Artist: "Björk"
Album: "Post"
Genre: Electronic
Label: One Little Indian

Reviewer: Protoclown
Posted: 11/12/2009

Review: First off, let me just explain that I love Björk. I realize that she's not everybody's cup of tea, as she's not one of the most accessible artists out there (let's face it, she's fucking weird). If your musical tastes are a bit more "basic" or mainstream, you're probably not going to like an artist as bizarre as Björk. However, if you value experimentation and uniqueness, Björk is certainly a great artist to follow the work of. Some of her experiments fell flat or didn't reach their full potential (see Medúlla), but I have to admire her for continuing to do her own thing, whether it works or not.

Post is without a doubt her most successful (and arguably most accessible) album, providing a little more experimentation than its predecessor Debut, but still offering enough of a conventional sound for more "traditional" ears to enjoy. That said, the album is still all over the place stylistically, offering more variety than any of her others in terms of sound.

The catchy opener "Army of Me" kicks things off with a bit of an industrial sound, while "Hyper-Ballad" follows it up with a burst of pure electronica. The lyrics to this one are particularly fascinating, with the narrator explaining that she lives on top of a mountain with her lover, and every morning she wakes up and throws things off the edge so that she can experience and appreciate her own mortality. "The Modern Things" is a quiet song about technology taking over the world.

The big-band "It's Oh So Quiet" starts out as a whisper, exploding into outbursts of full brass and screeching, before going all quiet again, in an attempt to mimic the emotional ride of falling in and out of love. And if you haven't seen the Spike Jonze music video, you really should. Some people call "Enjoy" (one of my favorites) a trip-hop experiment (she did collaborate with Tricky after all), but I think my friend Karen described it perfectly when she said that if she ever became a stripper, this is one of the songs she would strip to. "You've Been Flirting Again" is another quiet string-driven tune with superb lyrics that give some excellent advice on knowing when to back off a bit when you're romantically interested in someone.

"Isobel" has a cool jungle beat and sweeping strings as it tells the story of a woman who lives by herself completely isolated from the world, and again warns of the dangers of technology. "Possibly Maybe" is a quiet electronic trip-hop song about a relationship that doesn't work out. "I Miss You" (another favorite) is a catchy, percussion-driven dance track where the narrator says that she knows exactly who her perfect lover is and feels a void in her life without him even though she hasn't met him yet. This one has another must-see music video done by Spumco, the creative force behind Ren & Stimpy.

The quiet and Asian-sounding "Cover Me" asks the listener to trust the narrator, as she's going to prove the impossible exists. And "Headphones" (the second Tricky collaboration) finishes things off with a very quiet song that you really do need to be wearing headphones to fully appreciate and hear all the cool little things they did in it. It's a love letter to sound itself.

This truly is an amazing album and will always be one of my favorites I keep coming back to. There's not a single weak track on it. If you like interesting, experimental music I'd be amazed if this wasn't already part of your collection (along with the rest of her work), and while her experimentation certainly gets a lot more daring about a decade down the road, you can still hear the roots of a lot of what she tried later here. This is just damned good, catchy music, and even if you hate Björk's voice, it's hard to deny her songwriting ability.

Oh, and I have to at least mention the awesome, iconic image on the cover. This super-colorful shot of Björk is one of the most eye-catching album covers I've ever seen. There's nothing particularly bizarre about it, except that it's very memorable due to its striking design, and it kind of does to your eyes what the music on the album will do to your ears.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)