Produced by Bjork, Arca, The Haxan Cloak
I’ve always been intrigued by and interested in Bjork, but I’ve struggled to really get into her music. There have been tracks which have grabbed me - "Army of Me", "Where is the Line?", "All is Full of Love" etc. - but I don’t have any of her other albums. I usually find them exhausting. The curiosity which is generated by her strange production and syncopations, and her passionate and somewhat jarring voice has, in the past, worn thin after ten minutes or so.
Vulnicura has rather captivated me however. It is sonically rich, emotionally vulnerable, and musically diverse - partly thanks to Arca’s great co-production on all but the first and last track. For those of you unfamiliar with Arca, he worked on Yeezus (one of my favourite albums of 2013) as well as all of fka Twigs' excellent releases (including 2014's LP1 which made my year end list).
This is a break up album. "Vulnicura" is a portmanteau of the root words for wound and heal (the same from which we get “vulnerable" and “cure") and as the cover art shows, Bjork has a gaping wound in her chest. Various tracks are subtitled by how many “Months Before” or “Months After” Bjork’s divorce they were written. This gives an emotional context for the whole album as we get to watch Bjork work through the five stages of grief.
The opening track, "Stonemilker (9 months before)", has some gorgeous string arrangements and really sets the tone for the whole album. Hurt, longing for respect, and sensing her husband’s withdrawal, Bjork, her voice at it’s most gorgeous I’ve ever heard, sings about her desire to “find [their] mutual coordinates” and reconnect.
"Lionsong (5 months before)", finds her switching back and forth between hope and cold indifference as her own frustration begins to come out. This track has more nice strings, but with more dissonant moments (including some interesting vocal layering), and showcases the first of Arca's mercurial beats. Lyrically this track isn’t as powerful as some of the others, but in the stage play of this crumbling relationship, it moves the scene forward well.
"History of Touches (3 months before)" disintegrates the previous tracks lush beauty, almost like a glitchy Tim Hecker track. There is very little beat or melody to speak of, but lyrical poignancy makes up for it.
"Black Lake (2 months after)", may be my favourite track on the album. Its 10 minute run time gives Bjork’s string arrangements and Arca’s beats to really develop and evolve around the main theme. It’s also very raw. Hurt (“I am one wound”) and anger (“Family was always our sacred mutual mission/ which you abandoned”) are very apparent lyrically as well as in the arrangements, but still tempered by the sadness of the strings and Bjork’s vocal. The song is filled with long droning pauses between verses, almost as if Bjork gives her all emotionally and then has to catch her breath before she can continue and deliver and even more biting verse, climaxing with a painfully sustained “No hope in sight of eveeeeeeeeeeeeeer recover.” Dynamically this song builds and breathes so well with the emotional content, and the tension held in some of the droning interludes only adds to the effectiveness.
"Family (6 months after)" features production from The Haxan Cloak and his signature low throbbing squelches really adds a great attitude to this album. Lyrically this is the strongest track on the record, it could stand alone as a poem. She calls her divorce a death of her family, but where can she get closure? There is no grave stone to place flowers and weep. Bjork is now removed enough from her own pain to realize the devastating this experience has been for her daughter as well. The manic interlude, with jagged horror movie strings and pounding chaotic noise, showcases her helplessness and fear in the face of how to protect her daughter. The music then settles into a beautiful hymnic chant of “God save our daughter” as the noise and horror melt into slow soothing swells.
"Notget (11 months after)" begins with a warping staccato of strings and synths which wouldn’t be out of place as the intro to a song by The Knife. This song moves more quickly than any yet, with a martial beat which makes this song almost feel like Bjork is going to war with everything: her ex, her own self pity, and death itself. "If I regret us/ I’m denying my soul to grow/ Don’t remove my pain/ It is my chance to heal.” “Love will keep all of us safe from death.” Almost a year after her divorce Bjork is violently reclaiming what she knows is most important in her life: love. And she’s taking no prisoners.
The last three tracks on Vulnicura have no subtitle, pointing to the fact that life has begun to move on. No longer is everything Bjork experiences directly correlated to her divorce, though it still provides rich context. These last three tracks are definitely more energetic and dance-like, but are still tied strongly to the earlier two acts of the album by the strings and production.
Love is again the theme of "Atom Dance" (featuring Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons). Dancing pizzicato strings in 6/8 propel this track. Healing has begun. She is “learning by love to open it up/ let this ugly wound breathe.” The arrangement is really wonderful as the strings build and different elements take on main rhythm of the dance, and the movement serves as a good reprieve from the emotional intensity of the “after” tracks. The last part of the song with Antony really takes the energy up and adds a lot of cool character. His voice meshes really well with Bjork’s - If I hadn’t read that he was a feature on this I might have almost thought it was Bjork pitched down and layered.
"Mouth Mantra” has the coolest beat on this whole album, and really reminds me of some of the best parts of Shaking the Habitual. It is a celebration of Bjork “rediscovering” her voice, her creative passion, and her strength.
“Quicksand” is a driving force looking to the future. The beat is relentless and the singing is less disjointed that the rest of the album. Bjork leaves us with a message of the importance of being perseverant in order to provide a lasting legacy. Again she is thinking of her daughter’s future (through the lens of thinking about her own mother).
Vulnicura is a very cohesive and emotionally powerful album. Bjork’s voice is very strong here, as are her string arrangements, and the complementary contributions of Arca and Haxan Cloak’s production styles really enhance the experience. The unifying themes of divorce, heartbreak, and the search for healing after a traumatic event brings a focus as well as an emotional story map for the album to develop along. The more I listen to this album the more I am impressed. It makes me want to go back and see if I missed this same strong vision in previous albums.
8/10
Favourite Track: "Black Lake"
Least Favourite Track: "Lionsong"
Favourite Track: "Black Lake"
Least Favourite Track: "Lionsong"
