Homogenic

Homogenic —in Spanish: Homogeneous— is the third studio album by Icelandic singer Björk, released in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1997 by the label One Little Indian. Björk served as music producer for all the songs on the record, as well as composing each of them. She worked alongside other producers like Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs. Musically, the album is conceptually focused on her native Iceland. It features a fusion of organic instruments (strings, accordion, and glass harmonica) and synthetic elements (loud electronic thumps). This juxtaposition of classical and electronic represents the clash between the chaotic and elemental of Icelandic geography and modernity. technology of the country.

Considered one of the best albums of the 1990s and electronic music, Homogenic has garnered overwhelming critical success since its release. Commercially, it was a gold record in Canada, the United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; Platinum record in Europe according to the IFPI and reached the Top 10 in ten countries.

History and recording of the album

Not only is this an even more experimental album than Post, but it also reflects Björk's individuality. This album tries to be homogeneous in the tones and compositions of the songs, hence the title, even though Homogenic is not an existing word in the English language. The title also confirms that the album expresses the characteristics of Iceland (Home - Home) and tries to make the world known as it would be, in the opinion of its author, a kind of Icelandic techno. In conclusion, Björk tries to rescue the most intimate sounds of an Iceland that is as homogeneous as she is. The album was liked by critics for its electronic music beats and the string ensemble used by the Icelandic String Octet (Icelandic String Octet).

The first breakthrough single to come out was "Jóga", whose title corresponds to the name of her best friend^{[citation needed]}. Well received, "Jóga" is a dramatic melody line directed against dance music, with a more intimate bent and electronic background. It went gold in the US^{[citation needed]} and numerous remixes followed.

This album is a landmark in the introspection of Björk's work through which begins a sequence of more experimental and complex works: «With Homogenic I just decided that I didn't want to please anyone else. except myself. And I'm really touched by the fact that people still seem to care."

In Homogenic, as its title indicates, the songs are of a similar style and the aesthetic care is manifested even on the cover, photographed by Nick Night and designed by Alexander McQueen: “The character that appears on the cover represents someone who does not want to have an easy life, and for this reason she was thrown into the deepest part of the ocean.”

In addition, one of the events that favored this introspection was the disturbing case of Ricardo López. López was a 21-year-old of Uruguayan origin who was obsessed with Björk. In September 1996, her body was found in her apartment in Miami, which was decorated with Björk posters and the album Post was on the player, after having committed suicide because she did not accept the relationship between Björk and Goldie, whom she planned to marry. In addition to this, Scotland Yard managed to intercept a package bomb containing sulfuric acid sent by López on the night of his suicide. This collapsed the singer; she called it a crash.

Due to this event, Björk decides to move away from her city and goes to Spain, where Trevor Morais, percussionist on tour, offers his studio to get away from interest in the López case. The album was recorded in El Madroñal, in the “El Cortijo” studios, Málaga. Once there, the singer asks Morais to find a flamenco guitarist for her to interpret a song and he introduces her to Raimundo Amador with whom she records the song "So broken" that would be included in the Spanish version of the album.^{[citation required]}

Reception

The album was highly acclaimed with most of them almost reaching the maximum level of notes from specialized magazines, it was also placed in specialized lists of the best of the year, or best of alternative music, etc., in addition to obtaining various awards and nominations, for example at the Grammys or the BRIT Awards.

Specialized criticism

Criticism
Publication	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	(9.1/10)
The Guardian
Entertainment Weekly	(A)
NME	(9/10)
Pitchfork Media	(10/10)
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin	(10/10)
Tiny Mix Tapes

Initial reviews of the album were very positive. Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A, saying that "Homogenic could have been blacked out and lackluster—Sting having a sex change operation." It's a manifesto of Björk's continued weirdness that even openings into adulthood can sound biased." Rolling Stone gave the album four and a half stars out of five, calling it "one of the most bold — and most exciting — albums of the year." The NME gave the album nine out of ten stars, calling it "probably their weirdest, but also their best [...] it's here [...] that Björk has given her most emotional, overloaded and groovy recording, as well as a triumph for the spirit of adventure." A more negative review was given by Stephen Thompson of The AV. Club, who said "Homogenic is stylized enough, and as unquietly creative as you'd expect, but the album gives the songs very little opportunity to assert themselves."

