Björk - Debut (1 Viewer)

[AGinAg (38)]

I popped this on at work early. I forgot what a fucking masterpiece this. Total 10/10

00 Human Behaviour
00 Crying
00 Venus As A Boy
00 There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live At The Milk Bar Toilets)
00 Like Someone In Love
00 Big Time Sensuality
00 One Day
00 Aeroplane
00 Come To Me
00 Violently Happy
00 The Anchor Song
00 Play Dead

 

[octophone]

I'll need to give this a fresh spin before marking. I've always tended to look past Debut because "Post", "Homogenic" and "Vespertine" are the absolute tits but I wasn't really on board when this came out. Well, except for "Human Behaviour" which I absolutely loved but the other singles didn't really float my goat so I didn't actually score the album until years later.

Am I right in saying "Play Dead" was added later? I have a 7" of that and it brought me back into Bjorkworld in time for "Post"...

 

[AGinAg (38)]

Play Dead wasn't on the Spotify tracklisting, but it was on my CD of it from back in the day.

 

[AGinAg (38)]

Listening today, I found it remarkably FRESH. Age 13 I found it weird but brilliant. 25 years on, I just find it brilliant. The use of fairly experimental electronica isn't surprising now, but you can see how it caused such excitement at the time. Now it just sounds like a great pop album.

 

[AGinAg (38)]

I think I'd need to listen again to remind me of each track, but frankly it's all a bunch of 9 or 10s.

 

[BoysForSeles]

Play Dead wasn’t on the original release. Immaculate album. Adore it but strangely have not played it in years. Will stick it on soon.

 

[octophone]

The use of fairly experimental electronica isn't surprising now, but you can see how it caused such excitement at the time.

To people who already knew her, it was a serious left-turn. The Sugarcubes were a slightly left-of-field indie guitar band with occasional pop leanings so the move was unexpected and was met very positively by critics. But the commercial breakthrough of the album was a bit more gradual** with each single providing more and more of a boost.

**in the UK, Europe got down with it more quickly.

 

[lolly]

It's sometimes just like sleeping
Curling up inside my private tortures
I nestle into pain
Hug suffering
Caress every ache

Definitely up there with my favourite lyrics ever written.

 

[Samanta TinAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA]

'Crying' is SUCH a lost Bjork classic. I think they could have released it as another single also, it was that sort of TIME.

A masterpiece of a campaign that has the visuals to match the tunes, from cover to video. The Big Time Sensuality vid is still an effortlessly instantly iconic 90s image, as is Bjork and the egg in Venus As A Boy.

SUCH a fabulous album, but unfortunately isn't QUITE as a good as legendary works Homogenic, Vespertine, Vulnicura, Utopia and a slightly lesser extent Post. What a woman

 

[lolly]

But the commercial breakthrough of the album was a bit more gradual** with each single providing more and more of a boost.

**in the UK, Europe got down with it more quickly.

Is that true? It certainly is that the album didn't sell in the UK in BIG numbers until several months in, but it still opened well and hung around before it exploded. Looking at Wikipedia, the UK was the only country where it made the year end chart in 1993. It appeared in a few other countries (as well as the UK again) in 1994.

And if you look at all the singles, they almost all did better in the UK than anywhere else, with the exception of Iceland.

 

[Samanta TinAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA]

And if any Play Dead fans missed Bjork's re-telling of Debut's 'Come To Me' from her Vulnicura Live album, you must give it your attention. It's one of the most accessible/brilliant thing's she's done in decades.

 

[Eddie]

I was obsessed with this record but haven't played it in close to two decades.

 

[Eddie]

And if any Play Dead fans missed Bjork's re-telling of Debut's 'Come To Me' from her Vulnicura Live album, you must give it your attention. It's one of the most accessible/brilliant thing's she's done in decades.

That is stunning.

 

[cwej]

It's an 8 because I love Post is a 9 and Homogenic and Vespertine are 10s for me.

 

[Sheena]

GOD I love it ALL

 

[octophone]

Is that true? It certainly is that the album didn't sell in the UK in BIG numbers until several months in, but it still opened well and hung around before it exploded. Looking at Wikipedia, the UK was the only country where it made the year end chart in 1993. It appeared in a few other countries (as well as the UK again) in 1994.

And if you look at all the singles, they almost all did better in the UK than anywhere else, with the exception of Iceland.

I likely accepted a contemporaneous press report at face value re: Europe.

The album was very much in that era where singles were released for as long as they were boosting the album so, yes, the singles weren't big hitters but they sparked more and more album sales and this was true across the board.

 

[Peekaboo]

10 Human Behaviour
10 Crying
09 Venus As A Boy
08 There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live At The Milk Bar Toilets)
11 Like Someone In Love
10 Big Time Sensuality
08 One Day
07 Aeroplane
10 Come To Me
10 Violently Happy
08 The Anchor Song
10 Play Dead

Stunning.

 

[Pipo]

she's coming to my city to play 3(!) concerts in august

tickets are £500

 

[Cerro de Casa]

10 Human Behaviour
10 Crying
10 Venus As A Boy
10 There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live At The Milk Bar Toilets)
09 Like Someone In Love
11 Big Time Sensuality
08 One Day
09 Aeroplane
10 Come To Me
10 Violently Happy
10 The Anchor Song
10 Play Dead