FEATURE:
Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me
Björk - Debut
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WERE one to rank Björk’s albums …
IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in Los Angeles, 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Joseph Cultice
I wonder how many would place 1993’s Debut at the top?! Of course, the album was not her debut (she released an eponymous album in 1977). I would encourage anyone to buy Debut. It is one of my favourite albums. I am going to delve into an article that told the story of Debut and its success. Whilst not quite as accomplished and acclaimed as its follow-up, Post (1995), Debut is a remarkable album. It came out on 5th July, 1993. I was ten at the time. I don’t think I was aware of who Björk was at that time. Maybe the first song of hers I heard was Debut’s first single, Human Behaviour. I was instantly mesmerised! I had not heard another voice quite like hers. I was already fan of Kate Bush. Perhaps that was the closest comparison at the time. I still think there is nobody out there like Björk. I love everything on Debut. Writing alongside producer Nellee Hooper, Human Behaviour, Venus as a Boy, Big Time Sensuality and Violently Happy are classics in her cannon. I also like the lesser-spun songs like There's More to Life Than This and Aeroplane. The album made a big impact on fans and the press in 1993. In years since, one can hear influence on the likes of M.I.A., Grimes, These New Puritans, Tune-Yards, Lady Gaga and Robyn. The sheer audacity of ambition; the mix of sounds and that incredible voice of Björk’s make it an album as important to me as Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside, The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and Paul Simon’s Graceland.
I am going to wrap up with more feelings and thoughts on Debut. Before then – and before I come a review of the album -, I wanted to source from Classic Pop Mag. In 2017, they revisited Debut and provided a history and insight into its recording and legacy. There are a few bits from the feature that I want to quote:
“Having emerged as a child star in her native Iceland with an eponymous album at the age of 11, Björk had already amassed 16 years’ experience in the music business by the time she released her solo breakthrough, Debut, in July 1993. The singer spent her formative years as part of Reykjavik art collective Bad Taste and in punk bands Spit & Snot and Kukl, Björk achieved international success with The Sugarcubes.
While Debut’s otherworldly eclecticism is light years away from The Sugarcubes’ output, Björk’s transition from feisty frontwoman to electro enchantress had been years in the making.
“When The Sugarcubes started to get attention abroad and I got the opportunity to travel in 1988, I was so excited to see live bands,” Björk says. “When I got to the UK and we had a day off between touring, I would go and try to see as many concerts as I could. I was so disappointed because it was so stagnant, nobody was taking any risks. So, I started going to clubs in 1988 and I just became obsessed with them.
“I had to go to lots of them, but when I found the right ones, they had atmosphere and miracles happened.”
Having visited Manchester to collaborate with dance pioneers 808 State, she witnessed first-hand the city’s nightlife, throwing herself into its vibrant hedonism. Her relationship with DJ Dominic Thrupp was her connection to London’s clubland, enabling her to build a network of like-minded creatives with whom she planned to collaborate to bring her ideas to life. Though she had originally planned to work with different producers depending on the style of music she was working on at the time, an introduction to Nellee Hooper was instrumental in bringing Debut to fruition.
“A friend of mine suggested we work together and I was a bit suspicious to begin with,” Björk explained to The Face magazine in 1993. “I had to ask what he had done. I like Soul II Soul, but mainly when they’re on the radio. Myself, I like to go out and dance to hardcore or industrial techno, hard beats with an experimental edge. I thought Nellee was too ‘good taste’ for my liking. But then I met him, got to know him, got to hear about his fabulous ideas and it ended up with him producing the whole album.
“I wanted to include a mixture of sounds, like harps, saxophones, techno beats,” Björk said. “No sound or style was off limits. My target was to break down the stupid barriers that existed. I didn’t want it to be the jazz people over here, the rock’n’rollers over there and the classical people over here, so we had a harp player, a jazz saxophone player, an Indian string section.
“I wanted the album to be pop music that everybody can listen to,” she said. “I think not sticking to any particular musical style makes the album real. Life isn’t always the same. You don’t live in the same style from day to day, unexpected things happen that are beyond your control. That’s this record. One song is about the mood you’re in walking to the corner shop, another is about being drunk and out of it on drugs in a club, and the next one is about feeling romantic and making love.”
Going on to achieve sales of 4.7 million copies worldwide, Debut was Björk’s greatest commercial hit, and though not the debut its title suggested, it was her musical coming-of-age and an album that inspired an entire generation of artists such as Radiohead, M.I.A, Lady Gaga and Florence Welch, all of whom have cited her as a touchstone.
Speaking of Debut’s legacy, Björk described it as, “very nostalgic”. “It’s like an old photo album for me because it was my first opportunity to record an album with money,” she said. “It was like a ‘greatest hits’ from which I could pick from the last 10 years or so of my songwriting. Ever since then I’ve always been more about looking ahead than the past”.
I still play Debut to this day. It takes me back to the ‘90s - and yet there is something modern and current about the album that means my love of it is much more than sheer nostalgia. Debut opened my eyes to an artist who I would follow from that point with fervent fascination.
I think that there are two stages of reviews for Björk’s Debut. In 1993, there was a lot of praise and interest. There were some who were less sold and effusive, I am not sure what the main criticism was. Perhaps it was an album that was so different to what was around they did not know how to take it. There was this wave of reviews later down the line that reassessed the album – people also had other Björk albums to compare it with. In their review, AllMusic had the following to say:
“Freed from the Sugarcubes' confines, Björk takes her voice and creativity to new heights on Debut, her first work after the group's breakup. With producer Nellee Hooper's help, she moves in an elegantly playful, dance-inspired direction, crafting highly individual, emotional electronic pop songs like the shivery, idealistic "One Day" and the bittersweet "Violently Happy." Despite the album's swift stylistic shifts, each of Debut's tracks are distinctively Björk. "Human Behaviour"'s dramatic percussion provides a perfect showcase for her wide-ranging voice; "Aeroplane" casts her as a yearning lover against a lush, exotica-inspired backdrop; and the spare, poignant "Anchor Song" uses just her voice and a brass section to capture the loneliness of the sea. Though Debut is just as arty as anything she recorded with the Sugarcubes, the album's club-oriented tracks provide an exciting contrast to the rest of the album's delicate atmosphere.
Björk's playful energy ignites the dance-pop-like "Big Time Sensuality" and turns the genre on its head with "There's More to Life Than This." Recorded live at the Milk Bar Toilets, it captures the dancefloor's sweaty, claustrophobic groove, but her impish voice gives it an almost alien feel. But the album's romantic moments may be its most striking; "Venus as a Boy" fairly swoons with twinkly vibes and lush strings, and Björk's vocals and lyrics -- "His wicked sense of humor/Suggests exciting sex" -- are sweet and just the slightest bit naughty. With harpist Corky Hale, she completely reinvents "Like Someone in Love," making it one of her own ballads. Possibly her prettiest work, Björk's horizons expanded on her other releases, but the album still sounds fresh, which is even more impressive considering electronic music's whiplash-speed innovations. Debut not only announced Björk's remarkable talent; it suggested she had even more to offer”.
I will wrap up soon. My teenage years were ones where I became entrenched in current music and bought as much as I could. Prior to that, I was not buying as many albums. I was listening a lot to my parents’ music. Albums like Björk’s Debut were hugely important because it was my discovering an album independently. Whilst the songs are great and eclectic, it is Björk’s voice that really sells it to me. So flexible, powerful and original, she imbues every song with so many emotions and colours! There is no doubt that Debut…
IS very special to me.