LP’s CDs #6: Björk, Homogenic, 1997. Or ‘Why are you crying at moss?’
I’m back after a hiatus: I went on holiday and ran a conference and didn’t have much time for writing. However, I did plenty of LP’s CDs homework: I listened to more or less all of Björk’s back catalogue while I drove around Iceland on holiday. (When in Iceland…)
I‘ll tackle all the albums of hers that I own on CD over the next few weeks, but I’m starting with Homogenic, as this was the first album of hers I bought. From the start, I have to warn you: this will be a gushing, fan-girly and sycophantic series of posts. I love Björk, unreservedly.
I’d known of Björk long before Homogenic; I knew and liked a lot of the songs from Debut and Post. However, I wasn’t so keen on Oh So Quiet, which was so big at the time and loomed large in my understanding of who she was and what her music was about.
Homogenic captured my imagination and was the start of a Björk obsession. Specifically the song Hunter, which came out 20 (20!) years ago this month. I became infatuated with that song, and would listen to it about 10 times on repeat before I’d move on to the other songs on the album. It’s got every element I love about Björk: her incredible voice; her unexpected diction; lyrics that encapsulate being a fierce, independent romantic; synths, strings and beats in perfect harmony; a video that’s on another level to most other music videos (she turns into a polar bear!) and pushed the boundaries of what digital could do at the time.
I still listen to this album a lot, so this wasn’t so much a return to something after a break like a lot of other posts. Listening to it in Iceland was sublime though. I’m embarrassed to say I cried: driving through moss-carpeted lava fields listening to Joga and the line about ‘emotional landscapes’ followed by Unravel made me dissolve. ‘Why are you crying at moss?’ my husband asked me. I’m never going to live this down.
It’s a perfect album, and my third favourite of hers. (Vulnicura and Biophilia are number one and two.) To me Homogenic sounds like a woman coming into her own as a fully fledged artist. I think Björk is peerless, and this album is where she reached that level for me.
My favourite song is Hunter, if I’m forced to choose. However, I also want to give Pluto a little side note for the way Björk performed it at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016. Thinking about it makes the hairs on my neck stand up: just her and a string orchestra, and the whole audience singing with her. This YouTube video captures the echo of it that carried on long after she left the stage. Maybe it’s one of those ‘you had to be there’ things — let me know.
