music · Grey Nicholson

On “on Volta”

2007-05-09T04:37:00+00:00

I've written some words about Volta, Björk's new album, on my Last.fm journal. A good number of them are quite orthogonal to what might be considered sensible. Yes, I'm aware that my interpretation of the album's narrative is entirely unique.

For posterity, here are those words — since deleted from Last.fm — courtesy of archive.org.

on Volta

8 May 2007, 1:37am

I bought Volta today, what with it being released today and everything. And here was me, like a fool, expecting an album of songs like Earth Intruders. I should know better.

By the way, this isn't a coherent review—just some thoughts. (The Friday Fetch-it will be back soon.)

Volta's sleeve is pretty elaborate (the limited edition, anyway)—the CD and DVD live in the middle of a five-layer Russian-doll–style nest, and the front artwork lives on a sticker that holds together the two halves of the gatefold.

Declare Independence is a blatant contender for a future single. The nearest comparisons to other Björk songs are Army of Me, Pluto and (especially) the Alec Empire mixes of Jóga; but it also sounds kind of like Let Me See Your Eyes, Dance This Mess Around and the start of Banquet (Phones' Disco Edit). (If you download one track off this album...)

I See Who You Are and Hope sound like Colleen—that'll be the plucked strings then. To call The Dull Flame Of Desire “epic” would be lazy but fitting; it has good drumming.

A couple of the tracks sample brass from Drawing Restraint 9 and dramatic or lamentative brass is present throughout much of the album. Volta sounds like it takes place partly aboard a very slowly sinking steam ship, partly in a zen garden and partly inside a drum. And occasionally in Björk's head,

more on Volta

added 8 May, 11:28pm

Actually I think Declare Independence is much closer to Enjoy than to Army of Me. It's kind of like the bastard child of Pluto and Enjoy only with more noise, 10%-Dalek vocals and four times as loud.

The songs on Volta each share a lot of elements with various earlier Björk songs, both sonically and thematically; I won't try to show off by listing every connection I can think of 'cos you'd probably spot them anyway.

(Warning: the following paragraphs were invented inside my head and make absolutely no sense whatsoever; any similarity to any album by Björk is entirely coincidental)

Our story begins—inside a drum in the middle of Africa—with Earth Intruders. Timbaland's there and everything's generally a bit mental: Space Invaders™, subtly renamed to avoid legal difficulties, are trying to take over the... drum. Fortuitously, and quite inexplicably, a steam ship arrives and makes a lot of noise for one minute and thirty-one seconds.

The ship is the venue for most of the album. In Wanderlust, Björk sets sail aboard the S.S. Drawing Restraint 9, leaving Timbaland behind. She meets Antony Matthew Barney Hegarty, the ship's captain, and Björk and Antony perform The Dull Flame Of Desire from deep within the bowels of the ship's hull (because Antony didn't know all of the words to Unison).

Innocence is a flashback to Björk's time with Timbaland... in the drum... when Björk discovered another side to herself (place your bets now on what this is going to end up being) and slowly comes to terms with it.

I See Who You Are, in which Björk admires Antony's body (gender notwithstanding) and decides it's pretty tasty-looking (bear with me on this), takes place in a zen garden inside Björk's head (which is still inside the ship, on top of the rest of her).

Vertebræ By Vertebræ is set back on S.S. DR9—it turns out Björk is a werewolf (or possibly a werewhale).

During Pneumonia, the now-werewolfily-schizophrenic Björk watches herself ravage everyone on the ship (including Antony), despite her own protestations.

Hope cuts back to the zen garden in Björk's head, in which she ponders the ethical ramifications of her werewolfy alter ego's rampage.

Declare Independence takes place inside the ship's engine as it crashes into the ocean floor (Björk ate the pilot, remember?). In her last moments, Björk considers the plight of Timbaland and all those other people who live in the... drum... at the hands of the Space Invaders™.

My Juvenile is set once again in the zen garden in Björk's head / the afterlife, where Antony (as ‹the conscience›) forgives her. 'Cos, y'know, he's a nice guy like that.

