Björk - Biophilia

Firstly, apologies to anyone who follows my twitter feed, or anyone I’ve spoken to in person for the last five months as I’ve been gushing rather incessantly about Björk, which tends to happen in the build up to a release, but usually not quite to this extent. Secondly, if her newest album, which came out on Monday 10th October, is not yet in your life, make it so, as it will change it.

Biophilia has managed to do what I thought was an impossible task, which is topple PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake off the top of my “best album of 2011” list to a respectable second. Not only that, but for me, this has been the most impossibly tense build-up to an album ever. By the time the album came out, I knew all ten of the tracks quite intimately, from the four formal releases and the show at MIF, and Bestival, and the plethora of live footage on youtube, but as a complete album it still managed to surprise and enthral.

When I first heard Moon at MIF I thought it was a fairly twee and childlike song, that was improved by the visuals, I liked it a lot, but it was definitely one of the few growers, which turns out to be one of the most rewarding and luscious tracks on the album, a great opener, the choral arrangements are stunning and the harmonies (particularly on the last “all birthed and happy” line) immense. The video has had a fairly mixed response on youtube, some saying it was a bad choice of song to make a video for, others saying it’s too obvious or looks cheap. I agree with none of those, for me it kind of embodies the entire concept of the album, integrating the visuals that are used live (the moon) the graphics from the apps, and the striking image of Björk that forms the artwork of the front cover. Also, I really like being able to see Björk up close in her videos, her strongest videos in the past are the ones that are almost intrusively close to her and where she’s exposed and real (see cocoon and hidden place). I think it’s worth saying that Björk is brilliant at picking the perfect opener of an album. Lots of people don’t really put much stock in track orders, but I prefer listening to albums than individual songs, so I think it’s really important, would Homogenic have been as epic if it didn’t start with Hunter? Would Medulla have been as jarring and dense if Pleasure Is All Mine didn’t open it?

Thunderbolt was definitely my favourite song live. See this video from Bestival of what an intensely brilliant live experience it was. To see the tesla coil working in the flesh was surreal (at MIF, not so much at Bestival, where it was quite lost on the stage, I didn’t even realise it was there until I saw a video afterwards) I worried the more extreme instruments in this project would seem gimmicky, but the tesla forms a really hypnotic bass line, that at first I thought was lacking from the studio version, and to an extent I still do, although it really kicks in about halfway through, the initial introduction of it is too understated an affair for my liking, it’s literally electrifying when it kicks in live. For me, the lyrics in Thunderbolt are amongst some of her finest, and single-handedly show those who think of this album as some sort of didactic science lesson that at its core it’s a very human album, particular highlights for me: ‘No one imagines the light shock I need/ and I’ll never know/ from who's hands deeply humbled/ dangerous gifts as such to mine come and ‘My romantic gene is dominant/ and it hungers for union’. The choral arrangements again are off the scale, no one does it like Björk. Tesla bass or otherwise, this is my favourite song from the album, and probably enters my favourite songs of all time list. Really looking forward to receiving the manual edition in the post as it will include this live version, which could potentially be the definitive version so far. I’d love to see this as a single with a video, and perhaps a more bass-heavy remix.

Crystalline was the lead single, with a brilliant Gondry video. I prefer the album version to the single version, the way the drum and bass finale fades in is brilliant, and it works so well. It’s worth mentioning that Omar Souleyman’s remix of this track is also brilliant. Cosmogony was another that instantly captivated on a first listen, I was subconsciously already familiar with the melody, as one of the first teasers for the album was this video, which is Wonderbrass playing an alternative arrangement. Again, staggering lyrics: ‘they say, back then our universe/ was a coal-black egg/ until the god inside/ burst out and from its shattered shell/ he made what became the world we know’, I’m really excited at the possibility of the Wonderbrass arrangement with Björk’s vocals, that could be truly epic. Like Crystalline, the album version is different to the single version (the Serban Ghenea mix) and is probably better too.

Dark Matter and Hollow are likely to be some of the most jarring songs of the year, with Dark Matter being a brooding but ultimately beautiful gibberish piece (the choir and organ version included on some releases is my preferred version) and Hollow is quite unlike anything I’ve heard before, sort of sits alongside Ancestors from Medulla in that it’s quite primal and rootsy in the most barbaric sort of way and requires work in order to fully engage in it, but once you can pick out the melody it becomes a brilliant song, the choir repeating the lines ‘trunk of DNA’ and the ‘jewel-after-jewel-after-jewel’ repetition are real high points. I think Virus is an example of Biophilia at its most beautiful, and also, makes me think that aside from the concept and the extremely unconventional time signatures, that Biophilia is essentially a very simplistic album in terms of song structures, this is also another song that reiterates my thoughts that it’s a very human album as well: ‘The perfect match/ you and me/ I adapt, contagious/ you open up, saying welcome’.

