The curtain closes on another classic opera, the man claps, though he is not exactly sure what he has just witnessed. He puts on his coat and hat and exits. On the way out the man passed a sign showing a picture of the woman he had just seen perform. Her name was Bjork. She had shoulder length black hair, it was a little ruffled up. Her semi-smile was beautifully catlike. He entered the cab with the woman’s face still in his head. When he arrived home he began typing on his type-writer. He was writing a review for the masterpiece he had just witnessed.
Mostly the man was surprised by the strangeness of some of the songs. Some had a strangely sinister jungle feel (
Human Behavior ), with tribal emotions pouring out from this mystery siren. Others were party gems (
Big Time Sensuality). They inspired him to dance like he had never danced. These dance tracks, which made up a portion of the show were not unlike others he had heard. They had pulsing beats and quirky sounds, lyrics about love and such. But these tracks were different. Perhaps it was the production. For it’s time it seemed to have a very 1930’s feel. Acoustic bass and jazzy vocals, while staying very current and even venturing to some future territories. The background noises he heard also wowed him. Some of the sounds he had heard were extremely strange, yet familiar. The one thing that made these tracks stand out the most was the voice of the girl that sang them. It was incredible. Her voice changed freely, it could go from low and raspy to sharp and high-pitched, almost like the voice of the man’s 13 year-old son. The voice was operatic and full. The most amazing thing was, it never went out of tune and always sounded amazing. Unlike his 13 year old son.
The man took a sip of water and began a new page.
The show had an extremely mellow feel. Something he could see himself laying down too. Maybe not falling asleep, but just hanging around. A lazy Sunday album, so to speak. The trippy
One Day was a great example of this. Despite its annoying synths he found himself infatuated with the tune. He had tried this with other albums. They would either put him to sleep or keep him to tense. He knew this record would be different.
He opened his window to try to get an earful of Bjork’s eclectic sound. What he heard was a beautiful neo-soul tune called
Venus as a Boy. He listened closer. The beats were tight and loose at the same time. The vocals were beautiful. It was 10 o’clock and he was tired, but he did not drift off. He kept listening. He head a wonderful harp melody and a wonderful vocal melody. The song filled him with emotion and he listened closer. It reminded him tremendously of an early Walt-Disney movie. The vocals were timid and the harp was beautiful. He began writing again.
The girl he had learned was from a large northern island called Iceland. This place, he had learned had been ravaged by Vikings, Nazis and gigantic volcanoes. The strength of the country seemed to be reflected in her voice. Prior to seeing the show he had read an interview with the Icelandic beauty. She said that she most likely would have ended up a farmer if she had stayed in Iceland. Far from her position as an electronica goddess.
The word electronica also seemed to describe Bjork’s sound. It was feminine and it was electronic. Her two sounds seemed to blend the two so well the name seemed to be made for her.
He recalled the last acts from the show. They had everything an electronic music fan could want. From the beautiful swing-pop melodies of
Come to Me to the aptly titled show stopper
Violently Happy to the absolutely wonderful baritone horn filled
The Anchor Song the last in preticular was the man’s favorite of the CD’s mellow tracks. Though mostly a Capella the track sounded extremely full, beautiful and jazzy. The man found it the perfect bridge between the 90’s growing Independent rock sounds and the early 1900’s jazz sounds. He recalled the end of the show and finally knew what he had witnessed.
What could best be described as musical ecstasy.
Pros:
Beautiful Melodies
Jazz inspired
Eclectic
Cons:
Vocals may not appeal to everyone
Certain tracks get boring
Overall: 4
-Joe
