Post Live

We Say...

Review by Ann Powers

The most surprising pop star of the new millennium is, like all true stars now, multifaceted. She's a club diva, an art snob, a folk chanteuse, a post-punk icon. But for Post, Björk was a rock star — a romantic heroine with a story to share and a clear, though not that simple, way of sharing it. Post's hits — the aggressive "Army of Me," the dreamy "Isobel" — were accessible sagas, coherent realizations of the experiments in arrangement and tone that Björk began on Debut. Post did what classic rock records do: it created a context within which her later, chancier efforts made sense.

This material helped Björk achieve a power and focus onstage that's memorably captured on this CD, most of which is culled from a 1997 performance at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. Instrumentation-wise, Björk still surprises — the set opens with, aside the Ice Queen herself, accordionist Yasuhiro Kobayashi. (Producers/sound manipulators Guy Sigsworth and Leila Arab add some nice twists, too.) But the Shepherd's Bush tracks share a vigor that Björk's later, more investigational live work doesn't always match. It's also fascinating to hear her really learning how to use her own instrument, training those familiar yelps and bleats into expressive vocalizations. The few selections from television tapings aren't quite as good, though the string-kissed version of this musical-comedy fan's most famous cover, "It's Oh So Quiet," is as fun as one would expect. All in all, Post Live is a very bright square in Björk's cosmic crazy-quilt.