Björk
Biophilia

The frenzy of the modern world is making many individuals incapable of experiencing deep, detailed emotions, especially with music (or more generally art), everything needs to be fast, quick, disposable, allow me the term Fast Music, meaning musical blandness crafted for the average listener, who probably has never listened to a whole album and cannot handle songs longer than five minutes without flipping through their iPod.

Well, if this is not your typical approach to music, feel free to continue reading.

Bjork: the Icelandic artist is now known as the "intellectual", complicated in a way that if you dislike her, it means you understand very little, while if you're a fan, then you are of a higher caste, yes, you really know what you're talking about!

Once again, she doesn't disappoint, "Biophilia" is one of the most difficult albums I have ever come across, perhaps it is even more unlistenable (if I may use the term) than Medulla: among the main ingredients (leaving aside the iPad apps, which are more of a non-essential garnish) we have Bjork's idiosyncratic voice, somewhat strained by age and recent vocal cord issues, but it continues to excel: it is surprising, dynamic, and incredibly expressive, further enriched by the choirs that continuously surround it in "Biophilia".

The harp of Moon instantly mesmerizes, as do the sounds of the Gameleste in Crystalline, Thunderbolt, and Cosmogony have incredible choirs, Virus is relaxing, calm, reminiscent of the early days of Gling-Gló, and finally, Mutual Core features an explosive chorus, in harmony with the majestic nature she aims to describe in the album.

It must be said that "Biophilia" sounds really good as a whole, there are no immediate tracks that instantly hit you, you won't find a new Hyperballad here, but altogether they create an exceptional, dark, mysterious, and intimate atmosphere, you almost feel guilty for interrupting the album, thus breaking the spell: each track has its own unique sound, specific and innovative instruments have been built for each one, but none of them clashes with the others, altogether ten tracks, a nice number, almost to underline even more the unity and coherence of the work.

"Biophilia" does not lend itself to easy listening, indeed after a couple of listens, you might hardly remember any piece, the advice is not to abandon it, listen as much as you can (with a quality setup, not just any headphones you have at hand), gradually it will grow inside you.

Provided you are open to a type of music that I define as "superior", but I don't want to be labeled as a pseudo-intellectual snob: Bjork is no longer interested in selling records, being mainstream, she is completely outside these perverse mechanisms.

Bjork is her land, Iceland, cold and hostile on the surface, but explosive and passionate deep down.