Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Stravinsky: The Firebird; Scherzo à la russe; Four Studies [Box set]
Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music [Box set]
The Marshall Tucker Band [Extra tracks] [Original recording remastered]
Top Tunes Karaoke Rock Vol. 3 TT-082
The Anniversary/ Superdrag [EP]
So You Don't Know? [Enhanced] [EP]
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Ever since Björk's vital, effusive 1993 debut, her music has been increasingly intimate, gently private, and concerned with seclusion. It's typical then that Vespertine's first single is called "Hidden Place." The studious solitude is rewarding, though. Vespertine is a lush, gorgeous swell of midpace electronica, symphonic strings, and Björk's uniquely alien, spectral vocals. There are fantastical wonders here. "Cocoon" (another eulogy to withdrawal from the world) is delicate as a breath, Björk sounding too fragile to be flesh as she lauds "a beauty this immense." "Pagan Poetry" and "Aurora," likewise, are adrift in an enchanted reverie. When she chooses, she crafts killer tunes; "It's Not up to You" is as lovely as anything on Post. Yet, frequently, on such tracks as the yearning, glancing "Undo," Björk seems to be simply thinking aloud, reveling in this wildly rich and visceral music. She's reclaimed cutting-edge electronica, so often the province of geeks and technicians, for the poets and the passionate. Vespertine is a landmark, a revelation, and a truly fabulous achievement. --Ian Gittins --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.