Homogenic
Homogenic is the third studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 22 September 1997 by One Little Independent Records. Produced by Björk, Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs, the album marked a stylistic change, focusing on similar-sounding music combining electronic beats and string instruments with songs in tribute to her native country Iceland.
Homogenic was originally to be produced in her home in London, but was halted due to media attention from Björk surviving a murder attempt by a stalker. She later relocated to Spain to record the album. It marked the first of several production collaborations between Björk and Bell, whom she would cite as a major influence on her musical career.
Upon its release, Homogenic received widespread critical acclaim. It topped the Icelandic albums chart, peaking at number 28 on the US Billboard 200 and number 4 on the UK Albums Chart. The album produced five singles—"Jóga", "Bachelorette", "Hunter", "Alarm Call", and "All Is Full of Love"—and was further promoted with the Homogenic tour. Retrospectively, Homogenic has continued receiving critical acclaim, being listed among the best albums of all time by numerous critics.
Recording and production
After an extensive tour in support of her 1995 album Post, Björk returned to her home in Maida Vale with an urgent need to write new songs as a form of therapy. Björk would let audio engineer Markus Dravs into her home studio to start creating new songs. The sessions with Dravs and Björk were casual, with Björk allowing Dravs freedom with the album. Björk only left the studio to cook meals for the both of them. One of the first songs created during the sessions was "5 Years" which Dravs created the fast beat for. The progress of Homogenic in these sessions was halted due to a media sensation caused by the suicide of Björk's stalker Ricardo López. To deal with the stress of being at home during this incident, Björk imagined herself as the protagonist in a Spanish soap opera. The character's image inspired a song titled "So Broken" which she sang to herself in her kitchen. The song was later included on the Japanese release of the album.To record in privacy away from the sudden unwanted media interest, Björk's tour drummer Trevor Morais offered his studio in Spain. Björk went to Málaga and arranged to meet with flamenco guitarist Raimundo Amador. Björk had originally intended to stay in Málaga only briefly, but later decided to record the entirety of Homogenic there. Björk made a final trip out of the country before staying in Spain. As she had done since moving to London, Björk returned to Iceland for Christmas. While there, she wrote more new songs for Homogenic, including "Jóga". Before returning to Spain to record, Björk was sidetracked by a two-week worldwide press tour for the promotion of her remix album Telegram, which had just been released. After returning to the studio in Spain in late January, Björk decided to end work with producer Nellee Hooper, who had produced both Debut and Post, as she felt they had "stopped surprising each other". Björk had intended to produce the album alone, but sought collaborators including Dravs, Howie B, Guy Sigsworth and LFO's Mark Bell. Howie B had worked with Björk on Debut and Post and Sigsworth had played harpsichord on Post. The American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan almost contributed to the production of Homogenic, but were unable due to their production on the album Wu-Tang Forever, which had taken longer than planned. Most of the melodies on the album were created by Björk, who then composed string sections on a Casio keyboard and brought them to programmers who would add rhythmic patterns. Björk had wanted to have Mark Bell contribute to her albums Debut and Post; Bell was credited for the majority of the album's production, including the songs "Pluto", "Alarm Call", and the bassline in "Jóga". Björk stated that she "trusts and respects what does for me. If I were to say who has influenced me most it would be Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Mark Bell". Other unorthodox methods of recording were used during the production, including Björk wanting to record outside on the porch and using non-professionals to help with production, such as Rebecca Storey, who was hired as a babysitter but added to the production staff after showing interest in the equipment.
String arrangements were added late in the recording process. Björk had friend Eumir Deodato conduct, transcribe and compose original pieces for the few songs that Björk did not arrange for herself. To keep with the Icelandic theme of the album, Björk ordered the services of the Icelandic String Octet. By June 1997, the album was behind schedule and Björk was uncertain of the final track listing and unhappy with some of the recorded vocals.
Music and lyrics
Homogenic is an electronica, trip hop, art pop, and experimental album. Additionally, it contains elements of IDM and techno. Before production began on Homogenic, Björk wanted to create an album with "a simple sound" and "only one flavour". Heather Phares of AllMusic described the sound of Homogenic as a "fusion of chilly strings, stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches like accordion and glass harmonica". The album differs from her previous two releases stylistically, and Neva Chonin of Rolling Stone stated the album was "certain to be rough going for fans looking for the sweet melodies and peppy dance collages of her earlier releases". As with other Björk releases, it has been difficult for critics to classify Homogenic within a musical genre. Tiny Mix Tapes considered that "Björk has managed to create something so refreshingly unique that trying to categorize and label the music is rather dubious." Writing for Beats Per Minute, Cole Zercoe felt Homogenic represented a pinnacle work of trip hop, forming part of "a sort of holy trinity of this musical aesthetic" along with Massive Attack's Mezzanine and Portishead's Dummy.Björk wanted Homogenic to have a conceptual focus on her native Iceland. Producer Markus Dravs recalled Björk wanting it to sound like "rough volcanoes with soft moss growing all over it..." In an interview for Oor, Björk explained that "in Iceland, everything revolves around nature, 24 hours a day. Earthquakes, snowstorms, rain, ice, volcanic eruptions, geysers... Very elementary and uncontrollable. But at the other hand, Iceland is incredibly modern; everything is hi-tech. The number of people owning a computer is as high as nowhere else in the world. That contradiction is also on Homogenic. The electronic beats are the rhythm, the heartbeat. The violins create the old-fashioned atmosphere, the colouring."
