Bjork’s new album ‘Volta’ is out on Monday, 7th May and we’ve just finished listing to it and well, we have to be honest, we’re a bit middle-of-the-road with it.
‘Earth Intruders’ is a great first single and lead off tune for the album, but we found ourselves a little lost amongst the forest of whimsical that Bjork has constructed this go-round. On ‘Wanderlust’ we are treated to over 90 seconds of fog horn and seagull noises that transcend into the opening of the song. We kinda like ‘Wanderlust’ – it’s got that classic Bjork sound to it – fast-moving drum orchestrations and bass bumps – just cut out the fog horn interlude and it could be a strong track. ‘Dull Flame Of Desire’ is brilliant. Bjork collaborates with Antony of Antony & The Johnsons and their combination of unusual voices actually mesh rather well. We would love to see her perform this track live with Antony and an orchestra – it would be very moving we thinks. On ‘Innocence’ Bjork is bringing back some retro feeling as this little diddy almost sounds like ‘Big Time Sensuality’ without the hooky course. This track bleeps and bangs and slaps you in the face, multiple times. This will probably be a single at some point…we think a good remix treatment would make this a strong strong track.
OK, here is the middle-of-the-road bit…after ‘Innocence’ we sort of get lost in the rest of the album. The tracks are great, classic Bjork. No new ground is being broke here – it’s just another solid Bjork album. We’ve said this before that we unintentionally took a break after ‘Post’ and it’s true. We are dying for more and more great tracks like ‘Army Of Me’, ‘Hyperballad’ and ‘Violently Happy’. We wonder if she’ll ever manage to give us something as good as those firecrackers ever again.
To close – ‘Declare Independence’ is actually a lyrically strong track. Heavy baseline with Bjork barking at us ‘to make our own currency, make our own stamps, protect our language and to make our own flags and raise them’. Overall…‘Volta’ it’s ok, probably out-of-this-world if you’re a hardcore Bjork fan. We’re just happy the album isn’t overly Timbaland – you can barely tell he’s worked on the album. Phew.