Product Details

* Audio CD (August 28, 2001)
* Original Release Date: 2001
* Number of Discs: 1
* Label: Elektra / Wea
* ASIN: B00005NG4X
* In-Print Editions: DVD Audio
* Average Customer Review: based on 377 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,662 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #1,272 in Music

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1. Hidden Place Listen Listen
2. Cocoon Listen Listen
3. It's Not Up To You Listen Listen
4. Undo Listen Listen
5. Pagan Poetry Listen Listen
6. Frosti Listen Listen
7. Aurora Listen Listen
8. An Echo A Stain Listen Listen
9. Sun In My Mouth Listen Listen
10. Heirloom Listen Listen
11. Harm Of Will Listen Listen
12. Unison Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Ever since Björk's vital, effusive 1993 debut, her music has been increasingly intimate, gently private, and concerned with seclusion. It's typical then that Vespertine's first single is called "Hidden Place." The studious solitude is rewarding, though. Vespertine is a lush, gorgeous swell of midpace electronica, symphonic strings, and Björk's uniquely alien, spectral vocals. There are fantastical wonders here. "Cocoon" (another eulogy to withdrawal from the world) is delicate as a breath, Björk sounding too fragile to be flesh as she lauds "a beauty this immense." "Pagan Poetry" and "Aurora," likewise, are adrift in an enchanted reverie. When she chooses, she crafts killer tunes; "It's Not up to You" is as lovely as anything on Post. Yet, frequently, on such tracks as the yearning, glancing "Undo," Björk seems to be simply thinking aloud, reveling in this wildly rich and visceral music. She's reclaimed cutting-edge electronica, so often the province of geeks and technicians, for the poets and the passionate. Vespertine is a landmark, a revelation, and a truly fabulous achievement. --Ian Gittins
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36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
Wake up to the sound of Iceland. Wake up: It's BJork's time, August 28, 2001
Reviewer: MANUEL J HERNANDEZ "http://askmanny.com" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
It's always been challenging to classify the work of Icelandic super-star BJork, as she's always come up with something that escapes any previously conceived category tags: if you think of her as a techno artist, maybe you're right for a few songs; but then she morphs altogether, and comes back reborn playing songs such as 'It's oh, so quiet' or 'All neon like.' At that point you stop trying to find a tag for her music, and just take it at face value: as one of the greatest samples of music (and even visual) art that can be found these days.

With "Vespertine," her newest album, the former lead voice of The Sugarcubes, Bjork takes her music to a new level. With five very successful, and progressively more experimental -yet more mature- albums under her belt, and an immersion into the acting terrain with her outstanding performance in 2000 as Selma, in Lars Von Trier's film "Dancer In The Dark" (the film for which her own album "Selmasongs" served as soundtrack), she comes back with a production that is far more peaceful, adult and introspective than her any of her past work.

This time the seat of producer has been taken by long-time BJork collaborator (with Keyboards and Programming) Marius DeVries, and a most eclectic selection of artists have been summoned by BJork making of this album a larger-than-life experience: California based electronica duo Matmos, jazz composer/arranger Vince Mendoza (same from 'Dancer In the Dark'), and harp virtuosa Zeena Parkins, just to name a few. It's very much like those albums from the seventies, such as the first solo efforts of Peter Gabriel, where the lead artist counted on the talents of several session musicians, but still retained the true essence of the creative genius.

Heavenly choirs like the voices of children or mermaids ('Hidden Places,' 'An echo and a stain,' 'Unison'), whispering lyrics (closing section of 'Pagan Poetry'), the sound of harps and strings, and an instrumental track ('Frost') serve as the musical framework to a set of very mature lyrics, to complete the musical spell of "Vespertine."

The entire album is a musical masterpiece, worth listening a thousand times, but my favorite tracks by far are: 'It's not up to you' (an instant hit), 'Pagan Poetry' (reminded me a lot of "Joga", from Homogenic), the groovy 'Heirloom' ("I have a recurrent dream, every time I lose my voice I swallow little glowing lights my mother and son baked for me..."), and the two closing tracks, 'Harm of Will' (with lyrics written by independent film director Harmony Korine) and 'Unison' -two of the most beautiful BJork songs I have ever heard.