Vulnicura

For the past little while, Björk has been getting generally positive reviews with her albums, and same happened with Biophilia! The album’s just so eccentric and way out there compared to all her others, which is why critics definitely loved it. They’ll just eat it up, nom nom nom. But wait, I didn’t know Björk was with this guy named Matthew Barney. I knew she had the child, but not a partner. Something else I didn’t know was that Björk said, “Hmmm, I should document this!”, quite literally, and got in the studio to work on a new album about the break-up called-

Vulnicura was released on January 20, 2015. It was meant to drop in March, but the album got leaked, so they changed it to just be released earlier. But we don’t care about that! Let’s talk about the story of the album. Considering that Vulnicura is about Björk’s separation from Barney, you could say that this is a concept album. The first three songs take place before the break-up, the next three songs take place afterwards, and the last three songs touch on topics like on how Björk’s relationships with other people got her through the break-up, a three-week period after a vocal surgery that Björk had during the Biophilia tour, and when her mother had a heart attack back in 2011. The story is written so well, the production is amazing! For those of you who don’t know Arca, she is amazing at what she does. She actually has a music career of her own, which I highly recommend checking out. Be careful, though. If you thought Björk’s music was quite aggressive, then just get mentally prepared for Arca.

Continuing on this album, it sounds like a modern Vespertine in a way, with some elements of Arca’s music sprinkled in, especially on Quicksand, which is a great song. Also, the four-track run from Stonemilker to Black Lake is immaculate, with Lionsong included, and oh, my God. That song is beautiful! There’s also History Of Touches, also a great song, but I won’t go into detail with what it’s about. Other than that, Vulnicura is a return to greatness for Björk, and I just have to say that it’s a truly raw and emotional album that is definitely worth listening. Okay, that was amazing. What’s next?

Favourite Tracks: Stonemilker, Lionsong, History Of Touches, Black Lake, Notget, Atom Dance, Quicksand

Least Favourite Track: Family

(Off-topic question: should I do an Arca dive in the future?)