932. Vespertine - Björk

The difficulty with this project is the fixed nature of time we have to listen to an album. For some, a week has felt about the right length of time to get to know it, and for others, it's been too long, frankly. Donovan, I'm looking directly at you. However, there are some albums where a week is just not going to be long enough to fully come to terms with the intricacies and density of the body of work. I suspected that this would be the case with Björk, knowing some of her work, and her reputation. And so it has transpired that the album this week is probably a masterpiece but I cannot verify this from my point of view. I've no doubt that this revelation will be devastating for Björk.

The album is a real tapestry of deep poly-rhythms and juxtaposed hard and soft electronic sounds, held together with lush lyrical content. It is excellent, and there are definite earworms there that stick with you after the first couple of listens. Pagan Poetry and Hidden Place stand out straight away, but others come to the fore after repeated listens. Undo has a beautiful refrain that is worthy of note, Unison has some fantastically vivid imagery, and Cocoon is delicate in a crisp, frozen kind of way. In all, it is a very wintery album, and so has been a great companion on the dark morning and evening commutes to and from work. It does require a certain amount of active listening on the part of the audience, as otherwise it could just become a series of nice sounds washing over you, rather then the more mapped out ebb and flow it in reality appears to be. 

This is definitely one of albums that I know I will be returning to, and I have high expectations that I will end up loving it even more. However, having only scratched the surface having listened to it about 15 times, I'll have to look forward to this being a slow-burn of a relationship rather than fireworks.

Chloe's rating: 7
Chloe's favourite track: 2. Cocoon
Olly's rating: 8
Olly's favourite track: 5. Pagan Poetry

Next week's choice is a belter - 644. Green by R.E.M. Good times.