Speaking of Dirty Projectors…

They did a show with Bjork in New York some time ago. This is my favorite song that came from that collaboration.

Bjork, Classic & Fiery

“I don’t know my future/after this weekend/and I don’t want to”

I first started paying attention to Bjork when I was 13 years old, I was about to be a freshman and I remember going down to the (now defunct) Penny Lane on Main Street in Alhambra, and buying her Greatest Hits CD. I had always seen her videos on MTV–Human Behavior, Army of Me, It’s Oh So Quiet–and I admired her from afar, but then I actually sat down and listened. Very quickly, after having the CD on repeat for several months, I started digging deep and found some of her earlier work. I saw the development and maturation from Debut to Post to Homogenic, from an explosion of youth in The Sugarcubes–my favorite song is Regina!!–to the orchestrated and even indulgent works of Vespertine and Medulla. It’s not that she tamed the wildness of her past, it now seems more directed, more controlled, but still as ferocious.

I particularly loved Medulla, because it was my first “new Bjork experience”, meaning, I had discovered it along with the rest of the world. Kind of like when you’re watching a TV show well into it’s 4th season, and you’re catching up with the past seasons on DVD. When the 5th season finally starts, you’re on a level playing ground with everybody else–the only thing is, you don’t get that sense of appreciation, that your patience has been rewarded, because it’s still all so fresh and new to you. Also, the private experience you had, of discovering this great artist after (seemingly) everybody else already has, is gone. It’s a mixed bag.

Anyhoo, right off the bat, the first song to strike me was “Human Behaviour”. I imagine it’s an alien’s second anthropological voyage to Earth, trying to warn or inform other aliens of the lack of “logic to human behavior”. But, it’s a warning, because “to get involved in the exchange of human emotion is ever so, ever so satisfying”. It’s my introduction to Bjork, and one of my favorite features of her music are the incoherent lyrics she sings–that may or may not be Icelandic. Whatever it is, it keeps you from fully understanding her, but it probably makes it even more appealing.

“Big Time Sensuality” is a big flower that is about to, is already in the process of blooming. Plain and simple. For me, this song came at the right time. It’s a promise of something so big and exciting, it’s scary, but it takes courage! It’s your first love. It’s your future. It’s budding sexuality. It’s the big time. Whatever it is, Bjork captures it in the big time sensuality of New York City, in her debut, her music video from Debut, with her barely-contained enthusiasm. It actually looks kind of funny, how unguarded she is, but it’s the same way you feel, when you can’t control such big feelings inside of you.

 

mp3: Bjork, “Human Behaviour“
mp3: Bjork, “Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Minimix)”