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Avg: 3.5 (78 ratings)
- Date Released: May 8, 2007
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Alternative
- Label: One Little Indian / Second Wind
A brave and beautiful album from the Queen of Oddball Pop.
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We Say...
What with the run-ins with deranged stalkers, on-set altercations with director Lars Von Trier during the filming of 2000's Dancer in the Dark, and a harrowing trip to post-tsunami Indonesia last year in her role as UN ambassador, no one can say Björk has shirked her responsibilities over the last decade as the Queen of Oddball Pop.
The solution? Enter the studio with an A-Z of avant-garde musicians from around the world and purge her demons through the medium of coruscating dance-pop. Opener "Earth Intruders" is a pounding three-way rhythmic blitzkrieg between producer Timbaland, Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale and hip percussionist Chris Corsano, over which she yells “Turmoil! Carnage!” On “Declare Independence” Congolese collective Konono No. 1 apply scrap-metal-sourced electronics which build into an extraordinary brutalist electro-barrage over which shrieks: “Start your own galaxy/ Attack the language/ Make your own flag!” A dreamy “Hope” meanwhile, wrong-foots you at every turn, alluding to “suicide bombers” over a jangle of Clavichord and free-falling beats.
After the storm, the calm: “My Juvenile” is a heart-breaking duet with Antony Hegarty, set to ancient Chinese acoustics, whilst “Dull Flame of Desire” finds the pair reunited over mournful colliery brass, entwined like lovers (“I love your eyes my dear”) whilst the world goes to wrack and ruin around them.
If the ambient thrust of Vespertine was Bjork’s attempt at soundtrack heaven, Volta sees her crash-landed back on earth and squaring up to the horror and wonder of life in the 21st century.
It’s brave and it's beautiful. You need to hear it. -
They Say...
Once again finding harmony and creating alchemy between seeming opposites, on Volta Björk is bold but thoughtful, delicate yet strong, accessible and avant. The intricacy and complexity of projects like Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9 suggested that she might have left the more direct side of her work behind, but Volta's opening track and lead single, "Earth Intruders," puts that notion to rest: the song literally marches in, riding a bubbling, ritualistic beat courtesy of Timbaland and Konono No. 1's electric thumb-pianos. Björk howls "Turmoil! Carnage!" like incantations over the din, and after several albums' worth of beautiful whispers, it's a joy to hear her raise her voice and volume like this. "Wanderlust" follows and provides the yin to "Earth Intruders"' yang, its horns and brooding melody giving it the feel of a moodier, more contemplative version of "The Anchor Song." These two songs set the tone for the rest of Volta's pendulum-like swings between sounds and moods, all of which are tied together by found-sound and brass-driven interludes that give the impression that the album was recorded in a harbor -- an apt metaphor for how ideas and collaborators come and go on this album. Timbaland's beats resurface on "Innocence," another of Volta's most potent moments; a sample of what sounds like a man getting punched in the gut underscores Björk's viewpoint that purity is something powerful, not gentle. Antony and the Johnsons' Antony Hegarty lends his velvety voice to two outstanding but very different love songs: "The Dull Flame of Desire" captures swooning romance by pairing Björk and Hegarty's voices with a slowly building tattoo courtesy of Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale; "My Juvenile," which is dedicated to Björk's son Sindri, closes Volta with a much gentler duet. Considering how much sonic and emotional territory the album spans -- from the brash, anthemic "Declare Independence," which sounds a bit like Homogenic's "Pluto," to "Pneumonia" and "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," which are as elliptical and gentle as anything on Vespertine or Drawing Restraint 9 -- Volta could very easily sound scattered, but this isn't the case. Instead, it finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s.
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| 01. |  |
Earth Intruders |
6:13 |
|
| 02. | |
Wanderlust |
5:51 |
|
| 03. | |
The Dull Flame Of Desire |
7:30 |
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| 04. | |
Innocence |
4:27 |
|
| 05. | |
I See Who You Are |
4:22 |
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| 06. | |
Vertebrae By Vertebrae |
5:08 |
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| 07. | |
Pneumonia |
5:14 |
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| 08. | |
Hope |
4:02 |
|
| 09. | |
Declare Independence |
4:13 |
|
| 10. | |
My Juvenile |
4:03 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 51:03 Total Length
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Credits
- David Bobroff - Brass // Pete Davis - Programming // Neil Dorfsman - Engineer // Neil Dorfsman - Mixing // Ted Jensen - Mastering // Vincent Kenis - Engineer // Sharon Moe - Horn // Mark "Spike" Stent - Mixing // Toumani Diabaté - Kora // Toumani Diabaté - Kora // Toumani Diabaté - Kora // Jimmy Douglas - Engineer // Jimmy Douglas - Mixing // Susan Panny - Horn // Timbaland - Keyboards // Timbaland - Keyboards // Timbaland - Keyboards // Timbaland - Producer // Timbaland - Producer // Timbaland - Producer // Timbaland - Beats // Timbaland - Beats // Timbaland - Beats // Nick Knight - Photography // Andy Manganello - Engineer // Damian Taylor - Programming // Damian Taylor - Producer // Damian Taylor - Engineer // Damian Taylor - Editing // Damian Taylor - Beats // Damian Taylor - Vocal Programming // Damian Taylor - Vocal Treatments // Brian Chippendale - Drums // Aron Pór Arnarsson - Assistant Engineer // Chris Corsano - Percussion // Chris Corsano - Drums // Christian Rutledge - Contractor // Héctor Castillo - Engineer // Jason Agel - Assistant Engineer // Vinoodh Matadin - Photography // Nico Muhly - Conductor // Nico Muhly - Adaptation // Inez VanLamsweerde - Photography // Ichiho Nishiki - Assistant Engineer // Mark Blakkat Bell - Synthesizer // Mark Blakkat Bell - Keyboards // Mark Blakkat Bell - Programming // Mark Blakkat Bell - Producer // Mark Blakkat Bell - Beats // Alex Dromgoole - Assistant Engineer // Emil Friðfinnsson - Brass // Eiríkur Örn Pálsson - Brass // Jónas Sen - Clavichord // Andrea Helgadottir - Make-Up // Daniel Morrison - Assistant Engineer // Sigurður Porbergsson - Brass
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