{"id":6355,"date":"2017-12-05T11:40:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T16:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=6355"},"modified":"2018-01-28T23:51:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T04:51:51","slug":"bjork-utopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/bjork-utopia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bj\u00f6rk <br>Utopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bjork-utopia.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6356\" src=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bjork-utopia.jpg\" alt=\"Bjork, Utopia\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bjork-utopia.jpg 250w, https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bjork-utopia-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s taken more than two decades for the iconoclast known as Bj\u00f6rk to finally reach utopia. For many, the mere mention of the Bj\u00f6rk conjures up a world of music that is the closest any artist has come to crafting a sonic utopia. The pixie-pop of <i>Post<\/i>, the trip-hop caverns of <i>Homogenic<\/i>, the crystalline ice caves that come with <i>Vespertine<\/i>\u2014all look forward to a future of creative freedom and sound unbound, with Bj\u00f6rk as the nucleus in these imagined landscapes. Perhaps waiting for <i>Utopia<\/i> (One Little Indian Records) through a small streak of duds was worth it, as the singer and composer\u2019s latest album includes nods and winks to all of her phases and cycles. In 2015, Vulnicura was a return to form, but as her \u201cdivorce record,\u201d it consequently suffers in depression and darkness. It\u2019s brilliant, but best played only when the listener is in the deepest of despair. So <i>Utopia<\/i> being her \u201cTinder record,\u201d completely flips the mood. From the first moment, the first four chords, Bj\u00f6rk is offering the most joyous version of herself, is full of love.<\/p>\n<p>Those first four chords of \u201cArisen My Senses,\u201d though, are a bit deceptive. Is this going to be <i>Utopia\u2019s<\/i> pop moment? Soon after, when producer Arca sinks his metallic claws into the melody, its apparent these two aren\u2019t making a Janet Jackson record. In all respects, <i>Utopia<\/i> is Bj\u00f6rk at her most abstract and wild. Throughout there are what sound like field recordings from other inhabitable planets, a choir of flutes that acts as the album\u2019s siren call, and thanks to the mysterious Arca, beats that move at autonomous velocities. There are times, like on the majestically cute \u201cBlissing Me,\u201d that the two aren\u2019t in harmony until a minute in, both trying to catch the other\u2019s tail. Here, it\u2019s amazing that Bj\u00f6rk can sing of \u201cmusic nerds\u201d and \u201cmp3s\u201d and not sound pretentious in the slightest.<\/p>\n<p>Arca dabbles in a palette that can be as minimal as Eno&#8217;s ambient works and as chaotic as Bj\u00f6rk&#8217;s former collaborators (Tricky, Howie B, and Nelle Hooper) battling it out simultaneously on random machines. \u201cLosss\u201d is a great example of the latter, with Arca lifting a beat straight from <i>Homogenic<\/i>, and mutating it into Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s current sonic scope. That scope is wide-screened, confident in its amorphous forms, and truly one of the most enlightening experiences Bj\u00f6rk has committed to tape.<\/p>\n<p>Therein lies the pure magic of Bj\u00f6rk, regardless of whether she\u2019s making music with just the bones of our ancestors, the synthetic gears of cyborg overlords, just voice (see <i>Medulla<\/i>), or just beats.. If she tells you this is <i>Utopia<\/i>, you believe her. If she tells you she\u2019s in love again, you believe her. <i>Utopia<\/i> is draining (it\u2019s hard to sell a 72-minute album anymore), but it\u2019s completely worth your undivided attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s taken more than two decades for the iconoclast known as Bj\u00f6rk to finally reach utopia. For many, the mere mention of the Bj\u00f6rk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,1169,2122],"class_list":["post-6355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-bjork","tag-one-little-indian-records"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bj\u00f6rk Utopia - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/bjork-utopia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bj\u00f6rk Utopia - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s taken more than two decades for the iconoclast known as Bj\u00f6rk to finally reach utopia. For many, the mere mention of the Bj\u00f6rk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/bjork-utopia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheAgitReader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T16:40:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-29T04:51:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bjork-utopia.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin J. Ellliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@agitreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin J. 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