Vulnicura
“Don’t remove my pain / It is my chance to heal.” Delivered in a wounded cry of desperation, this lyric—from standout track “Notget”—is emblematic of Björk’s profoundly vulnerable ninth studio album. Given sonic texture by her lush string arrangements and the skittering beats of co-producer Arca, *Vulnicura* was written in response to the dissolution of Björk’s longtime relationship with artist Matthew Barney. Following the cosmically conceptual *Biophilia* (2011), it’s disarming yet reassuring to hear the Icelandic icon’s stratospheric voice wailing bluntly about recognizable human emotions. In the vibrant album closer “Quicksand,” she sings of finding new life through heartache: “The steam from this pit / Will form a cloud / For her to live on.”
Björk's ninth proper full-length, filled with lush arrangements and some of her most powerful singing, can be slotted among the most human, emotionally candid, even functional of art forms: the breakup album.
With all of its Kanye West parallels—producer Arca, the short-notice release, the singular artistic voice—it’s tempting to call Björk’s ninth album Bjeezus. But the circumstances of Vulnicura more closely resemble Madonna’s recent EP: Both were thrust into the world earlier than planned, a reaction to the increasingly…
The Icelandic singer, compose, trendsetter, genre-definer and all-around icon teamed with Arca and The Haxan Cloak in the creation of a stunningly lavish arrangement of strings, synths and voice that is, quite frankly, her best work in over a decade.
If the best art really does come out of the most personally trying situations, then Björk’s eighth studio album, Vulnicura…
Björk's ninth album is more personal, more emotional and more bleak than she has ever sounded
Never one to do things timidly, with Vulnicura Björk delivers a breakup album that isn't just sad -- it throws listeners into the total devastation of heartbreak.
From an (almost) unprecedented leak two whole months before its release date to its heavy subject matter, emotion is undoubtedly the crux of...
The early leak of Björk's latest album two months before the planned released, and her consequential handling of it, is a fitting allegory for the emotional rawness Vulnicura exposes us to. Clearly, this is not how Björk meant for things to work out.
Album review: Björk - Vulnicura. She continues to fascinate, to wrap the willing listener up in velvet vociferousness…
What’s remained true since “Declare Independence” is her disinterest in a zeitgeist that at one time her participation helped shape.
Review of the new album from Bjork 'Vulnicura,' the LP will be officially released through One Little Indian.
Björk chronicles the demise of her relationship with gorgeous choruses and audacious melodies on one of her most cohesive – and emotional – albums yet, writes Alexis Petridis, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>
Björk's ninth album charts a relationship break-up with emotional honesty and musical daring, says Helen Brown
The queen of alt-pop is courageously wrought rather than radical. Review by Heidi Goldsmith