Source
r/bjork•
Wista

Fossora: A return to form

Opinion

I've been a Bjork stan for a couple decades now, yet I was at peace with the fact that she wasn't going to release music like she used to. IMO, her last banger was Biophilia (and even that relied on remixes). Her recent albums, whilst good, were too personal and specific to be universally good like her pervious works.

Fossora is a return to form. It feels to me like Biophilia and Homogenic had a baby in the form of Fossora (and Volta is its godmother).

This is art that gets better and better with each listen, yet still can be enjoyed as music rather than endured as a spoken-word soliloquy; Vulnicura and Utopia felt more like poetry than music... words imposed upon beats rather than working in tandem with them. Fossora manages to indulge the need for exposition yet weave that within woodwinds in an entrancing way. I love this album.

I'm so happy that we got more music from Bjork.

Posted Nov 12, 2022, 9:23 AM UTC

4914
NPJazz•

Vulnicura is a masterpiece, so disagree. Fossora is pretty good, better than utopia. Opinions…

35
WistaOP:cosmogony: Cosmogony•

For what it's worth, I don't think Vulnicura is bad at all. It just feels invasive. The music is actually too sad and heartbreaking for me to personally enjoy; like a page torn from a diary rather than a track in an album. My favorite song from Vulnicura is Family and I actively avoid listening to it. Only Atom Dance and Quicksand are "enjoyable as music to me" from Vuln.

Like I said, Vuln felt more like art than music, whereas Fossora feels like both, together. And I am a fan.

14
ryanairie:fagurt: Fagurt•

Family is also my fave from vulnicura! And yeah i don't listen to it everyday cuz it's a bit too serious 😅

11
Rewow•

That's interesting b/c for Vulnicura, Bjork stated she let the songs flow out of her with little interference and less editing on her part which does sound kinda like writing a diary

10
spacehue•

This is exactly how I feel about Vulnicura. It's a great album, but I can't listen to the whole thing on the regular because it's just too intensely sad.

5
jazzsmells•

I feel like I’m a minority of not really caring for Vulnicura. I prefer the more abstract Björk so Fossora is perfect for me

2
SkyZippr•

It's interesting to see everybody coming up with different combination of 'A & B had a child that became Fossora', and I think that's the beauty of Bjork's music.

21
WistaOP:cosmogony: Cosmogony•

It really does feel like her most iterative piece. I see so many elements of previous albums iterated upon in Fossora.

5
Ringbearer99•

Agreed. There’s echoes of all her past works all over this thing and it makes so much damned sense thematically, I just love it all the more for it.

3
StrangeGlaringEye•

I don't understand your distinction between art and music. Traditionally, music has been envisaged as one branch of art. Plus, the spoken-word thing has been going on much before Vulni, and still appears in Fossy (e.g. Ovule and Ancestress). So while I appreciate that you found what you were looking for in Fossy, I don't really understand what that was.

15
TheTinyTim•

Eh I do think the starts turning a little bit more towards some sense of conventionality (for her) on fossora that isn’t present on V or U (love both a lot though). I mean, for starters, a lot of the songs have pretty clear verse-chorus structures to them. And I see their point about universality. Her gaze on some of these songs is a bit more pop and broader than they are agonizingly specific (which I loved as well and worked for those albums; but again, you can like it and still see the point lol).

Obviously not true across the board, but it’s something I noticed on first listen, too lmao hell, even most beats are comprised of some more typical sounds than birds trying to sound like flutes and Vice versa or beats trying to sound like they’re scoring a heart attack haha

5
[deleted]•

[deleted]

6
orkestralhunter:vespertine_live: Vespertine Live•

Vulnicura used very much of the same musical "language" as Homogenic so I don't think this assessment is accurate

4
JunebugAsiimwe•

My feelings exactly.

1
OGtheGoat9•

Long live Bjork! 💕

2
JunebugAsiimwe•

Vulnicura is easily one of her best albums for me and it is actually more melodic than Fossora and Utopia the more I've analysed it. Fossora just has a broader music palette which makes it feel more accessible, but I found some of needed a few listens to click whereas Vulnicura I had no trouble connecting with instantly. Vulnicura is like a more mature version of Homogenic in terms of the marriage of harsh beats and strings, just with a darker subject matter.

I do love both albums, but I disagree that Fossora is the first album of hers that's a "return to form". Vulnicura, even with its heavy subject matter, is the stronger album, imo.

2