered, reissued, remastered, 45rpm double vinyl album then it's gonna set you back £345. Which I don't feel the need to do, but it was a pleasure to revisit this and it reminded me I should also check out Post and Homogenic which I've not listened to in years even though I think they're also both great. It was also a load of fun to revisit some of the "Björkest" moments of Björk and YouTube also pointed me at her talking about her TV - she really is amusingly unique.

20/02/94 - OK, but not for me
06/03/94 - Surprisingly enjoyable and astonishingly successful

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You, me, everybody!

Image
Continuing my trip back through the 1965 album charts. 19/09/65 : The Rolling Stones No. 2 -  The Rolling Stones This is our fourteenth visit with The Stones (bringing them tied into second place with Frank) and our second this year but it's fair to say my expectations are not high - unless I'm much mistaken it will be a load of muddy sounding US blues tracks. Actually, it's a bit of a pleasant surprise because it's not massively muddy sounding and it's more R&B than just B. It opens with an enjoyable version of "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" - I obviously knew it wasn't originally done by The Blues Brothers, but I didn't know it was originally a Solomon Burke number (in '64) and I also didn't know The Stones were one of the first acts to cover it.  It then surprises me with a cover of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" which I'm not aware I've ever heard, but I recognised some of the lyrics because John Le...
Read more

I have never believed that we should just stick to football

Image
The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... Dear England : The Olivier Theatre  Well, this is different from the usual review in several ways - I wasn't on my own (because I was accompanied by the lovely Mrs Reed) and I was in the posh seats (because I was accompanied by the lovely Mrs Reed). Somewhat surprisingly, given the high football content, this was her choice - it originally ran a couple of years ago to great reviews, but has come back updated to take into account the last European Championships.  It was also a trip to a new theatre - I'd previously been to the Lyttleton Theatre at the National, but this was my first trip to the main theatre there. And very impressive it was too as we walked down to our very well positioned, comfortable and spacious seats (Mrs Reed does need her leg room).  The stage looked impressive too - but it gave very little clue as to what we were going to get.  As the lights went down, the top ring rose to display the Old...
Read more

I see you, Dracula, burning out in the cold sun

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 07/03/25 : The Sky, The Earth & All Between - Architects Somewhat unexpectedly, this is our third visit with Architects - I didn't like the first visit , but last time I found it surprisingly enjoyable, so let's see what we've got here, shall we? Hmmm - I liked some bits of all the songs, but hated some bits of them all too. They're a combination of Muse-like rawk (good) and metalcore shouting (bad) - I can only assume that the last time they did less of the shouting. I can appreciate they're producing the sounds they want to make, they do it in an impressive manner and I'm happy if you like this, but I'm afraid I didn't - I do like the album cover though! We're at #2 in the charts with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are  Sabrina  (her fourth week at the top), The Lathums (another new entry), Sam Fender and Doves (another new entry) - and we've quite a few more ...
Read more