Specialized Lists

American critics rated Homogenic highly on the year-end lists. In The Village Voice the review of Pazz & Jop in 1997 ranked the album at number 9. Spin Magazine ranked the album at number four on their list of "Top 20 albums of the year". on similar lists; Melody Maker placed it at number 33 on their "Albums of the Year" list and the NME placed the album at number fifteen on their critical lists. The reviews that surfaced some time after its publication were also generally positive. Ryan Schrieber of Pitchfork Media gave Homogenic 10 out of 10, stating that the album was "absolutely brilliant". In 2002, Homogenic placed the album at number 10 on Slant Magazine on the list of The greatest electronics albums oh the 20th century. In 2003 Homogenic placed at number 21 on the web list Pitchfork Media one hundred albums of the 1990s, calling it "one of the most perfect old works of any era, and Björk may never approach this level of consistency and beauty again". In 2007, Slant Magazine rated it five out of five stars, describing the album as "beautiful and evocative" and praising it as one of the best albums of the 1990s. In a retrospective run in 2007, Spin gave the album five out of five stars. In 2011, Slant Magazine ranked the album number one on their list of the best albums of the '90s.

Awards

The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance in an Alternative Music Album at the 40th Grammy Award ceremony, losing to Radiohead's Ok Computer. The video for "Bachelorette" was nominated for the Best Short Form Music Video Grammy, but lost to Jonas Åkerlund's video for Madonna "Ray of Light". Homogenic gave Björk the award for Best International Female Artist at the BRIT Awards where she accepted the award saying "I am a grateful fruit tree".

Song List

All songs written and composed by Björk, except as noted.

In addition, two Visual Tours were released for «Unravel» and «Pluto», and another for the Bachelorette B-side «Nature Is Ancient».

Credits

Production team

Produced by Björk and Mark Bell (courtesy of LFO Productions), with few exceptions:

• "Unravel" by Björk and Guy Sigsworth (courtesy of WEA Records).
• "Bachelorette" by Björk.
• «5 Years» by Björk

Musicians

1.«Hunter», «Jóga», «5 Years», «Pluto».:

• String music: The Icelandic String Octet.
• Session: Jon R. Ornolfsson.
• Violin: Sigrun Edvaldsdóttir, Sigurbjorn Bernhardsson, Sif Tulinius, A Sveinbjarnardóttir.
• Viola: Gudrun Hrund Hardardóttir, Moeildur Anna Sigurdardóttir.
• Chelo: Sigurdur Bjarki Gunnarsson, Jon R. Ornolfsson.

2.«Jóga»:

• Mix: Mark "Spike" Stent and Howie B.)

3.«Bachelorette»:

• Recording of strings: Steve Price.
• Orchestra Contractor: Isobel Griffiths.
• Violin: Gavyn Wright, Wilf Gibson, Peter Oxer, Roger Garland, Jim McLeod, Ben Cruft, Perry Montague-Mason, Vaughan Armon, Marciej Rakovski, Mark Berrow.
• Viola: George Robertson, Peter Lake, Roger Chase, Bill Hawkes.
• Chelo: Martin Loveday, Helen Liebmann, Paul Kegg, John Tunnel.
• Low: Chris Laurence, Mike Brittain, Paul Gardham, Paul Pritchard.
• Horn: Jeff Bryant, Mike Thomson.
• Timp: Steve Henderson.
• Military replenishment: Frank Ricotti.
• Arpa: Helen Tunstall.
• Copy: Tony Stanton.

4.«All is full of love»:

• Mix: Howie B.
• Assistants: Rebecca Storey, Russell Polden, Paul "P-Dub" Walton, Jason Westbrook, Danny Brown, Kirsten Cowie, Sie Midway-Smith, James Loughrey, Rob Murphy and Jason Groucott.
• Keyboard: Björk, Mark Bell and Guy Sigsworth.
• Programme: Mark Bell, Markus Dravs, Richard Brown, Marius De Vries and Howie B.
• Battery programme: Mark Bell and Markus Dravs.
• Electronic battery: Trevor Morais.
• Clavicordio and organ of wind: Guy Sigsworth.
• Acordeón: Yasuhiro "Coba" Kobayashi.
• Glass harmonic: Alasdair Malloy.

5.«Jóga», «Bachelorette», «5 Years»:

• Writing and orchestra: Eumir Deodato.
• Arrangement: Björk.

6.“Hunter”, “Pluto”:

• transcription, orchestra and arrangement: Eumir Deodato.

Lists and positioning

Album

Simple