Björk's vocals on Homogenic range from primitive-sounding screams to a traditional singing method used by Icelandic choir men, a combination of speaking and singing as illustrated in the song "Unravel". The majority of songs on Homogenic have lyrics about love and failed relationships. The song "Jóga" was written as a tribute to her best friend and tour masseuse of the same name. Björk called "All is Full of Love" a song about "believing in love" and that "Love isn't just about two persons. It's everywhere around you". "All Neon Like" contains snippets of a poem Björk wrote called "Techno Prayer" in 1996. The song "5 Years" appeared in live form a few weeks after her breakup with musician Tricky and music journalists considered it a response to it. "Bachelorette" was originally written for director Bernardo Bertolucci for his film Stealing Beauty. Björk later faxed Bertolucci, informing him the song would be used for her album instead. "Bachelorette" and "Jóga" were written with Icelandic poet Sjón, because Björk wanted to use epic lyrics. "Immature" was written about mistakes in past relationships, shortly after the breakup with Goldie. Björk described "Pluto" as about "being plastered, that need to destroy everything so you can start again". "Unravel" is a song about lamenting love, with brief flashes of hope.
Title and artwork
The album's production began with the working title of Homogeneous, but Björk changed it to Homogenic shortly afterwards. Björk wanted to create an album with "a simple sound" and "only one flavour", hence the title. The title has also been speculated to be suggesting the concept of home, which Björk had said to be incorporating into Homogenic in an interview with Jam!:The themes of Homogenic are reflected in the album cover designed by Alexander McQueen. According to McQueen biographer Andrew Wilson, Björk approached McQueen after seeing the futuristic image of model Devon Aoki in the February 1997 edition of Visionaire. Dressed by McQueen and photographed by Nick Knight, who shot the Homogenic cover as well, Aoki wears a pink funnel-necked dress with her skin cast in a blueish metallic hue, one eyeball blankly white, a large safety pin closing a slash through her forehead, and her hair pulled into tight buns as she challenges the camera with a direct gaze.
Björk explained her vision for the Homogenic cover, which carries a resemblance to "someone who is put into an impossible situation, so impossible that she has to become a warrior. A warrior who has to fight not with weapons, but with love. I had 10 kilos of hair on my head, and special contact lenses and a manicure that prevented me from eating with my fingers, and gaffer tape around my waist and high clogs so I couldn't walk easily."
Release and promotion
The album was released later than One Little Independent Records had intended. Björk was behind schedule and the album's cover design by Nick Knight needed a reshoot. Towards the end of August 1997, One Little Independent delayed the album by a month. Homogenic was released on 22 September 1997 on One Little Independent in the United Kingdom and on 23 September Elektra Records in North America on compact disc and cassette. The album was later issued on vinyl and DualDisc formats. The Japanese version of Homogenic included several bonus tracks and remixed versions of songs. The DualDisc release featured the full album on the CD side and the DVD side included the album with superior sound quality and the music videos for the singles.Promotion of Homogenic started on 8 June 1997, when Björk performed several songs from the album at the Tibetan Freedom Concert held at Downing Stadium in New York City. The album was launched on 15 July at the Old Truman Brewery in London. In the United Kingdom, Björk performed the lead single "Jóga" on TFI Friday on 19 September, and Top of the Pops on 3 October. She performed the second single "Bachelorette" on the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live on 18 October, at the 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, on Later... with Jools Holland with "Jóga" and "Hunter" on 29 November, and again in the United States on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 22 May 1998. In France, Björk performed "Bachelorette" with "Jóga" on Nulle Part Ailleurs on 11 February, and with "Hunter" on Hit Machine on 20 June. She performed the fourth single "Alarm Call" on CD:UK on 5 December.
When the release of Homogenic was delayed by a month, its tour began with the audience not being familiar with the album's songs since it had not been released yet. The tour started at the beginning of September with a backing band that consisted only of Mark Bell and made stops in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, and England. These shows were brief live shows lasting about half an hour consisting of only new material. Another tour took place in late October and lasted less than four weeks. Stops on this tour included Italy, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, Germany, Ireland, and Denmark. In late November, Björk was diagnosed with a kidney infection and while she was still healthy she was advised to take a three-week rest and was forced to cancel her American tour. In 1998, a North American tour with Radiohead was announced but canceled later due to difficulty of changing the stage between performances of the acts. Björk had another tour in the middle of 1998 through Europe, and outside of the continent through other countries, including Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Opening acts for portions of the tour included electronic musician μ-Ziq.