Björk - Vulnicura | Album Review

Twenty five years into her career as a solo artist and Björk is still impossible to ignore.  There are a lot of factors as to why anytime Björk announces a new project it instantly becomes highly anticipated. Her trademark intrepid fashion sense and amazing artistry are aspects on that list but ultimately it comes down to – her timeless music.

Björk has always been an artist that has worn her heart on her sleeve and this openness with her emotions has never been more evident than on her ninth studio album Vulnicura. Take the album cover for example; her wretched and wounded heart is on display for the world. This is a heartbreak album – and it takes some guts listening to.

“As much as I wanted to write a disco song,I just couldn’t” the Icelandic innovator explains during an interview with 6 Music. Vulnicura feels and sounds like a therapeutic response to Björk’s breakup with long time partner Matthew Barney. Although, on the closing track ‘Quicksand’ there’s a sense of closure when she sings “when I'm broken I am whole, and when I'm whole I'm broken”.  It took a lot of strength and equally, vulnerability to get to that stage.

Vulnicura’s centrepiece, the ten minute long ‘Black Lake’ is a sincere expression of the pain her break up. London-based producer Arca, who co-produced the whole album captures the sheer sorrow of the singer with an unsullied string arrangement that later explodes into a techno throb. The two sounds are too diverse to merge with each other but somehow work synchronously with Björk’s undeniable upset as she declares that her “soul has been torn apart” and asks the dreaded question “Did I love you too much?”.

Throughout the album there is a reoccurring theme of family and family values between parents and child. On the song ‘Family’ between Arca’s production and Björk’s raw emotion, it can become quite overwhelming. The devastating stagger of the beat behind her cries for her child erupts to an interlude of a paroxysmal play of cellos. Before departing into a euphonious plead with Björk pleading “god save our daughter/god save our daughter”.

Björk’s 2001 album Vespertine mirrors Vulnicura in a parallel manner. Vespertine marks the start of her relationship with Matthew Barney and covers the intimate, nurturing love element. While Vulnicura is just as personal, it is more universal and frank. On History of Touches, the album’s most intimate song, the blooming passion that she once sang about on Vespertine’s Cocoon has been reduced to “Every single fuck we had together”.

Post break up albums have become common within music today, so it is understandable why anyone might be a little sceptical upon listening to Vulnicura, her first self-penned ‘break up album’.  But the album offers much more substance than the likes of Taylor Swift singing “We, are never ever ever, getting back together”. Like all her previous work Björk manages to convey her feelings through the power of her lyrical content.

The opening lines in the theatrical Mouth Mantra, unsettlingly communicate the struggle Björk faced whilst coming to terms with the breakdown of a decade long relationship. “My throat was stuck/my mouth was sewn up/Banned from making noise/ I was not heard”. Before roaring she has ‘followed a path/ that took sacrifices’ and it seems those sacrifices have paid off.  

Vulnicura appears to be two words joined up to make one – ‘vulni’ meaning vulnerable and ‘cura’ as in curative. Which makes sense because after experiencing Vulnicura it is undeniable that Björk is a strong woman, but just as human as we all are.

Recommend Tracks: Lionsong, Black Lake, Notget, History of Touches

Rating: 8/10