Album Review: Bjork - Vulnicura

Firstly, if you’re looking for anything even slightly resembling It’s Oh So Quiet or Hyperballad on Vulnicura, you’re not gonna find it. Opener Stonemilker is the closest thing you’ll get to the pop sensibility that was once again hinted at on Biophilia. Nevertheless, Vulnicura proves once more that when Björk dives head first into dense abstraction she embraces it wholly.

Vulnicura is ostensibly a break-up album. Taking cues from a series of songs written over several months or more, it once again proves that philosophy on pretty much everything – life, love, being human – is what drives Björk. Of course it is Björk, so a lot of understanding of what she’s talking about is up to you. But the worthwhile choice of pushing her still intense vocals far above anything heard on Biophilia gives the record a much-needed immediacy and rawness.

Vulnicura finds Björk completely comfortable pushing the boundaries of melody, much like Vespertine in places. Arca and The Haxan Cloak co-wrote a handful of the tracks, and their dark, meandering styles meld pretty seamlessly. Björk’s voice and powerfully enticing string arrangements take the forefront, with warped, droning atmospherics carrying the low end. Apart from Stonemilker, it never picks up above this swirling trance state, and while it works mostly it keeps the melodies and arrangements from coalescing into a whole.

Vulnicura is a heartfelt record; that much is sure. The heart’s there, and Björk’s usual intensity, but the lack of structure strips a lot of the immediacy away from the record, which will not entice fans of her poppier repertoire. Still, the weirdness works.