Albums to watch

Biophilia

Björk

Biophilia

Eighth album from the Icelandic queen of alternative pop

ADM rating[?]

7.8

Label
One Little Indian
UK Release date
10/10/2011
US Release date
04/10/2011
  1. 10.0 |   BBC

    Whatever’s placed before her, she can turn to her advantage, taking her audience on a trip the likes of which no other contemporary artist is capable of planning, let alone embarking on. In a word: amazing
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  2. 10.0 |   The Irish Times

    A renewing, regenerating and metaphorical record that will keep dragging you back for its complexity, ambition and beauty
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  3. 10.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    It’s surprisingly accessible, hypnotic and beautiful if you give it time and concentration: the audio equivalent of looking through a microscope at crystals growing
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  4. 10.0 |   The AU Review

    It’s incredibly tight, musically dense, technically amazing and produced flawlessly
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  5. 9.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    With Biophilia, Björk is doing nothing less than rebuilding the human body itself as a music-making machine, and in this she’s just like every other brilliant pop artist
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  6. 9.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Though Biophilia is hardly easy listening, even by Björk’s challenging, outlandish standards, there’s little doubting it’ll stand as one of the more rewarding albums of her storied career
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  7. 9.0 |   NME

    By turning hours of research on DNA, lunar cycles and gravity into sublime music, and having the grace to allow this to be shaped by the leading lights in application design, Bjork has created one of the boldest artistic statements of our time
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  8. 9.0 |   Clash

    As good a collection of songs as she has put her name to in ten years
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  9. 8.8 |   Beats Per Minute

    Biophilia is Björk, the sum total, and this album is her continued claim to the throne as the monarch of avant-pop
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  10. 8.5 |   The Quietus

    Nothing here is complex or highbrow, but instead filled with the joy and clarity of understanding and connecting
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  11. 8.5 |   Paste Magazine

    For all my rambling, I can say quite confidently that it is timeless. Not in the traditional Rolling Stones way, but in the way that it escapes any temporal context
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  12. 8.3 |   Pretty Much Amazing

    This opera is operating on myriad levels that become increasingly apparent as you delve deeper into this insular universe she’s constructed
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  13. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Though it's exquisitely controlled and filled with space where its predecessor Volta was packed to bursting with sound, Biophilia still teems with invention
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  14. 8.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Whatever happens with the technology and wherever the arguments over music, art and commerce drag themselves to next, it’s these songs that are the triumph here
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  15. 8.0 |   Mojo

    These songs are both highly evolved and starkly elemental, as much about tectonic plates as technology. Print edition only

  16. 8.0 |   Uncut

    You may not be whistling these songs or dancing to them, but Biophilia's unsettling visions are compelling art
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  17. 8.0 |   Q

    It's more at ease with itself than any Björk album since 2001. Print edition only

  18. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    Whilst the musical content here is unlikely to shock or surprise Björk’s loyal admirers, it sees her continue to pursue her own radical and individual path with unshakeable conviction
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  19. 8.0 |   Blurt

    A delicate and highly tactile treat, a unique gem of innovation
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  20. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    When Bjork's supernatural voice soars in "Thunderbolt" – "Craving miracles" – soul easily trumps software
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  21. 8.0 |   The Observer

    This ground-breaking album is probably best experienced as a series of apps, in which the user part-composes the songs by waving their iPad around
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  22. 8.0 |   Bowlegs

    These songs may take on vaporous areas of space and time, but they are delivered with soul and talent
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  23. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    Maybe one day app albums will be commonplace or maybe they won’t, but you can’t help but be blown away by the Björk R&D department on this one
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  24. 7.5 |   Prefix

    More minimal, more intimate, its sound is more organic and almost entirely devoid of the mechanical, glittering electronic moments that Björk's music has favored in the past
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  25. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The hyper-composed Biophilia sounds stultified and endlessly fussed over, but oddly incomplete at the same time
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  26. 6.2 |   Pitchfork

    For an album ostensibly about the elements, there are some essential pieces missing here. As an innovator, she's as vibrant as ever, but as a songwriter, she sounds tired
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  27. 6.0 |   Rave Magazine

    Björk’s vocals, more subdued now than in her Big Time Sensuality days, will often function as just another instrument
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  28. 6.0 |   State

    There’s something lost in the presentation of Biophilia on record, there’s a missing dimension
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  29. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    Taken as a purely listening experience, Biophilia sounds quintessentially Björk. Her voice and mode of expression is so unique that even when the furniture behind her is rearranged, there is still no mistaking it for the work of any other artist
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  30. 6.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Finds the singer in meditative mood – this is, by some distance, the least playful Björk album
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  31. 5.0 |   A.V. Club

    By the disc’s end—and in spite of frequent flashes of celestial, awe-dropping grace—all that space accumulates to form an unfocused, almost suffocating absence of song
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  32. 5.0 |   Under The Radar

    Several tracks do reclaim some of Björk's past glory and inspire a bit of wonder, but the majority of Biophilia meanders weightlessly into space
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  33. 4.0 |   The Independent

    So concerned as she and her co-creators doubtless were with the artistic and educational aspects ... they appear to have overlooked one small matter: enjoyment
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Björk: Biophilia

  • Download full album for just £7.99
  • 1. Moon £0.99
  • 2. Thunderbolt £0.99
  • 3. Crystalline £0.99
  • 4. Cosmogony £0.99
  • 5. Dark Matter £0.99
  • 6. Hollow £0.99
  • 7. Virus £0.99
  • 8. Sacrifice £0.99
  • 9. Mutual Core £0.99
  • 10. Solstice £0.99
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