Utopia

by 
AlbumNov 24 / 201714 songs, 1h 11m 47s
Art Pop Glitch Pop
Popular Highly Rated

After the storm comes a clearer, brighter morning. In 2015, Björk channelled a painful breakup into the dark, tumultuous *Vulnicura*. On this follow-up, she turns toward warmth and optimism. With flutes and harps weaved around glitchy electronics and sampled voices, her music is as expressive and unique as her vocals. “The Gate” welcomes love back into her heart amid a hymnal, delicate soundscape, and the sense of a new dawn is accented in the birdsong that hops across graceful flute melodies on the title track. “Sue Me” returns to the sorrow and recrimination of broken love, but where there was once vulnerability and despair, Björk now seems charged with resilience.

Utopia is the ninth studio album by Icelandic singer-musician Björk It was primarily produced by Björk and Venezuelan electronic record producer Arca and released on 24 November 2017 through One Little Independent Records. The album received critical acclaim from music critics for its production, songwriting, and Björk’s vocals, and later received a nomination for Best Alternative Music Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, becoming Björk’s eighth consecutive nomination in the category. Utopia is an avant-garde and folktronica album. With fourteen tracks in total, the album clocks in at 71 minutes and 38 seconds, making it the longest of Björk's studio albums to date. Björk began working on Utopia soon after releasing Vulnicura in 2015. Upon winning the award for International Female Solo Artist at the 2016 Brit Awards, Björk did not appear as she was busy recording her new album. In an interview published in March 2016, Björk likened the writing to "paradise" as opposed to Vulnicura being "hell... like divorce." Speaking to Fader in March 2017, filmmaker and collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang said that he had been involved with Björk on her new album, stating that "quite a bit of it" had already been written, and that the "new album's gonna be really future-facing, in a hopeful way that I think is needed right now."

8.4 / 10

Filled with flute and birdsong, Björk’s 10th album is deeply personal, a discovery of googly-eyed romance, a rebuke of violent men, and a generous offering of love song after love song.

A

After decades of producing some of pop music’s most challenging works, Björk gave us perhaps her most difficult record in 2015 with Vulnicura. It traced in painful detail the dissolution of her 13-year relationship with artist Matthew Barney, with leaden string arrangements and Björk’s spirit as black as the lake at…

7 / 10

Bjork’s magical ninth album, 'Utopia' mixes up female flute choirs and sounds of the natural world - read NME's reviews

8 / 10

Björk’s Utopia is as much about attempting to reach paradise as it is setting up camp there

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While there’s nearly always a sense of beauty embedded within ‘Utopia’ though, there’s also a feeling of harshness.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Who Built The Moon?; Bjork – Utopia; Sufjan Stevens – The Greatest Gift; Aretha Franklin with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – A Brand New Me; Jim Byrnes – Long Hot Summer Days; Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds – Songs My Ruiner Gave To Me; Wilco – Being There: Deluxe Edition

Björk has always been a powerful conduit for emotions: on Vulnicura, she captured the mental and physical anguish of heartbreak almost too well.

Utopia is a hopeful and wondrous ninth record from the legendary Icelandic artist.

9 / 10

"Break the chain of the fuckups of the fathers / for us women to rise and not just take it lying down / the world is listening / oh how I lo...

6.5 / 10

Björk is Björk is Björk: that is to say, even as far back as her salad days fronting avant-punk aliens KUKL, there's been no mistaking her for anybody else.

Björk exudes a lust for life again on her self-styled ‘Tinder album’, a hope-filled set powered by flutes and birdsong

7 / 10

Multiple levels, readings and flute solos - Icelandic artist Björk’s, at times, brilliant new album 'Utopia' takes a lot of unraveling.

Utopia represents an earnest desire to reconcile a yearning for future happiness with the pain of the past.

8 / 10

Björk's 2015 album, Vulnicura, was a dark, painful experience for the artist.

8.5 / 10

Björk's 'Utopia' is a transcendent statement on longing — for a release from heartbreak, for the thrill of new love, and for a world free of oppression.

The musician’s self-professed ‘Tinder album’ spins from ecstasy to frustration by focusing more on soundscapes than melody

85 %

Björk's genius is needed more than ever.

Album Reviews: Björk - Utopia

4.5 / 5

Bjork - Utopia review: This time, I'm going to keep me all to myself.

First, a confession.

8 / 10