Björk
Homogenic

THE REVIEW

Having shed the guise of the electro-industrial priestess from "Post," Bjork gives "Homogenic" a new sense to her work. The array of renowned producers allows this time the emergence of the more singer-songwriter and intimate side of the artist (seen as an individual operating within a context - social, territorial, human), creating sound embellishments that perfectly match the idea of a land as sterile and cryptic as it is alive and pulsating.

Nature (or rather: Nature) and its primordial aridity, therefore, constitute the ideal core around which the stories revolve, paradoxically still human and tangible within that antiseptic shell of electronic dissonances and regular beats.

The voice, meanwhile, creates emotional paintings that identify with ten stories endowed with their own individuality. And it does not merely suggest: it tells. It tells of dramas that seem to come from 18th-century Spain ("Hunter"), of volcanoes - even internal - erupting ("Pluto"), of a love that is everywhere ("All Is Full Of Love") but creates suffering ("Unravel"). The trip hop of "Bachelorette," a monumental anthem to the discomfort between lovers, is the poetic summary of the entire work, while "Alarm Call" is a last reminiscence of the nightclub throbs of her beginnings.

Although still immature in the lyrics, Bjork finally finds her true voice, creating her most cohesive and unified work ever, but the real revolution lies in her personal imagery. The humanoid geisha on the cover semiotically consecrates her as the Muse of the human race.