| | |  | | Home » Biophilia | | | | | | | Description: | | "What I always wanted to do was to reconnect musicology with nature," Icelandic composer and performer Björk recently told the New York Times. "I always wanted to make bass lines behave like gravity."
Biophilia is the Icelandic singer and composer's most ambitious undertaking in a 20-year career distinguished by continuous innovation and artistic evolution. The album title refers to a love of all living things, and in every aspect of this game-changing multi-media effort, Björk brilliantly connects nature, music, and technology.
In addition to the music itself, this project will offer interactive iPad apps, designed by the industry's most creative minds, that feature games, music, and editorial content-allowing listeners to explore more deeply the concepts and sounds of each of Biophilia's 13 songs.
The artistic and technological reach of Biophilia is nothing short of visionary. As New York Times critic Jon Pareles has put it, "Biophilia is a possible paradigm for the 21st-century album, one that welcomes the interactivity of the Internet and harnesses the power and flexibility of devices that incorporate video, audio and user control far beyond the play button." Media artist and chief Biophilia apps designer Scott Snibbe, enthuses, "To me, it feels like the birth of opera or the birth of cinema."
At the core of this groundbreaking project, of course, are Björk's sonically brilliant and emotionally stirring new songs, akin to the magical, otherworldly, atavistic hymns of her acclaimed 2001 disc, Vespertine. On Vespertine, Björk rhapsodized about a new romance; here, she attempts nothing less than to retell the story of the creation of the universe in her own compellingly idiosyncratic voice. | | | Product Details: | | | Audio CD Release Date:
| September 20, 2011 | | Studio:
| Universal Japan | | Number Of Discs:
| 1 | | Format:
| Extra tracks, Import | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 71 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 71 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 50 found the following review helpful:
 IntersectionOct 25, 2011
By Douglas King
When Bjork released her first adult solo album, "Debut", in 1993, Bjork's ecstatic voice and unique songwriting offered a refreshing take on dance-pop music. Since then, Bjork has released seven more albums, most of which towed a fine line between highly creative pop music and experimental, even otherworldly songs.
Bjork's new album, "Biophilia" is her most ambitious, intuitive, and non-commercial album to date. (And considering Bjork's catalog, that's really saying a lot.) If you are looking for catchy, easily digestible pop music, than this is not the album for you. Even for a hardcore Bjork fan like me, it took a few complete listens to start to wrap my head around this album. At first listen, it seemed amelodic, difficult, and inaccessible. But once I gave in to it, the songs began to slowly reveal themselves to me. And I found myself in a strange, beautiful, and yet somehow familiar world.
"Biophilia" is an intersection. Thematically, the entire album is about science. With "Vespertine" (my all-time favorite Bjork album), Bjork explored the human condition through music about intimate human relationships. With "Biophilia", Bjork explores the human condition through the context of our place in the natural world. "Biophilia" exists at the intersection between science and music, between human beings and our environment, between classical music and modern electronica, between emotion and instinct.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
DR9 Meets The UniverseNov 01, 2011
By jameswho
At last Björk has mananged to make something lasting. This is her "Night of Hunters"; in many ways, it harks back to "Homogenic" (her masterpiece), but it also forges new ground. The brass of "Volta" makes an appearance, but it also has some of the more pensive and... well, different elements of "Drawing Restraint 9". Yes, some of the same things appear in "Volta", but they just managed to make the album feel uneven, like it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. On here, everything works towards the common goal.
"Moon" is probably one of the most wonderfully realised songs she's written in a long time, and a perfect introduction to the feeling of the album. And then you listen on and WHAM: "Virus", "Sacrifice", and "Mutual Core". These three are perhaps among the best songs she's ever written: "Virus" is outstandingly beautiful, "Sacrifice" starts off unassuming and then hits you, and "Mutual Core" just blows you away.
We seem to forget how few albums Björk has actually made; "Volta" was a fun album, with a dark edge, and yes it was uneven, but it was right after "Medulla", which probably her most interesting album, if also slightly uneven.
And then she produced this. "Biophilia" is her most modern and accomplished work. She's back, not that she ever really went away. Brilliant.
17 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Bjork at her bestOct 16, 2011
By J. D.
I really cannot understand why this Cd has been reviewed so highly by critics and so poorly by customers. Well, I have to agree with the critics: This is a great album, some of Bjork's best, and one of the only modern music that is worthy of some attention. All tracks are masterpieces. Moon is minimalistic, but is all about Bjork's voice. The other stand-outs are, in my opinion: Cosmogony, Mutual Core and Sacrifice. All great. I hope the rating gets higher with time. Admittedly, as it often happens with Bjork, this album needs time to grow, but when it does, it becomes wonderful.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Björk is back at her zenith on Biophilia!Jan 12, 2012
By Jurai's Heir
"Tenchi Masaki"
Though it seems like everybody has said what I wanted to say about this album, I feel like I have to still throw my two cents in since I've been a devoted fan of Björk's since I was a teen. Björk has always been in top form when it comes to lyrics so my review focuses more on Biophilia's music style and explains what each song sounds like.
Leave it to the genius of Björk to take music to the next level by making an interactive app; the first app album ever actually. I don't know if it was a strategic ploy to sell more of Biophilia, but no matter, the app allows the listener to get closer into Björk's vision while also letting the listener experiment with some of the songs and sounds themselves.
Biophilia for me is Björk's most fulfilling album since Vespertine. The album echoes vocals from Medulla, instruments similar to Vespertine and Volta , and the technology that made Homogenic so groundbreaking; Björk is back at her zenith on Biophilia.
1. MOON contemplates emotional rebirth, explores lunar cycles, the tides, and human biological rhythms. MOON is a calm, tranquil song that features the harp and some of Björk's famous wailing.
