We've been away for the weekend, spending two very enjoyable days in Sheffield and a walk in the Peak District yesterday. Late on Saturday night we started playing songs and videos from YouTube through the TV and this piece of brilliance was selected...
Triumph Of A Heart came out in 2005, the closing song on Björk's Medulla album. I haven't heard Medulla and this song and video were new to me. The video, directed by Spike Jonze (of course) is filmed in and around Reykjavik and features Björk driving off from her house into town for a night out, disappointed as she is with her husband. Who is a cat.
The song is a riotous musical adventure too, with human trombone sounds courtesy of Gregory Purnhagen, beatboxing, orchestral strings, synths, and Björk singing 'just celebrating the body, cells doing rollercoasters rides up and down your body'. Mark Bell from LFO is on board and beatboxing comes from Dokaka and Rahzel. The version of the song in the video is different from the one on Medulla, mixing the album version and the Audition Mix from CD single 2 I think, making a superior version but either way Triumph Of A Heart is great fun, bouncy, idiosyncratic, cacophonous, celebratory pop music.
The video is a blast- the part where Björk nips to the toilet, the song stops and the rest of her party step in and begin beatboxing and making all kinds of vocal noises is superb. She then goes off, falls over, bangs her head, stumbles around and is eventually rescued in the car by her feline husband. Back at the house they kiss, the cat grows to human size and they dance around the living room.
Totally new to me too!!
ReplyDeleteBjork doing the morning after walk of shame is also as much of a hoot as the film.
Thanks for the heads-up.
It's her best record. Totally experimental in production, but each track is completely accessible.
ReplyDeleteNew to me as well. I can't remember the last time I grinned so much in pure joy to a video - fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWonderful stuff. As we all know, cat videos are the reason the internet was invented.
ReplyDeleteGlad you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
ReplyDeleteAnon- I'll definitely check out Medulla now
I thought I'd managed to keep up with Björk's musical output until I checked and realised that the last album I have is Biophilia from 2011! I'd echo the comments about Medulla, though I'd recommend any of the albums that followed. The videos for the Biophilia are less openly playful but they are visually stunning - Mutual Core is a good jumping on point.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/-WnzRqCK6Fs