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Writer's pictureLammbi

Album Review: Björk - Fossora


Five years after Utopia, Bjork returns to embrace her roots with delight and poignancy in 'Fossora'.


It’s hard to imagine that it has been five years since Utopia.


While the utopian flourish has its moments of deflection and bloat, it was an album that felt like a closure for Bjork’s musings of love, where she has found a sense of peace at the end of the dark tunnel spewed on Vulnicura… But not fully. In the past five years since Utopia, she has encountered a sense of loss and reflection not just at the sudden stasis brought by the quarantine in 2020 and 2021, but also from the death of her mother in 2018. Those years of isolation have been the right time for her to dig out those feelings, not just of loss but also of an airy and joyful sprawl that will only come from her time being at home in Iceland for two years. And what that pulled out altogether is her new record, Fossora.


A term that relates closely to ‘digger’, this record essentially grounds herself to her roots in both a thematic and a sonic sense. She also describes this as her ‘mushroom’ record, a term that does fit in the overall scope of the record where the melodies are more freeing and brisk than ever on both the instrumentation and the vocals. It may as well be one of her collaborative records to date (with exceptions to Medulla) with features of Emilie Nicolas, serpentwithfeet, as well as her son Sindri and her daughter Isadora on the vocal fronts, and some production helpings from Kasimyn of Gabber Modus Operandi on some tracks and El Guincho helping out with the beat on ‘Ovule’


When Bjork reaches her creative senses deep to the ground, she shapes her dialogues of love and connections with bubbly excitement. ‘Fungal City’ plays out its themes of love and passion over airy woodwinds, gabber bass, and marvelous vocal backings from serpentwithfeet. ‘Atopos’ brings atonal bass clarinets, reggaeton drums, and gabber breakdowns to communicate themes of connection and unity, a fitting song to open the record. ‘Freefall’ lyrically feels like a successor to ‘Blissing Me’ where there’s an immense bond between partners, especially with mentions of film and song amidst gloomy bass clarinets and plucked strings that overflow its emotions as it goes on. And ‘Ovule’ simmers down the themes of layers in relationships as Bjork vocalizes them with blocky percussions, heaving clarinets, and stuttering vocal synths.


The record also steps into themes of femininity and family, aspects that not only affected Bjork, but also her family that she has nurtured throughout the years. ‘Sorrowful Soil’ and ‘Ancestress’ details about her mother in detail. Details of what she has accomplished and sacrificed, as well as the fear and reflection that comes from Bjork herself coming from her mother’s passing as the former uplifts its dour tone with layered choral harmonies and the latter embraces its message with free-flowing strings, scampering percussions, and additional vocals from Sindri Eldron. 'Victimhood' deals more with the feminine presence and their sacrifices to uplift themselves, their partners, and their families out of tragic situations as the swampy bass, tapping drum machines, and bawling clarinets play through. And ‘Her Mother’s House' is a wonderful closer that ties down the record wondrously. A song that ties down the bond between mother and daughter, with both Bjork and Ísadóra harmonizing together exquisitely as the spare woodwind airs out with grace.


Even with the deeper darkness explored in the record, the emphasis on the ‘roots’ and ‘mushrooms’ aspect keeps the overall tone free-spirited. ‘Fossora’ is a great example of this, a song that permeates life dug in the soil as the woodwinds spelunker alongside the spunky drums that creates a feisty gabber breakdown at the end of the song. Even despite being a leftover on Utopia, ‘Allow’ still fits well in the record as the freeing and imaginative lyrics with the airy woodwinds and soothing vocal harmonies between Bjork and Emilie Nicolas transcends and makes the entire song feel euphoric.


While the record snaps out its best qualities as it goes on, there are some qualities that do break away from the beauty of this album. There is a clunkiness to the flow of the record, where the front half breezes through alarmingly quickly and only paces itself smoothly by the time the track ‘Ancestress’ starts to play. This also ties to some of the songs feeling cluttered or could have brought a bit more development to stick. As much as ‘Sorrowful Soil’ is narratively connected to ‘Ancestress’, the track itself could’ve been a bit fuller in the melody aspect, especially on the back half where it ends prematurely. Even if ‘Ovule’ took some time to stick due to the vocal and reed harmonies being extremely great, the reverb on the vocals along with the brittleness of the drums does clash a lot with the rest of the song. ‘Victimhood’ also falters with a similar issue, where the drums, clarinets, and vocals do clash with each other as it progresses from midsection to end.


But after five years of waiting, Bjork is still at her A-game and puts another impressive record in her catalog. While the flow can be clumsy in spots and some songs have elements that don’t work well together, the album delivers some of Bjork’s free-spirited and elegantly poignant songs to date especially those that appear in the back half. It does not reach the peaks of some of her works but with an album that is poignant and jubilant, that’s something worth clinging onto.

 

Favorite Tracks: Atopos, Ovule, Ancestress, Allow, Fungal City, Freefall, Fossora, Her Mother’s House


Least Favorite Track: Sorrowful Soil

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