Nordic princess Björk Guðmundsdóttir embarked on her thought provoking musical career in 1977 at the age of twelve and over the years her style has swung between energetic and enchanting.

With three years in the pipeline Volta, her sixth studio album is yet another unexpected twist to this unpredictable human. Her last album Medúlla was a refusal of musical pigeon-holing in which she let rhythms flow free and created original and experimental a capella songs. Whilst Medúlla refused to conform to musical rules, Volta refuses to conform to those of society; less structured and serious than previous albums, Björk describes this album as a tribal beat that we can all unite to dance to without religious conventions holding it down.

In this quest for an elemental rhythm our heroine has enlisted the aid of artists ranging from Timbaland to Antony Hegarty of The Johnsons to the African collective Konono N°1, to create a collection of songs bound to knock your socks off ready for you to join in with that dance. Hegarty’s Mercury-winning warbling add an ethereal air to the track “Dull Flame of Desire” and Min Xiao-Fen’s Chinese pipa playing in “I See Who You Are” bring more delicate sounds to balance out the heady hip-hop beats of Timbaland in other tracks. Whilst traces of Homogenic and Vespertine’s styles can be picked out, Björk seems to have adopted in some places the rapper style of speaking to the beat. For those who have grown to adore the songstress’ soaring notes this might prove hard to accept, but those anarchic lyrics that we’ve come to know and love still shine through with a verve only matched by the album cover.

While previous albums have tended towards encompassing the listeneer with captivating sounds; Volta is waiting inside that CD case, ready to engulf you whole. This album is about youthfullness and exuberence; the ancient past and an idealistic future.

Four Stars

Jaime Walke