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 (14 Customer Reviews)
VESPERTINE was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
Bjork's first non-soundtrack album since HOMOGENIC is positively pastoral compared with that release's experimental electronic textures. Swathed in strings and laced with beautiful choral arrangements, VESPERTINE has more in common with SELMASONGS, echoing that DANCER IN THE DARK soundtrack album's meandering melody lines, while smoothing out and adding an ethereal sheen to the more angular approaches of the singer's previous work.
Here the idiosyncratic Icelander lets loose with her full range of vocal stylings, though even her most innocent, little-girl-lost persona can't hide her steely intelligence. The album-opening "Hidden Place" starts with foreboding electronic rhythms--it's about unspoken or unfulfilled desires, and it's simultaneously exotic-sounding and dripping with melancholy, a mood that persists until the gently cathartic "Undo," with its mantra-like line "It's not meant to be a strife/It's not meant to be a struggle uphill." Though VESPERTINE's textures might ostensibly seem smooth and seamless, beneath the surface Bjork's emotions run raw and exposed, as evidenced by the final naked outburst of "I love him" in the coda to "Pagan Poetry." VESPERTINE is Bjork's most mature, fully realized integration of her pastoral Icelandic roots and her contemporary electronica (electronic scamps Matmos are collaborators here) inclinations to date.
Multi-talented Superstar Bjork returns with her long awaited solo Elektra album Vespertine, featuring groundbreaking songs such as Harm Of Will, and Cocoon. The new disc caps a breakthrough year for the mercurial vocalist, which has seen her receive a Best Acting Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the award winning movie Dancer In The Dark, as well as snag an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for I've Seen It All.
Engineers include: Jake Davies, Damian Taylor, Erik Gosh.
Personnel: Bjork; Guy Sigsworth, Matmos, Thomas Knak, Jake Davies, Matthew Herbert .
Recording information: 2001.
Personnel: Bjork (vocals, programming); Caryl Thomas, Zeena Parkins (harp); Guy Sigsworth (celeste, Clavichord, programming); Jake Davies, Damian Taylor, Matthew Herbert, Matmos, Thomas Knak, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Marius De Vries, Martin Console (programming).
Producers: Bjork, Thomas Knak, Marius De Vries.
Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.106) - Ranked #16 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records".
Rolling Stone (1/03/02, p.118) - Ranked #4 in Rolling Stone's "Top 10 2001".
Rolling Stone (9/13/01, pp.105-6) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The best solo record of her career...a particle beam as weightless as light but concentrated with direction....awash with strings and choirs...When she opens her mouth...you go in, swept up to a box seat inside her head..."
Spin (1/02, p.76) - Ranked #5 in Spin's "Albums of the Year 2001".
Q (9/01, p.109) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...an album which sounds like nothing else while also powerfully evoking the complex and emotional spirit of its creator....Not far from ideal."
Uncut (9/01, p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Extraordinarily intimate and tender....She uses her voice as well as she ever has, giving the moods light and shade..."
Alternative Press (2/02, p.64) - Ranked #3 in AP's "25 Best Albums of 2001".
Alternative Press (10/01, p.77) - 8 out of 10 - "...A smoldering heart of emotion and a true pop sensibility reveal themselves..."
The Wire (1/02, p.40) - Ranked #1 in Wire's "50 Records of the Year 2001".
The Wire (8/01, p.52) - "...A beautiful thing..."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/02, p.69) - Ranked #7 in Mojo's "Best [40] Albums of 2001".
Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.99) - "...A gorgeous reverie that lives up to its devotional title..."
NME (Magazine) (12/29/01, p.59) - Ranked #32 in NME's 50 "Albums Of the Year 2001".
NME (Magazine) (8/25/01, p.51) - 8 out of 10 - "...Enchanting splendor is the overriding rule....way, way off the beaten track..." Vespertine Music Review Average Rating: (4.7 out of 5 stars)   List All Reviews wow!!
