Bjork - 'Greatest Hits' (One Little Indian)
5/5
By: Toby L
Her career has never been an easy ride. A female artist that continues to shapeshift and evolve record by record, it's fitting that her first retrospective, 'Greatest Hits', isn't an entirely conventional affair; whereas other acts would have immediately leapt to feature the inclusion of all major-hits, Bjork handed over the duty of track-selection to her adoring fans, resulting in fifteen quintessential singles - and, alas, the absence of such monster-smashes as 'It's Oh So Quiet' or 'Violently Happy'.
Yet, such matter is arguably less significant in the long-run than what has been pieced together in this apt collection. From the downbeat, electronica-tinged openers 'All Is Full Of Love' and 'Hyperballad' - the latter morphing into the essential precursor to Radiohead's 'Idioteque', only with strings - any preconceptions that this is solely a low-key venture are soon dispelled, the thundering percussion of 'Human Behaviour' as immediately infectious and commanding as it was nigh-on a decade ago.
'Joga', meanwhile, is just almost too beautiful, the 'state of emergency' that our Icelandic princess wishes to reside in possibly amidst the dextrous layers of chilling violins and processed rhythms and beat-loops accompanying such sentiments, the following piano-tremble and haunting mid-sections of 'Bachelorette' proving that Bjork does contemptuous eeriness with the best of 'em.
But if all this isn't impressive enough to prompt thy to bow down to her extreme artistic supremacy, then the fluid groove of 'Army Of Me', minimalist handprint balladry of 'Vespertine's 'Pagan Poetry' and 'Hidden Place', and compelling early-career highlights such as 'Big Time Sensuality' and Dave Arnold-dueted 'Play Dead' shan't fail to compel even the most close-minded of listeners.
As timelessly original and intensely emotional as they come, where Bjork may not have veered down paths commonly trodden by the mainstream pop-junkies, she had broken her own, distinctive mould on a sound that could never be replicated. Earth-tremblingly unique, absorb the talent of the world's indisputably finest solo-star of today.
Artists in this article: Bjork
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