Homogenic will always hold for me as the greatest thing Bjork’s ever done-especially when that bottled up industrial fury overtakes “Pluto”. However, in recent years (after she perfected the idea of ballads with beats on the slow-but-lovely Vespertine), she’s jumped shark and simply been, if not unlistenable, entirely inaccessible-which, for Bjork, is saying a lot.

(for the record, I LOVED The Dancer In The Dark stuff-even if one viewing of the film caused me to go into a shivering panic for several hours.)

The sole saving grace of Medulla was when Bogdan Raczinski, old-skool beatsmith (kids: ask your folks), released the original version of “Who Is It?”, allowing the wide-reaching, epic longing to be felt as it should be.

Bjork & Bogdan Raczinski: Who Is It? (shooting stars remix)

Yeah, you know what’s coming:

Well, with little introduction, no fanfare, no alarms, no surprise:

Volta, The new Bjork record is fucking great.

It comes as a pleasant surprise, a welcome frenzy, that the album’s lead-off single and first song “Earth Intruders” has Bjork and Timbaland creating a creepy woodland march with a not-so-veiled slag at America and war. Proof that Timbaland’s best when someone else is paying for the studio time, and the most refreshing thing to come from Bjork in nearly half a decade.

Bjork: Earth Intruders

The sociopolitical message grows to a near-euphoric smash-and-grab with “Declare Independence”, the sort of song that seemed improbable from Bjork but has always been in reach, given her long-time collaborator status with LFO’s Mark Bell, as a frenzy of skittering, proto-clubby punk sounds bend to Bjork’s vocal command. This is a fucking riot-a Bjork Teenage Riot. Fuck what you thought you knew about RavePunk:

Bjork: Declare Independence

Another early favorite for me on Volta is “Dull Flame Of Desire” the album’s first duet with Antony Hegarty (of Antony and The Johnsons fame, whose I Am A Bird Now album was a huge point of contention in the Res offices), whose beautiful, trembling voice treats Bjork’s fragile soundscape as though if touched it, and he, would shatter.

Bjork & Antony: Dull Flame Of Desire

All in all, Volta, at just a count-on-one-hand-with-fingers-left number of listens, isn’t going to swoop in and take the place of Homogenic, as songwriting-wise Bjork’s moved from the personal to the political. The sound fits her well, though, and Volta’s one of the most creatively awesome things 2007 hath wrought.

Bonus:

Bjork: Earth Intruders (Far and Away Remix)

Baring very, very little resemblance to the original until the epic end, this is proof that I haven’t “turned my back on the rave” (though Hacks and Trixie may argue otherwise), this shit is full-out hands-up big-room rocking. That will only mean something to you if you’ve ever made the decision on whether or not to go out based upon how much cash you had to spend on water.

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