Pagan Poetry

"Pagan Poetry" is a song by Icelandic singer Björk, taken from her album Vespertine. The song reached number 38 on the UK music charts and number 12 in Canada. It was written and produced by Björk with additional production by Marius De Vries and mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent. The music video for the song was one of the most controversial in the singer's entire career.

History

The song "Pagan Poetry" was written and produced by Björk.

We discussed how to do something with the moving image that was a mirror of what was going on musically... I had to have a different look of video images and digitally altered video images. I knew I had to look as exquisite as possible. It is removing the artifice and digital effects, in the raw image of Björk.

Music Video

Development

The music video was directed by Nick Knight who had already photographed Björk for the album cover Homogenic (1997). Knight explains that the video narrates about "a woman preparing for marriage and her lover." It was considered one of Björk's most controversial videos. The video contains three scenes: a video shot of piercings, an actual private video shot by Björk, and a scene in the white dress designed by Alexander McQueen.

The piercing scenes and the dress scene were shot in one day, in June 2001, at Nick Knight's photography studio in North West London. The first scenes belong to post-production visual effects by Peter Marin. Marin mainly edited the private and drilling scenes with an abstract, linear and almost watercolor effect. Doubles, a piercing team and a nurse were used for the piercings. Björk only pierced her ear with the pearl strings. The scene with the dress was recorded directly, without any editing and cuts.

Plot

The video begins with a blurry image of a thread, where some pearls are falling. Following this, a white liquid jumps into the shot, hinting at an orgasm. Below are explicit scenes of non-simulated sex (such as fellatio and vaginal penetration) veiled by a rotoscopic effect and 3D animations. Throughout these scenes, real high-risk piercings appear. These scenes, together with the sexual scenes, are cut off and are shown with the mentioned effects. Then, Björk appears in the white dress designed by Alexander McQueen, which covers her body from the waist down. Throughout the upper part of her, mainly on her chest, various pearls are embedded through her skin. She stirs emotionally to the rhythm of the music, pulling on some strings with pearls. Finally, the "back" of Björk pierced by a pierced corset.

Censorship

The music video was considered one of MTV's most controversial videos, containing images of explicit sex, oral sex, and high-risk drilling. It was censored in the United States and Latin America. It was finally passed to MTV2 to be shown without any editing.

Song List

The single was released on double CDs and a DVD. The CDs include a remix by Mathew Herbert, a new version of the song "Aurora" from the Vespertine album, and B-sides "Batabid" and "Domestica." Originally, Domestika was the working title for Vespertine, and the song was listed as "Lost Keys", but this was later changed.

Reception

"Pagan Poetry" has been highly praised by critics, citing it as a highlight of the album. Allmusic said of "Pagan Poetry," that "shares a sweeping serenity with more of the albums quieter moments" and included this song as a track selection, Rolling Stone magazine said: 'Pagan Poetry', rolls out the skies of Zeena Parkins on harp and a ship of music boxes with an Asian teahouse twist. Blender said: "Pagan Poetry" it sounds like the prelude to a particularly exotic sexual interlude". In March 2006, in number 77 of the Spanish edition of Rolling Stone, "Pagan Poetry" it was ranked number 38 by Spanish music professionals and experts in a list of the best songs of the 21st century. Slant Magazine said of the album "Vespertine delicately leaves traces of the said relationship cycle" and called the song "the loss of personal identity and the complete possessive trap" Pitchfork Media placed the song at number 227 on their list of "The Top 500 Songs of the 2000s".

CD1

1. «Pagan Poetry» (video edit) - 4:01
2. «Pagan Poetry» (Matthew Herbert Handshake Mix) - 6:16
3. «Aurora» (Thomas Knak/25070/te Version) - 4:06

CD2

1. «Pagan Poetry» - 5:17
2. «Domestica» - 3:25
3. «Bathabid» - 2:26

DVD

1. «Pagan Poetry» (musical video)
2. "Pagan Poetry" (Matthew Herbert Handshake Mix)
3. "Aurora" (Thomas KnakѕOpiate Version)