2. THUNDERBOLT is the thirst of miracles - a track forged from arpeggios of lightning. THUNDERBOLT's rhythm mostly comes from Björk's specific vocals and features a choir, and a teslacoil bassline.
3. The spatial aspects of both crystals and music unite our internal and external worlds in CRYSTALLINE. CRYSTALLINE is a really fun song with an epic ending that will blow your mind away. The song features a gameslete and will have you constantly repeating, and dancing.
4. COSMOGONY explores the different myths and theories of how our universe might have come to be. COSMOGONY takes you on a mesmerizing journey through our universe with a bass, choir, and Björk; beautiful and emotionally moving.
5. Breath is a spirit that pervades the cosmos, and the invisible "DARK MATTER" pervades the universe. DARK MATTER is mostly vocals and an organ type instrument. The song echoes something from Medulla and is pretty creepy and slow.
6. HOLLOW is inspired by Bjork's own genetic ancestry. The song is about DNA, ancestors, and biological connection through time. HOLLOW is a song that you will either understand or not. Thanks to Björk's interactive app that I purchased, I absolutely understood what Björk was going for in this song. Each beat represents the flow of blood and cells that are created and regenerated throughout the body; very scientific then again this whole album is.
7. A love song reveals the dangerous relationships between VIRUS and host (between lovers). The sound on VIRUS is definitely a throwback to Björk's past albums Homogenic and Vespertine. It's one of most rememberable tracks on the album and once again features the gameleste, and choir; one of Björk's most beautiful songs.
8. To surrender, to forgo, for the love of another you must SACRIFICE. SACRIFICE starts out serene and goes into another epic middle and end; song features a sharpsichord.
9. Geography, geology, geothermal activity become a metaphor for human relationships in MUTUAL CORE. MUTUAL CORE is another highlight on Biophilia that is divided by different rhythms which feature an organ and choir. The song echoes hardcore Björk songs from the past.
10. SOLSTICE celebrates light and the changing seasons produced by the tilt of the earth in its orbit around the sun. SOLSTICE ends the album nicely. The song is similar to Moon and features some of Björk's distinctive wailing and a pendulum.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 I Never Thought Bjork Could Be Pretentious, But Then...Feb 23, 2012
By Johnny Freud
"JF"
Like a few reviewers here, I am a serious Bjork enthusiast who has enjoyed collecting her work and seeing her perform live for many years. Much of her work has been a backdrop to important incidents in my life. "Vespertine" is one of the greatest albums I've ever heard.
I was really looking forward to the release of "Biophilia". I had enjoyed the album "Volta" quite a lot - I thought there were some great songs there and some incredible instrumentation. When I heard the first track of "Biophilia" ("Moon") I smiled to hear that lovely sound of the harp, one of Bjork's signature instruments. "Moon" is a lovely song, with some lyrical moments that recall some of the most heart-felt Bjork phrases. When she sings "Fail at loving, Fail at creating a flow..." your emotions nearly boil over.
Yet this is the high water mark of the album. As the rest of the tracks emerge, I have to say I was really stunned by how boring they were. I had read review after review praising this album and I started to wonder if I'd actually bought the wrong version. The arrangements of these tuneless melodies is so sparse and spare that there are huge gaps (almost like dead air) continually popping up in the songs. "Thunderbolt" is a perfect example. Academically, on paper, the song sounds fascinating. But Bjork's usual finesse with lyrics in English is embarrassingly absent. After she repeats the phrase 'Craving miracles' for about the fifth time, I'm cringing with how new-age and feel-good it all sounds.
For all the hype about the various instruments created to be played on the album, the eventual sound is not fascinating by any stretch. The combination piano/Javanese gamelon used in "Chrystaline" could just as easily have been created with a sampler. This, along with the strange assertions that the album is a celebration of nature and science, doesn't become more than the sum of the parts. Tossing a few lyrics about dirt, crystals and rocks into a song doesn't make it scientific... in fact, the opposite happens; it feels pedantic and cheesy.
Lyrically, the album seems to make tons of references to a thread-bare metaphor of the earth / the body. Vertebrae are rocks, etc. This is an interesting area to explore, but Bjork has done this already in her previous albums. This idea, being heralded as revolutionary, has been a consistent theme of painters, writers and musicians for hundreds of years. She's not adding anything new to the idea. Of course it isn't Bjork's responsibility to break new ground with each new album, but with all the hyped elements of "Biophilia", anyone expecting her usual quirkiness will instead be met with that really bad side affect of innovation: Pretentiousness. For example, Bjork is at the point in her career in which she thinks she can carry a song only accompanied by a solo instrument. This is the case with the song "Solstice", the closing track of the album, which is almost painful to listen to. It is another tuneless track full of recycled Bjork's usual musical phrasing. Her songwriting "style" overtakes her actual songwriting. It's hard to end on a note like this.
Bjork is also beginning to suffer from a fate similar to Tori Amos - she can't seem to stop playing "dress-up" (for lack of a better phrase.) I think Bjork wants to be taken very seriously as an artist, and yet she's still donning tons and tons of make-up and the trappings of a community theater experimental dance troupe. If she really doesn't care about such things, why all the theatrics? The artifice? For once I'd like to see her perform in jeans and a t-shirt and just be herself. Perhaps she's finding it difficult to age gracefully. If her work for "Biophilia" was strong enough, there would be no need for such extensive visualization. I won't even start on the whole multi-format release issue. Bottom line: No app is going to make a poor song sound any better.
I had genuine interest in this album before its release. Since I've bought it, I've listened to it three times, and I've got no impetus to put it on for another listen. There's nothing waiting there for me. I can only hope that Bjork has a few more good albums inside her that she'll bring forth in the future. Unfortunately, at the rate she's been releasing work, it will be many years before that happens.
See all 71 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
