You might say I am a fan of Icelandic singer Björk. I have all her solo albums (apart from the latest) and have seen her live twice. She is also my most listened artist in 18 years of logging to last.fm.
I am generally a fan of rock, blues and other guitar music, and not so much into electronic stuff, but she just has that special spark of a unique artist like David Bowie or Prince that just stands out. I know some people find her quirky and eccentric, but she is so creative.
Via the podcast column in The Guardian I found out she was doing a show called Sonic Symbolism. She covers a different one of her albums in each episode talking about all aspects of it. As a music nerd this is great for me. I may never make music like she does, but I love to hear what inspires others.
I had not listened to some of the albums in a while, but the podcast has encouraged me to revisit them. They are all quite different with varying instrumentation and guest vocalists. I will admit that I do not always know what songs I like are about. It is more about the sound for me. She has strayed from straight dance music, but I can see that as with other artists she always wants to do something new. It struck me that Steven Wilson in his autobiography talks about not being driven by what the fans might want. They would probably want more of the same sort of thing, but that is not interesting to him and I expect Björk is much the same.
Of course image is a big thing to her too and she turns herself into artworks on the album covers. Her videos are often pretty out there too, although I have not seen all of those. I expect a lot are on Youtube now and maybe I will check some out. I am not the obsessive fan type who tracks down every remix and b-side. I just enjoy the music rather than the collecting side.
I will probably pick up the new album some time. I may even go to an actual record store. I still like to have physical media for some music even if it mainly gets played from a copy on the PC. I have heard a few tracks so far. This one seems to be about fungi and features a band of bass clarinet players. Repeated listens have it growing on me.
We each have our own tastes in music and I know not everyone will be into this, but it is not as if we lack choice these days with just about every type of music available at a mouse click.
Enjoy whatever you listen to.