This a u-turn from the excellent and dense album "Homogenic", this time Björk makes it ecstaticly intimate, delicate and tender, diaphanous and ethereal. If you already have "Selmasongs", you could feel the transition and you could have expected the style of Vespertine. The album is great, Björk is definitively the most creative female musician nowadays. Her voice is better than ever and it outstands beautifully in songs like "Cocoon" and "Aurora". The electronic beats, mixed with harp, musicboxes and beautiful choirs creates a kind of music like you've never heard. For me the best songs are "Hidden Place", "It's not up to you", "Aurora" and I think "Pagan Poetry" (excellent!! no words to describe it...!!) by itself makes the album worth buying.
Submitted by a reviewer (San José, Costa Rica) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.
 Good, but not as fresh as earlier albums.
I appreciate the intimacy of this album, but I do not think it has the blatant originality and as unique a sound as "Homogenic" and other of Bjork's earlier efforts. I'd say buy if you're a fan, but don't expect to hear any groundbreaking work.
Submitted by a reviewer (Annapolis, MD)
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4.7 stars
Just when you thought Bjork couldn't get any more creative, she does. Vespertine is an amazingly unique and sharp piece of work. 'Undo' is gorgeous. Instrumentation is wonderful and moving throughout, apart from the lapse in 'it's not up to you'.. If you are looking to buy Bjork's music you could divide her body of work in two categories: before Vespertine and after Homogenic. Both are good, but she has now definitely matured as an artist. She deserves much applause for abandoning rules of her usual savvy pop and going out on a limb to create such defined and multi-faceted work. This is definitely not 'homogenic'!
Submitted by louis_pagie (Encino, CA, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Vespertine...a colt classic.
With past albums, Bjork has tried to accomplish what is now know as simply Vespertine. The soft, introverted Bjork creates a world of inner human fanatasy, pushing to explore every inch. The shy and forward Hidden Place starts the journey into the soul, somber yet reassured of what is wanted, and pushes all the way to the culminating finale of rembracing in Unison. The length of the album proves to be perfect in setting the quite, almost un-noticed micro beat-sound, produced by a wide range of artists spanning from Matmos, Mark Bell, Thomas Knak, and finally to the ever impressive Console with the most improtant amount of care. We must take Vespertine as Bjork asks...in a generous mood, and hope for all the best.
Submitted by des_junky (Denver, Co)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No What else can be said?
What can I say about this album that others haven't? Georgeous, haunting, a completely perfect album from start to finish, and beyond! The b-sides from the singles off the album are equally mesmerizing! Bjork is a Goddess, no one can touch her!!!!
Submitted by TFarris70 (Birmingham, AL)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No List All Reviews | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Vespertine CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Portishead Dummy CD (1994)
Vespertine
 $11.49   
Named for a town near Bristol, England, Portishead is a British dance band that grabs ideas from all over the mod pop world (spaghetti Western guitars, turntable scratching, melancholy soul vocals, atmospheric organs, house beats) and stirs them into spacey, dub-like productions that sound like a dance club in the middle of a "Twin Peaks" dream. You could call it surreal hip-hop pop. But if the beats on the band's debut album achieve a kind of trance-like static, the songs themselves reach for something more rousing. With understated ...
| | Bjork Debut CD (1993)
Vespertine
$12.09
With DEBUT, the Icelandic thrush Bjork Godmundsdottir (late of the Sugarcubes) brings her knowing innocence and quirky voice to bear on an engaging program of renegade pop tunes. The unusual instrumental textures on songs such as "Human Behavior," fleshed out with timpani, small percussion instruments, vibraphones and harps, suggests a post-modern version of Phil Spector.
As a singer, Bjork's swooping octave leaps and guttural cries betray the elemental contradictions in her music. She projects the girlish innocence and barely constrained sensuality of a wise child, old beyond her years (the techno-reggae romanticism of "Venus As A Boy," the bouncy house changes of "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy"), and sometimes she sounds like she's trying to rediscover how such doe-eyed love might actually feel, as if for the first time (the mysterious groove of "One Day" and the jazzy standard "Like Someone In Love," with its spare harp accompaniment).
