Bjork - Homogenic (1997)
I'm a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl
you're the bird on the brim hypnotized by the whirl
Following two critically acclaimed albums in Debut and Post, as well as an attempted murder plot from a superfan stalker, Bjork released Homogenic, an amazingly experimental post-pop masterpiece that would shape the face of music going into the 2000s. This album is clearly a step up from her previous projects, pushing the abrasive experimentation that was present on Post to new levels, as well as creating one cohesive thread that she follows throughout the album, hence its title. Bjork's outward-directed anger is present all over the album, with aggressive electronic beats making up the backbone of songs like Bachelorette and Alarm Call, covered up with beautiful vocals that wax and wane between anxious and reassuring. Other tracks like Joga and Immature are seemingly abstract and off-beat until they slowly develop into incredible trip-hoppy tracks that perfectly mix EDM-style percussion with orchestral instrumentation. This boundary pushing experimentation is present from track to track, a whole 10 years prior to the crunchy EDM inspired radio pop of the late 2000s. Overall, Homogenic is a stellar third piece to Bjork's first quartet of albums, building off of the ideas presented in Post and setting the stage for her follow up, the gentle and beautiful Vespertine.
Key track: Bachelorette
10 / 10 - essentially perfect, boundary pushing, genre and decade defining, incredible personal significance
disclaimer: I've probably listened to this album 20-30 times in this past year, and I would encourage anyone who is interested in this to listen to Debut, Post, and Vespertine as well. I'd also strongly recommend headphones while listening to this album, as it is mixed and mastered INCREDIBLY. Homogenic is truly an album that keeps on giving, and I feel like there's always so much more left to discover every time I come back and listen to it. Zero skips except for maybe 5 years.
Now for something I'm less familiar with.
Rina Sawayama - Sawayama (2020)
Luxury and Opulence.
Rina Sawayama's eponymous 2020 album is an interesting dive into J-Pop and R&B Fusion, pulling heavy on its 2000s and early 2010s radio pop stars a la Britney Spears, Kesha, and Ariana Grande. This album moves from idea to idea EXTREMELY quickly: the first couple tracks are dominated by these really interesting punctual guitar riffs that add a ton of depth, but after this initial strong start I can't help but feel that at times this album falls into pretty bland autopilot pop tropes. The key change in Paradisin' stands out as especially bad to me, as I don't think the song was interesting enough to actually warrant an extra 30 seconds. Then songs like Love Me 4 Me would be just complete corporate feel-good background music and if not for the really interesting synth solo that pops in at the two minute mark, I would have no reason to listen to them. I feel like every one of these "self care anthems" or whatever sound the same, and I really don't feel like songs like this have any real reason to bring me back to listen to them. The end of this album is very same-y, with a lot of the cool ideas that were present on the first four tracks completely absent. Maybe this vein of pop music just isn't for me, but I can't help but think that this album would be a lot better if the producers spent more time experimenting with the instrumentation that was used on the first third of the album. Overall, I think this album is an excellent showcase of Sawayama's vocals, but after the first few tracks, it loses a lot of the interesting ideas that initially pulled me in with tracks like Dynasty, XS, and STFU!, as well as some interesting clips in the second half on tracks like Who's Gonna Save U Now?.
Key track: XS
5 / 10 - Appealing at times but underwhelming as a whole. Not painful, but not attention-holding. Sorry, Sawayama stans!
Week 2 Nomination
Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix) by Death Grips (2017)
This 22-minute EP from Death Grips is a jaw-droppingly aggressive and abrasive take on EDM and the British hardcore techno genre Gabber, all while intertwining head-poundingly loud bass lines and drum sequences with death grips' own takes on metal and hip hop.