Sacrifice is one of my favourite tracks, it’s really tender and the final refrain of ‘your generosity will show in the volume of her glow’ is stunning, I love when the flickery Vespertine-esque beat kicks in about half way through the song. I’m disappointed that this is the only Biophilia track that doesn’t feature on the live album, as the live version of this song ends with a choral version of said refrain and the harmonies are enchanting, I have a bootleg version courtesy of @VintageVeevers but I’d love there to be a higher quality live version at some point.

The last two tracks strike me as a more successful attempt at how Volta concluded. In this case Mutual Core, which ends with perhaps the most exciting 40 seconds of beats on the album and then the serene and heart-achingly good Solstice. I always felt that Volta should have ended with Declare Independents which assaults your ears with a barrage of chanty protest, I always found My Juvenile a bit of an anti climax, it always stood out like a sore thumb on the album for me. But on Biophilia, the come down from the (albeit brief) insanity of Mutual Core leads perfectly into the hypnotism of Solstice, which ends the album at its most intimate and raw. Really can’t wait for some Mutual Core remixes, it is a phenomenally good song.

Anyway, Blah blah blah, I didn’t imagine this would be such a long review/rant/verbalorgasm. I read an Independent review t’other day which gave the album 2 stars out of 5, and then an NME review (which was very well written considering the usual trendy tripe they come out with) gave it a 9/10. This made me think it was quite a divisive album with varying levels of success for people, but in fact the majority of reviews are favourable, maybe the Independent writer is just a fool. On the shuttle bus to the ferry on the way back to Bestival I had to butt in to someone’s conversation as I heard him say “the Cure were the highlight, Björk was quite boring” with a rather lengthy rant (as you might be able to imagine) about how people who don’t like Björk or can’t appreciate the pure magic of her work are lazy and unwilling to be challenged by music. While perhaps that was a bit extreme and I don’t really believe it, I do think that Björk is the most important and progressive artist today, and she will be lauded as one of the great innovators and geniuses of our time and Biophilia will be one of her many masterpieces to cement this. To sum up: Biophilia is a FUCKING TRIUMPH.

the stranger's child

Finally finished ploughing through Alan Hollinghurst's newest tome (although ploughing suggests it was laborious, which it was anything but). I definitely recommend it, for me it was even better than The Line of Beauty and The Folding Star.



I won't toil through the plot too closely, just read it if you're interested, but it's divided into five parts and spans from 1913 to 2008, and like his previous works, it's focussed on upper class, highly educated literary sorts, and the main theme, for me, is the evolution of a literary reputation, in this case, of Cecil Valance, a poet who dies in the first world war whose fairly second-class poetry is subsequently romanticised by his death. The principle character, whose perspective is rarely the one the reader is privy to, is Daphne Sawle, unusually a female, as Hollinghurst's previous books have been notably short on female characters and certainly female perspectives.

It's a stunning book, a much more literary read than I'm used to, I feel more intelligent and self-aware just from reading it. It's also unquestionably queer as well, less forcibly so than his last books, and with less implicit sex, but I'd say 90% of the males are either definitely gay, bisexual or sexually ambiguous. But this isn't gratuitous, the fluidity of sexuality is an important aspect of the plot.

I was lucky enough to attend a book reading by Alan Hollinghurst at the New Bloomsbury Set which was hosted by Gay's the Word bookshop. He was a great reader, very funny and quite self-effacing as well. He also signed my copy of the book too.



Anyhoo, I definitely recommend this if you want something quite heavy to get your teeth into, it's extremely rewarding and the flow of the prose, as ever, is poetic.

fenwick lawson

A few months ago when I was at home, me and Babs (the mothership) visited Durham for the day, and I spotted this piece of public art in Durham's Millenium Square:



I took a picture of it on my phone because it was sufficiently maudlin and out of place to tickle my fancy. It's only today, when looking up Fenwick Lawson (who is responsible for one of my very favourite pieces of art, The Pieta in Durham Cathedral) that I realised it was him that did this piece as well, which is called The Journey. It's pretty obvious now, given that stylisticly and thematically it's quite similar, and also because he's a Durham local as well.

Look up the Pieta if you haven't seen it, there aren't many really good pictures of it online, but you get the idea. Aside from the tedious religious theme, the Pieta is the most emotive thing I've ever seen, it's so simple, but it oozes with sadness and, I'm in danger of spilling into hyperbole here, it's sublime and ethereal.

That's all.