There's a pronounced techno feel to DEBUT, with its airy synthesizers and spacious, uncluttered ...
| | Bjork Post CD (1995)
Vespertine
$6.39
POST, Bjork's second release as a solo artist, mines the fertile soil of the eclectic musical terrain of post-modern pop. The album throbs in and out of ambient cadences with techno beats, slips into showtune theatrics, then reels back to the dance floor.
With a full plate of sounds already on the table, Bjork adds her own unique flare to the presentation, proving she is not easily pigeonholed. The lyrically-insistent opener, "Army Of Me," is a relentless electronic grind that is typical of Bjork's vibe, but POST also digs into Western music's more organic resources. "It's Oh So Quiet" may be a remake of an old Hollywood showtune, but Bjork's version transcends the song's silver screen aloofness on the strength of her delightful screams ("Zing, BOOM!!/You fall in love"). It is directly followed by "Enjoy," a lurching hypnotic nod with musical help from British trip-hop MC, Tricky; and the smooth, Bee Gees-like orchestration of "Isobel," a swooning accompaniment to strobe light bongo drums which announces that the listener ...
| | Bjork Homogenic CD (1997)
Vespertine
$11.35
HOMOGENIC was nominated for a 1998 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.
"Bachelorette was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.
As one of modern music's most enigmatic and consistently entertaining personalities, Bjork has never shied away from the edge. Whether making straight ahead dance music, exploratory modern rock, or even show-tune-caliber drama, her vision has always remained innovative and original. Her voice jumps, in the space of a syllable, from a kitten-like purr to a banshee's howl, and is never anything less than captivating. HOMOGENIC, her latest musical endeavor, finds her plunging headlong into electronica, a form well-suited to her intense, offbeat phrasing and tone.
From the skittering breakbeats and ghostly wails of the opening "Hunter" to the all-out electronic crash that is "Pluto," HOMOGENIC explores the melding of human and machine. The drama of "Bachlorette" finds a lush, rich string section following a tripping electronic ...
| | VH1 Presents The Corrs Live In Dublin CD (2002)
Vespertine
$6.79
This audio document of The Corrs' Dublin homecoming concert has pretty much everything fans of Irish pop could wish for, including an appearance from Bono in his earthly incarnation, fresh from an audience with President George W. Bush. It's to the band's credit that the charismatic singer fails to steal the show, despite creditable efforts via an anthemized version of Ryan Adams' beautifully downtempo "When the Stars Go Blue," and a great, leering rendition of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's "Summer Wine."
Somewhat more mysteriously, Rolling Stone Ron Wood also turns up on what sounds dangerously close to a lounge version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing," but this minor faux pas ...
| | Bjork Medulla CD (2004)
Vespertine
$15.89 
With 2004's MEDULLA, Bjork's already distinctive musical vision is catapulted into another stratosphere. Using the mouth as the primary instrument--vocal, percussive, and otherwise--MEDULLA evokes the ethereal sound of an angelic spirit and a group ...
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Vespertine
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Vespertine
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| | American Juniors CD (2004)
Vespertine
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| | Strokes First Impressions Of Earth CD (2006) Explicit
Vespertine
$8.99
With 2006's FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH, the Strokes have not only crafted an album that cracks the 36-minute mark, they've also opted for a bolder sound, courtesy of veteran producer David Kahne. While these changes don't mean a drastically different direction for the New York City-based rock band, they do indicate that frontman Julian Casablancas and the boys are in a more adventurous mode.
EARTH's initial single, the driving, hard-edged "Juicebox," features Casablancas giving a raspy vocal performance that sounds more impassioned than anything on the group's previous outings, while "On the Other Side" is an almost breezy tune that has the singer recalling ...
| | NUSE Hung Well CD (2005)
Vespertine
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'Life is funny sometimes; just when you think your getting ahead, something happens to set you back. ...
| | Vince Ray Boneshaker Baby CD (2008) (Import) Import
Vespertine
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| | Raintime Flies & Lies CD (2007) (Import) Bonus Track; Japan; +1 Bonus Track
Vespertine
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Additional Tracks
| | Ugly Ducklings CD (2008) (Import) Import
Vespertine
$40.75
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