Björk - Vulnicura [Review]

Björk is a musician to whom I once paid little attention, but I am so glad that I gave her the chance that she rightfully deserved when I found myself attracted to the beauty of the Biophilia album cover and gave it a listen (sometimes, I guess that you can judge something by its cover). I immediately fell in love with the sheer beauty of songs like "Moon" and "Cosmogony" and came to love the energy of "Mutual Core." The rest of her discography didn't disappoint, either, as countless songs put me in a trance and practically took me to another world full of beautiful waterfalls and pastoral fields full of fairies and unicorns. Vulnicura is quite different than Biophilia in that it lacks the high-end production and variety of instruments and replaces it with more simplicity - mainly strings. Vulnicura is quite possibly the most personal project that Björk has ever delivered, as the entire album chronicles the breakup with her longtime partner (American artist Matthew Barney). The album title itself means "cure for wounds," and it tells the story of a woman with a broken heart who eventually heals. Every "you" on the album is replaceable with her partner, and the album, as it should, sounds raw and painfully tragic. Especially through the heart-wrenching lyrics, one can hear a person in real pain, and Björk has even choked up a few times in interviews when she begins to touch upon the subject matter.

"Stonemilker" is one of my favorites from the album, opening the album with beautiful but very morose strings that sound almost like they are weeping. Björk's first words on the album are "a juxtapositioning fate, find our mutual coordinate." It is clear that the song is set before the breakup, as  the lyrics suggest that even though she is fearful that it is not possible (hence the title of the song, as a stone cannot be milked), she longs for her and her lover to feel the same way about each other and be honest with each other, hence her demand, "Show me emotional respect." I just can't get over the strings on this song; the song is so tragically beautiful and is one of the most beautiful songs that Björk has ever released. The second track on the album is "Lionsong" (which features an interest music video that is in keeping with the cover art). The beginning of the song features Björk's vocals in multiple layers, reminding me very much of her 2004 album Medúlla, which is an album that features vocals at the forefront of the production, so much so that the album is nearly entirely a cappella. "Lionsong" reminds me of that production style, especially because of its introduction, and the song seems almost like the bargaining stage of the grieving process: "Maybe, he will come out of this loving me."

The third track is titled "History of Touches" and is one of the most emotional tracks on the record. The song opens with synths, making it sound almost like a ballad from the eighties. The lyrics are what makes the song one of the most emotional, such as "I wake you up in night feeling this is our last time together" and "every single fuck we had together is in a wondrous time lapse..." While most of the tracks on Vulnicura have rather long running times (with the longest coming in at 10:09), "History of Touches" is the shortest with a running time of only three minutes. The song is then followed by the longest track on the record, "Black Lake." "Black Lake" is probably the saddest song on the album, relying very heavily on mournfully wining strings and Björk's vulnerable and weeping vocals. Most of the song is very quiet, but it does pick up the noise a bit as it progresses and the strings get louder and more intense. The song is also joined by a light, almost tribal sounding beat. Standout lyrics on the song are Björk asking the painful question "Did I love you too much?" and also her assertive, almost angry statement that "family was always our sacred mutual mission, which you abandoned." These types of lyrics are brutally honest and are why I say that Vulnicura is quite possibly the barest that Björk has ever been as a musician.

"Family" is the fifth track on the album and is, in my opinion, one of the few tracks on the album that are a bit weaker. The track starts on a very dark, eerie string note quickly followed by bulleted beats and dissonant ambience that reminds me of the introduction to "Cosmogony" from Biophilia. The song is a good follow-up to "Black Lake" because it follows up on some of what "Black Lake" has to say about family. She points out that she needs to grieve because "there is the mother and the child; then, there is the father and the child but no man and a woman, no triangle of love." On this track, Björk is not just mourning the loss of her significant other but the death of her titular family. The sixth track is titled "Notget" and is one of the first tracks that caught my attention on the album, mainly because of its interesting circusy instrumental. Some of my favorite's lyrics from the album are in this song: "If I regret us, I'm denying my soul to grow. Don't remove my pain; it is my chance to heal." I love this song because of its production and its strong lyrics and melody. Björk creatively (because creative is what she does best) makes up the word notget to stand in for that which has happened to her. She states, "I will not forget this notget." In other words, because she is no longer loved, she no longer gets what she wants and needs out of life, something that she will carry with her for the rest of her life.

"Atom Dance" is where Vulnicura's story starts to turn towards healing. Beautifully plucked strings lead into swirling strings that, in combination, call for some sort of Pagan dance. Lyrics such as "Let this ugly wound breathe" and "Most hearts fear their own home" show a broken heart finally seeking to be healed. The song features guest vocals by Antony Hegarty, frontman of the band Antony and the Johnsons, who has collaborated with Björk twice in the past on her Volta album. The eighth track is "Mouth Mantra," a song that instrumentally sounds like a dark classical piece with a light modern beat. Lyrically, the song speaks of pain silencing you and taking away your voice but finally taking it back. I don't know for sure, but I wonder if the song hints at Björk feeling reluctant to document something so painful and personal on this record because I would imagine that in a lot of ways, her music is her voice. Vulnicura closes with "Quicksand," another shorter song in comparison to most of the album's songs. The song is one of the more energetic tracks on the record, more beat-driven than most of the other tracks. It doesn't, to me, sound like a proper conclusion to the album. When I get to the end of the song, my reaction tends to be somewhere along the lines of, "Where's the rest of the album?" However, the song does reference the earlier track "Black Lake" and also speaks of reaching the healing stage: "Hackle this darkness up to the light..." "When I'm broken, I am whole, and when I'm whole, I'm broken" is perhaps my favorite line from the song.

Vulnicura is, overall, one of Björk's best albums to date, mainly because of how real and emotionally raw that it is. If you are a Björk fan, then this is one that you might find yourself listening to on repeat. In my case, I find myself addicted to the album not only because of how good that it is objectively but also because its subject matter is quite close to my heart, and the album has really been a crutch for me on a personal level. It could quite possibly be considered a concept album because from start to finish, it tells a story, a very tragic but human story of what leads up to a broken heart and then the aftermath of it, the eventual healing process. The album's message makes it clear that as a person, Björk will never again be the same because of all that she has lost but that she has been able to and will continue to find ways of moving forward and living with her pain. Once a brokenhearted listener gets to the end of the album, one concept stands out above all else - hope. As Björk has said herself, "...hopefully the songs could be a crutch to others and prove how biological this process is: the wound and the healing of the wound. Psychologically and physically. It has a stubborn clock attached to it." She is absolutely right, and I know that for me personally, the album has proven a lot to me, and it has really helped me heal and evolve. Björk is a truly special musician to me.