Earlier this year, Björk released “Björk: Cornucopia”, a concert film of her gorgeous live performances and ethereal visuals from the her recent Cornucopia tour. On October 24th, she released the complementing live album, “Cornucopia: Live”. Spanning 22 tracks, this album is a near spiritual experience with her haunting vocals and eclectic melodies capturing the essence of the original songs, magnifying their impact.
Regarded as one of the most influential artists in the contemporary music scene, Björk has an extensive and mesmerizing discography ranging from jazz and experimental to electronic and avant-garde music. She is a major pioneer in her genre-bending productions, and inspired others such as Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Lady Gaga.
The live album’s opening track “Family Intro” starts us off with bird noises, bubbles, and nature ambience. It’s a shortened version of the original, which used to be heavier and more intense with the soundscape. This new, cut version she performed live seemed lighter, as she highlighted the importance of love throughout the process of healing. It beautifully transitions into “The Gate”, which has interesting synths and flutes chiming in every few lines. This recording of her voice live sounds identical to the studio album, a testament to her wonderful voice. Björk sings about her healing journey after a terrible breakup and how her open wounds transformed into a gate where she now receives love from. It became a place where the “light shines in”.
The next tracks “Utopia” and “Arisen My Senses” demonstrate the common theme of blending nature and technology that is seen throughout her discography, and it’s truly hypnotizing how she represents that with the sounds. They’re lighthearted and spacious but not too interesting. The following “Ovule” is boring when compared to how grandiose her songs often are. The melodies and beats stay roughly the same throughout and it doesn’t have a chorus to break up the verses. “Show Me Forgiveness” is similarly bleak and unimpressive, although her vocals are pretty. Both songs are performed almost identically to their original counterparts.
“Isobel” is a gorgeous song that maintains a steady, marching beat and displays very evocative imagery. The next track “Blissing me” is a gentle ballad about falling in love with someone by sharing music. Interestingly, the melodies reminded me of the “Minecraft Volume Alpha” soundtrack by C418, being very similar to songs like “Door” and “Wet Hands”. The live version really did it justice. We segue into the “Arpeggio” interlude, where Björk delivers the “It’s an emergency” manifesto, urging us to pay attention to the environment in order to survive as a species. After the inspiring call to action, we move into the grandiose “Body Memory”, which is very vibrant in a live setting. The background vocals are very powerful as we transition beautifully into the second half of the album.
“Hidden Place”, “Mouth’s Cradle” and “Victimhood” are pretty tracks, but they start to blend together a little, the last one being especially monotonous. The “Cornucopia” live album is fascinating, but from these tracks onward I start feeling the album length a little. It feels too long, and even though the songs are different enough from each other to keep things interesting, I got bored with the last few. “Fossora / Atopos” has a loud and chaotic banging that accompanies the second half, but is overall quite uninteresting, which I can also say about “Features Creatures” and “Courtship”. Their dullness is especially highlighted when contrasted with the beautiful “Pagan Poetry” that comes right after them.
A classic in Björk’s discography, “Pagan Poetry” reflects on the confusion and difficulty of emotional and physical connection with a partner. It’s a shortened version of the original, starting from the repeated line of “I love him” in the outro. The following “Losss” has a stellar electronic soundscape that leads to a tumultuous outro. “Sue Me” is plain boring (sorry) and so is “Tabula Rasa”, although the latter’s title did grab my attention, as I recognized John Locke’s philosophy. The Tabula Rasa refers to the idea that all humans are born with a clean slate and no innate knowledge about the world: we must build that knowledge from scratch. Björk uses this theory to address the new generation and tells us to rebuild the world our way, considering how the previous generations left it to us in such a rough shape.
“Notget” is a powerful track about a break up, where the drumbeats symbolize the singer’s heartbreaks. And the final song on the album, “Future Forever”, is a hopeful perspective on the future. We hear a choir of child-like voices singing about brighter days ahead, which ends the live album on a high note and an optimistic view of the world and what’s to come. All of these tracks come together to create a performance highlighting environmentalism, female empowerment, hope for the future and humanity, solidarity and the collaboration of nature and technology. Even though Björk can be a challenging artist to get into, “Cornucopia Live Album” is an exceptional project and a must listen for fans of avant-garde music and powerful symbolism.
