The Iceland cometh...

Hey guys,

Let me tell you a story...

Out driving around, trying to decide what to go to get to eat about a month-and-a-half ago, I'm flipping around on my Sirius radio... You see I'm tired of the same old thing and I'd been listening to my stranger favorites... So I stop on the channel: Left of Center, which as you can tell by the title, doesn't play your run-of-the-mill stuff...

I stop because I hear this strange but intriguing electronic sound and a stellar female voice soaring above it all... The song was called "Earth Intruders" by someone who I'd been wanting to get into for a long time, the Icelandic songstress: Bjork...

Well, I had been listening to the Mars Volta for about the week leading up to that Saturday night, so I come home and (as I obsessively do) get onto YouTube and find about every Mars Volta clip I can and watch them... Who does the singer of the Mars Volta, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, give first as his vocal influence as I'm watching a clip... That's right... None other than Bjork herself... He'd seen her with performing with the Sugarcubes back in the day when he had been a roadie or something, helping to set up equipment... Turns out Bjork's latest album is called Volta, as well...

Well, I took this all as a sign and downloaded Bjork's aptly-titled solo album Debut... Man... Wow...

I'm glad I did... I wasn't blogging very much at the time, so I've taken this opportunity to let you guys know about Bjork, since I've recently been spinning Debut again...

AND... (You knew it was coming...) I'm going to post some video clips below...

First, the song that I heard that fateful evening, off Bjork's most recent offering Volta, called "Earth Intruders", and then all the music videos off of Debut... As usual the titles of the songs will appear ABOVE the tunes...



Earth Intruders (from "Volta" - 2007)





Human Behaviour





Venus as a Boy





Play Dead (UK/Japan bonus track, not on US version of "Debut")





Big Time Sensuality





Violently Happy





Some thoughts:

-This whole album is a bit pop oriented and in things that I've read, listeners have said that it's her most pop oriented album which means from here, things should just get better as I listen to more Bjork... Not to slight this album, which is GREAT, but I just think I'll dig her weirder stuff more...

-Above comment being said, though... I think "Human Behaviour" is a timeless classic and I've had it bouncing back and forth through my head since I heard it in the early nineties... My brother and I used to make a joke and say she was saying, "If you ever get close to a bluebird..." instead of "human"... Anyway, love the song...



So anyway guys, there it is: some of what I've been listening to for ya... I may follow up when I get some more dough and thence more Bjork...

Until next time... Peace...