MIF - Sinead O'Connor and Bjork

So I just need to gush about this weekend. I saw Sinead O'Connor and Bjork who were both performing as part of the Manchester International Festival. Babs (AKA the mothership, my idol, legend etc.) bought me the tickets for my birthday and it was one of the best weekends ever.

Sinead's set was perfect, I was worried it would be Theology heavy, which was her last album that I like, but never really bonded with, but it was so varied and spanned most of her albums, including some of my favourites from Universal Mother, (In this heart and Thank you for hearing me). The new stuff she did is pretty good, it sounds unquestionably Irish, but with reggae beats, so her covers album wasn't superficial and she's obviously heavily influence by the genre. She was quite timid when talking between songs initially, after singing 'No Man's Woman' she said "that's a bit rich really given that I've shagged so many men". I love how much she has embraced motherhood, she spoke about her kids a lot (and not in a sickening way) and she's wearing herself with pride as always, her voice is impeccable and her acapella version of I am stretched on your grave was gorgeous.

BJORK was mind-blowing. Definitely the best gig I've ever been to (before this, the best gig I'd ever been to was when she did the Hammersmith Apollo in 2007). It was such a complete piece of art, the visuals, the atmosphere, the choreography, and especially the fucking astounding music. For me, Biophilia seems like a really organic progression, given that all of her work previously, right back to Debut has been about the discords and harmonies between humans and nature, so this technology/natural world cocktail works beautifully for me. Judging by the new stuff (I think she probably did the whole new album), this will be her best work yet, the most immediately brilliant songs were (and I'm not sure these are the correct titles) Thunderbolt, Mutual Core and (I'm even less sure about this title) Cosmogony? (the one with the chorus about Heaven's bodies or heavenly bodies or something). Before the encore she did one just with those swinging pendulum things called Solstice, which was gorrrrgeous too. It's weird how instantly likeable all the new stuff was because normally I find it difficult to fully get into new stuff until I'm familiar with it. The highlights aside from those new songs were Where is the line, Mouth's Cradle, Sonnets/Unrealities XI (which brought a little tear to my eye) and OF COURSE Unravel, which really surprised me as I've seen her twice previously hoping to hear this as it's my favourite song in the world and she didn't do it, but this time it just crept out of nowhere in the middle of the set, it was heartbreaking, and yes, the tears did flow. I'm so impatient for the new album now, which I believe comes out in the autumn, for those of you who are going to one of the other dates she's doing: JEALOUS. It was life-changingly good.

Yours, a very overwhelmed Sean.

bird poo tears

Took pictures of the evacuee memorial in Liverpool Street Station yesterday, because I noticed that some bird shit had landed strategically on the girl at the front to look like a tear. Thought it was pretty poignant. And rank.





More about the memorial here.

beaaautiful things

Just been clearing out some old stuff from uni, and found a big pile of records I bought when I was in my first and second year (2004-2006ish). I went through a phase of buying them to stick on my wall, I don't have a record player so they're not a great deal of use to me beyond their aesthetics. Luckily, my favourites are all pretty beautiful.

When I first got into music (1994) Cyndi Lauper and Sinead O'Connor were the artists that excited me most, perhaps odd choices for an eight year old boy, but never mind. They still stand out as two of the best pop singers in the world for me, I've seen Cyndi Lauper live three times now, and get to see Sinead for the first time in July as part of the Manchester International Festival (also get to see Bjork for the third time the following day).













(detail)





I love the artwork for True Colors, particularly the back. The newspaper skirts is one of my favourite things she wore, nice little nod to her first album too in the bottom right hand corner.













She's so bloody beautiful:



I normally like quite abstract and concept-heavy album artwork, but I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got is one of my favourite album covers ever, and it's just her face:





Here's a bit of miscellaneous:







Also, me and the mother went to Durham today (mainly to get my glasses fixed, but alas specsavers was closed). We went to the Oxfam bookshop and she bought me this:



If it's anything as good as the Naked Civil Servant or Englishman in New York then I'm in for a treat.

fallen bride

There's something quite poetic about this picture. Quite a beautiful visual of sadness and broken-ness. The odd thing is that the article says that she tried to kill herself when her boyfriend ended things with her while they were "making plans" to marry- surely that must be inaccurate, as why would she be wearing the wedding dress if they were just at the planning stage, seems more like a "jilted at the alter" sort of affair.

I always thought the most bittersweet visual of a woman on the edge was Esther Greenwood in the Bell Jar wandering round her house with a noose around her neck trying to find somewhere to hang herself, but the image of a woman framed by the folds in her wedding dress as she dangles over a balcony might just have replaced that.

Political Spectrum...

I've just done this Political Spectrum Quiz, which is fairly interesting, once you get the results you can see the average, and also compare your views with other demographics.

Apparently the average is Left Libertarian, but only slightly.

