eMusic Review
Equal parts acerbic punk poet (her first band was called Spit & Snot) and butter-wouldn't-melt tune fairy, Reykjavik-born Björk lit up the gloomy post-grunge landscape with Debut (1993), her sparkling solo, erm, debut (in the U.K. at least). Freed from the art-rock pretensions of former band the Sugarcubes and boasting a smorgasbord of musical styles ranging from carefree freeze-funk ("Come to Me") to blissed-out trance pop ("One Day"), Top Thirty hits "Venus as a Boy" and "Big Time Sensuality" combined an acrobatic vocal style with air-tight arrangements courtesy of producer Nellee Hooper (the Soul II Soul member who did a celebrated remix of Massive Attack's landmark 1991 hit "Unfinished Sympathy"). If an interpretation of jazz standard "Like Someone in Love" accompanied by a harp may have overstated her Patti Smith via Amelie appeal, Debut retains its otherworldy allure, encapsulated in opening confessional "Human Behaviour." “There's no map/ And a compass won't help at all,” she gasps, signposting the mountain path to weirdness since followed by everyone from Karen O to Bat for Lashes.