It's kind of like the film Titanic, only with a werewolf instead of an iceberg, Antony and Björk instead of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and no string quartet. And Kate rips Leo to bits with her teeth.

I'll be brand new, brand new tomorrow; a little bit tired, but brand new

2006-12-31T14:32:00+00:00

If I wanted to spend the new year being reclusive, I'd start playing Homogenic at 23:21:01, so that Pluto ends at midnight.

TFI Firday

2006-04-15T02:53:00+00:00

Tonight I began a music recommendation blog over on Last.fm, cunningly entitled “the Friday Fetch-it”. In the process I discovered that my hands think yesterday was “Firday”.

I also came up with the perfect slogan for Last.fm - “Stay tuned”. It works on multiple levels, as do all the best slogans, providing you define being “tuned” as the state of having tunes... which you should.

Originally, I was planning to make a weekly post to The Twaddle Forums, primarily as a way to liven the place up a bit, but then decided to turn it into a full-blown blog. I briefly considered using Blogger until I realised that Last.fm's music journal is designed for exactly this.

So, every Friday evening from now on, I'll be writing stuff on my Last.fm journal.

Since then, the Friday Fetch-it has moved to Blogger and Roundtable has moved to Thursdays; I still do a Roundtable round-up on my Last.fm journal each week.

Since then, the Friday Fetch-it has moved into this site.

The Weirdest Part

2006-03-31T19:07:00+00:00

When I heard that Coldplay would be releasing The Hardest Part as their next single, I thought they'd decided they didn't want a pop career any more — there are far better, single-material songs on X&Y than The Hardest Part, principally White Shadows. (Since the artwork for Talk turned out to be white I'm assuming that White Shadows isn't planned as a single.)

I've softened my opinion on The Hardest Part since then - it's a pleasant, reasonably catchy song, albeit just a strum-along. But then just now I saw the video, via the 6 Music playlist. Coldplay really don't want to be troubling our airwaves.

It's just... wrong. And weird. And wrong. And they'll be hearing about it for the next ever. 'Cos it's not a good idea at all.

On the plus side, they haven't edited the song, but that's about it. Four-and-a-half minutes of a still picture of Johnny Cash would've been better and more suited. And would've killed their career less.

Stuart Maconie is going to get shot

2005-09-03T23:52:00+00:00

Today's Critical List was a special comprising just those albums nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize. ...which, incidentally, is being awarded this Tuesday night and will be on BBC Four and Radio 1 at 21:00 and 6 Music at 24:00.

The favourites are, not surprisingly, the Kaiser Chiefs - their “faux-indie” style (pop in the style of popular, but still not mainstream, contemporary music) is very comparable to last year's winners, Franz Ferdinand (whose stated aim was to make the girls dance).

Also on the programme was Move On Now, from Hard-Fi's album Stars of CCTV, the style of which is vastly removed from that of their four singles to date. This song is a soft piano ballad, essentially down-tempo lounge music.

Of course, the clear winner ought to be Maxïmo Park's album A Certain Trigger. Stuart Maconie introduced The Coast Is Always Changing with this:

Here's another, this time from Wearside.

My immediate response to this was “Oh, he is going to get shot!”.

Wearside, of course, refers to Sunderland, through which the River Wear flows. Unfortunately, Maxïmo Park are from Newcastle upon Tyne.

As any map of Tyne and Wear shows, Newcastle is about 20 km west-north-west of Sunderland. And, of course, the Geordies aren't very fond of the Mackems.

After the song Stuart carried on, saying that Maxïmo Park are one of two indie acts from Sunderland this year, the other being the Futureheads (who are actually from Sunderland). I don't think he should visit any music venues in Newcastle any time soon. Or ever.

For historical reference, the eventual winner was Antony and the Johnsons, who were pretty much the favourites by the time of the announcement.

Indie Pop Rocks!

2004-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

(Thanks to DxF,) I've just discovered SomaFM and I can confirm that indie pop does indeed rock.