Yes! I hear a bit of Cover Me's "I'm going to prove the impossible really exists" in Freefall's "If we cling to what we used to be [...]".
Murder me with clarinets. I’m on the floor climaxing to Ancestress. I was expecting unhinged, but this is so incredibly good. It’s beautiful.
I'm also shocked about Earth Intruders! Personally, I'd live if she did Isobel (clarinet rearrangement) into Fungal City, and Mutual Core or Pluto into Fossora should be a must too
Thank you for this. I love the end of this song so much. It takes me to places. I feel I'm the only one who strongly dislikes Ancestress. The lyrics are beautiful, yes, but the song breaks the album's momentum completely for me.
I agree. It’s a good song, but my least favorite at the moment, and too long. I just want to get to the new songs so I’ve been skipping it.
Vinyl version of Ovule. Sounds completely different, with chopped vocal samples instead of the brass. Solo version of Her Mother’s House, also quite different:
Oh the horns are so crucial! “Ovule” is like top three on the album. There’s a huskiness to her voice throughout that just hits right. And it’s “catchy” for me, if you can believe it. I can see why people might not like it—it does harken back to the Volta days, and it’s a bit of an outlier when compared to the rest of the album—but I adore it.
That main riff that repeats throughout is so hooky - I totally get what you mean. There's no big chorus that grabs you, but returning to that same hook several times really feels like home. I love the gentle drive of the beat, also.
Even a lot of the vocal line sinks in after a few listens. I think @Glitterizer said it, you just have to sort of look at the song as a whole and not a verse-chorus-verse structure. Sleep with one eye open and fuse alloy ship ahoyyyyyy yyy pop into my head constantly. So far the hardest track to crack is “Victimhood.” I love its soundscape and I think the lyrical content is really interesting. Feels like I’m having to give it the most work, though.
Finally received my vinyl today. Looks gorgeous. I’m sure it’s already mentioned but the vinyl version of Ancestress doesn’t seem to include the vocals from Sindri. Do we know why?
Bjork is #6 in the Monday Mids in the UK. George Michael's re-issue of Older is surprisingly #1 in albums ahead of Slipknot by 2.5K. Snuts at 3, Craig David at 4, Yeah Yeahs at 5, Bjork at 6 and Pixies at 7
Ah okay. No Isadora on Her Mother’s House either. I actually like that the vinyl has different versions though.
Ddddd. Ancestress is probably my least favorite, too. It’s beautiful and I actually don’t dislike it at all, but it just draggggs. Every time I listen and think it’s over I always check the runtime and there’s still 3 minutes left. Maybe it will grow. I understand and appreciate it’s placement in the album, it’s just a slog to get through for me.
I think my top 5 (in order) from the album, at the moment, would be: 1. Fossora 2. Her Mother’s House 3. Victimhood 4. Ancestress 5. Ovule It feels odd to not include ‘Atopos’ in my top 5 but, although it slaps, I guess it’s quite an “ugly” melody ddd. ‘Freefall’ and ‘Sorrowful Soil’ are both great and could rise up the ranks. The title track really is something else though.
I am still listening to it, since it takes more than one listens with Björk. So far I am really liking it! It does feel almost like a closure of the "era" she started with Vulnicura. I do feel the first section of the album is a bit hard to get into, but it really gets going after it. Victimhood was pretty much how I envisioned the whole album to sound like. Her Mother's House is one of the most beatiful songs she ever recorded, the vocal arrangements are superb on that one, also Allow and Fungal City are insanely good, I love how the featured artists are almost more of a layers of the productions.
