By Fiona Digney
Almost three years after the release of the ground breaking album “Medulla”, Bjőrk has produced her seventh solo album, Volta. Released worldwide on May 8, 2007 in three forms, a digipak CD, CD/DVD including surround audio in DTS and a double vinyl, Volta soon became a huge hit with the thousands of Bjőrk fans from all over the world as well as gaining new fans through her collaboration with producer Timberland on seven of the ten tracks on the album including the single Earth Intruders. Volta combines many themes such as femineity, war, revolution and feminism mixed in with Bjőrk’s wild pagan roots to create a uniquely Bjőrk sound. She creates luxuriant, often dark songs from ballads to electronica with the help of African percussion, thick brass sounds, Asian string sounds and deeply emotional singing provided by herself and Antony Hegarty. In an interview for daily internet publication Pitchfork, Bjőrk talked about her new album for the first time. “But with this one, it was different because I knew more emotionally what I wanted. And because I’d done two or three projects in a row that were quite serious, maybe I just needed to get that out of my system or something. So all I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up.” Volta achieved success not only with Bjőrk’s long time fans but also with institutions such as the Grammys, for which Volta was nominated. The album also spent nine weeks as number one on Billboard’s Top Electronic Album’s list.
Before even opening the packaging of the CD, we are struck with the ever interesting and very progressive cover art for which Bjőrk has become infamous. On the cover she is dressed in a giant chicken suit with overgrown blue human feet and within the cover, after struggling through the many layers of packaging, we find pictures of Bjőrk wearing thick, brightly coloured wool costumes surrounded by flames. For those lucky enough to be familiar with Bjőrk’s work, this is nothing out of the ordinary, for others, this may come as a shock, or even just a good source of ammusement for a lazy afternoon.But back to the music… Unlike some of Bjőrk’s previous albums such as Vespertine, Volta makes use of R&B styles, tribal beats and guest artists such as Antony Hegarty who features on tracks “The Dull Flame of Desire” and “My Juvenile”. Her haunting vocal lines and interesting harmonic twists and turns are ever present in this, her latest album, making use of thick heavy textures as well as focused intimate tracks. This can be observed particularly on the track “The Dull Flame of Desire” in which Antony Hegarty and Bjőrk perform as a duet. Tribal drum beats and Bjork’s brass ensemble grow gradually during the seven and a half minute track, eventually engulfing their sound in the final seconds. The influence of tribal themes and upbeat tempo found in Volta are said to be influenced by a trip Bjőrk took to Indonesia on behalf of UNICEF after the Tsunami 2005.
Although this album is not as coherent as some of her previous albums, particularly Medulla, Volta has something for everyone and is overall, a pretty good argument for Bjőrk to continue exploring her musical genius in whatever way she likes.
This entry was posted
on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 8:54 pm and is filed under reviews : releases.
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