You are a left moderate social libertarian.
Left: 4.85, Libertarian: 3.47

My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 4.85, Libertarian: 3.47



Foreign Policy:

On the left side are pacifists and anti-war activists. On the right side are those who want a strong military that intervenes around the world. You scored: -3.76

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -3.76



Culture:

Where are you in the culture war? On the liberal side, or the conservative side? This scale may apply more to the US than other countries. You scored: -6.7

My Culture War Stance
Score: -6.7



Try it yourselves!

for richer, for richer...

This might seem a bit irrelevant now, I wrote it ages ago, but never mind...



I resent the need to tick a ‘Mr’ box when filling in a form, I resent even more that women are bullied into ticking a box that denotes not only their gender identity but also indicates whether or not they are shackled in marriage. I resent that anyone should feel obligated to a title that only relates to them as an individual because society dictates that we should be shoehorned into vague and meaningless subcategories. The only titles that have my approval are those that are earned; Doctor, Professor, at a push Reverend (but don’t get me started on that...). That said it is probably unsurprising that the royal family is an institution I don’t hold in very high regard.

If a Tory government-induced class war and a sea of mass employment hasn’t done it, then April’s royal wedding certainly reminded us that we are living in the 1980s all over again, but this time we don’t have The Smiths to document our melancholy, and extreme make up and skinny jeans are so common place now that it is difficult for our rebellion to be a visual one.

With bland upper-class heteronormativity rammed down our parched throats, I can’t help but beg the question: were we really expected to care about this? I am stunned that even well rounded and forward thinking people seemed to be over-awed with blind jingoistic hyperbole over the importance of the wedding that stretched far beyond the desire for an extra day off work. I would happily have attended work that day and seen the royals flock out in market-stall civvies and concede that they are a superfluous institution that has no place in our beautiful, diverse and progressive country in 2011.

Some would argue that the royal family is an imperative part of our tourist trade, this I don’t doubt, but no one visits London to actually physically see the queen. If the royals all spontaneously evaporated the history would still remain. What’s more, Buckingham Palace could be opened as a public heritage site, which would become a tourist attraction of world wide importance. The queen could perhaps work in the gift shop, so that she could contribute more effectively to the country as a tax payer. As it stands, we perch on eager tip-toes in vain attempts to peer through a far distant and well-guarded window because a cocked flag informs us that an elderly woman who we’re told is of importance and worthy of our affections and attention is in residence.

The very same dangerous right-wing red-tops that, when taking a break from blaming immigrants, gays and New Labour for AIDs, climate change and cancer, berate our benefit system and those who abuse it, seem rendered gooey-eyed and overcome with syrupy sentimentality for the royals, a family that, essentially, do not work and are living off the state.

Their various charitable commitments are purely obligation, partly because they have little else to do with their time but also because they have to justify their existences somehow. Diana broke this mould by investing her heart as well as her face and time to worthy causes, including controversially challenging the taboos surrounding AIDs.

No one should be applauded or celebrated just because of who they are. You will not have seen me lining the roads waving my St. George’s flag like a raving nationalist, more likely was I at home screaming into a pillow at this bizarre royal fever that seems to be contagious. As it happens, I cranked Kate Bush up full volume and had a large scale spring clean of the flat and garden, I didn’t leave the house, I didn’t switch on the TV and I didn’t read a newspaper, I successfully avoided it.

As someone who works in Higher Education, fearing for the implications of the Tory cuts and barbaric fee increases whilst struggling to make ends meet, and as a proud member of the LGBTQ society for whom equal marriage rights with our heterosexual brothers and sisters are denied, was I genuinely supposed to feel enthused about this wedding? Am I expected as a British citizen to feel that a man born into gross and unearned privilege and a woman (who has patronisingly been referred to as ‘common’, which in this case simply means ‘not yet royalty’) tying the knot to induct her into an archaic, patriarchal and irrelevant institution at lavish and unjustified expense is cause for me to celebrate?

I will take a lot of convincing.

YES! to AV

Three reasons I'm voting YES to AV tomorrow:

1. Saying No is saying that we are happy with the unreflective outcome of the last election.
2. AV is not ideal, but we need it now in order to ever eventually progress to PR, which is ideal.
3. I'm so disenchanted by the 3 main parties that I would like my Green vote to mean something.

Clear and funny video about why AV is a better system than FPTP.

Brilliant Caroline Lucas article on Guardian website.

Interesting comment piece about Labour voters voting No.

DO THE RIGHT THING EVERYONE. It would seem that everyone agree that Proportional Representation is the best voting system, but if we don't make this measly compromise now, it's unlikely we will be offered a referendum to change the voting system again, this is the intervening step between a dreadful system and a fair system.