songbender part #49 – Björk – The Modern Things
Well hello there ladies and gentlemen, as the Spiffing Brit used to say. Today we’re looking at a song that came up this morning during my usual commute, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole day.
Now, I realize that many for many people, Björk is this weirdo who’s so “allllterrrrnative” that it’s way over the top and OMG it’s just too much and all those costumes and makeup and all those “scandals” (pff) and eeeverything, and there hasn’t been anything in the last 10+ years or so, so why bring this up now?
Well, for one: In my expert opinion, which is 2 tiers above YOUR expert opinion, because, youknow, i have the opinions, I always had them, I have the best opinions, always had them, people keep coming up to me, saying Sir, you have the best opinions, we’re so grateful for them, they are the opinions our country needs, so with THAT expert opinion: the first 2 Björk records (meaning Debut (’92) and Post (’95)) are just insanely brilliant. Looking back at these times, the early and mid 90’s, I think it generally can be said that there was a constant shift throughout the 90’s, no wonder heavy metal ran out of breath and grunge came vomiting on its corpse, and in electronics: the over-the-top synth-heavy 80’s became boring and whatever extremes were there at the time (and there were PLENTY, oh dear me), they felt “old” and the new techno-stuff that was making its way into pop music was far on the other side, it being too light-hearted and was mixing itself more and more with hiphop, so there was really a “need” (for lack of a better word) for those with actual taste and insight to look for new ways and reform the sound in a way that kept the technology intact (if you know what i mean).
So this is the same time period when the Bri’ish underground electro stuff started to churn out masterpieces for the world, the big 4 of Bri’ish electronic music of the 90’s were dropping albums like there was no tomorrow (in case you’re wondering, they are Underworld, Orbital, Prodigy and Leftfield) -> and if you disagree, that’s fine, please refer to the expert opinion declaration above, you’re defeated and clearly wrong, sorry for your loss, better luck next time my good chap! 😉
Well no wonder that drum n’ bass started to become so relevant, and all those noise-based extreme techno stuff also emerged (like Aphex Twin, or Squarepusher). People were OK with the pop stuff, but there was clearly room for something that is deeper, something that fuses things together, something that is worth to experiment on.
And now we get to the Debut album, which was absolutely fine, though there are some business decisions on it clearly – there’s this weird girl from Iceland with a noticeable accent but a fantastic voice and her weirdness perfectly fits the nature of the “let’s do something completely crazy and then make a pop song out of it but not THAT poppy” kinda thing that i’m trying to explain here. Get it?
Now, Post was again a different story. After the success of the first one, the second one was even better, and though media at the time (by which i mean MTV as there was basically nothing else, only MTV and radio) invested heavily into it and made her a superstar for a few years, the artistic value of this all is still there to this day, and you need to be able to recognize this if you really want to capture it.
If you are actually interested in this and what was behind it all, and have 29 minutes to spare, I strongly suggest to check this fantastic video out by Trash Theory, I don’t know who these people are but they have made so many of my evenings, these are things I could kill for, absolutely wonderful and insightful stuff that is priceless.
I actually had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do this song here right now, or the other absolute favorite from the album, >>>>Isobel, if you check that one out, you may spot the same points i’m trying so desperately to make here, so I encourage you to do so.
So it’s like this is from 30 years ago, and by today’s standards it can really feel like this is funny, but in a bad way, like it’s trying to be SOOO DEEEP YAKNOW, like it’s a 13 year old’s super amazing theory-of-life and absolute life-altering idea because they got a hit from a joint at last week’s birthday party at their friend’s. But the reason I wrote all this shit is that THESE TIMES were ACTUALLY like this! There were no 14 year old bedroom singers around with their rich daddy paying companies to advertise their cow daughter’s shitty music, it was a completely different playing field, and I still think it is just a coincidence that this particular one is valuable (there are many many examples which prove the contrary).
The whole thing just feels, innocent, you know? Like there is no bad will behind this all, there is no industry with people and their Audi-s waiting for you to earn them $$$$$ and just be part of a machine. This feels like somebody actually wrote these songs, and these are quite weird things to say about an electronic album (this is shit you hear from all those Radiohead people, brrh).
I’m just amazed by the simplicity of this all. The lyrics, which are like a free verse or poem or whatever the F it’s called – but there are parts which are in her native Icelandic, which we will never know what they mean. (This actually infuriates me but that doesn’t matter now).
All the modern things
Like cars and such
Have always existed
They’ve just been waiting
in a mountain
For the right moment
Listening to the
irritating noises
Of dinosaurs
and people
Dabbling outside
All the modern things
Have always existed
They’ve just been waiting
To come out
And multiply
And take over
It’s their turn now…”
There is also a brazilian meme about this exact song, as one of the Icelandic parts resembles a sentence in Brazilian Portuguese, which would mean “smell this”, it’s apparently at 2:26 and goes VEM CHEIRAR ESSE LOLÓ and this apparently is a thing – I just learned this 10 minutes ago. The world is a weird place.
The song was composed by Graham Massey, who also wrote Army of Me, which was a big hit from this album, and the production on both are just flawless, I mean, this is just EXACTLY the kind of stuff that at the time (I was 16 in 95 i think) my father would never understand, and that would make it immediately more appealing. But on my own behalf, this fusion between the bassline, the minimalistic synths, the jazz-drums, and that voice – you realize doing this is not exactly easy, right? – it is just absolutely brilliant. Oh, and I just realized he was the founder of 808 State? Well, no more questions, your Honor.
One thing I just HAVE to mention is the mixing of this whole album (and the others too, for that matter). The fact that they leave the hard breathing sounds in these songs, was just something that was not done by ANYONE, or at least not on this level. But it adds just so much, again, to me this brings this down to Earth, this is someone who breathes (well no wonder huh), and it’s not cut out in the studio (as it usually is), but used as an artistic element.
And the same goes for the mentioned Isobel, the beautiful (most probably synth-based) orchestral chorus part is most likely the reason I always try to do the same things in my songs, they just feel so majestic if done right, they put the whole feeling on another level. It’s hard as F to achieve it, but if you do, you’re done.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of ours today, and I will welcome you back for number FIFFFFFTY, whenever that happens, I will need to look for a special song for that one.
The Japanese God Bless You All and Make Our Years The 90’s AGAIN