Post (Björk Album)
The album reached number one in Iceland, number two in the United Kingdom and number 32 in the United States. It was certified gold in New Zealand and Sweden, and platinum in Australia, Canada, the US, and the UK. Six singles were released: "Army of Me", "Isobel", "It's Oh So Quiet", "Hyperballad", "Possibly Maybe", and "I Miss You", with three reaching the UK top 10. Their accompanying music videos were noted for their surrealism, themes of nature and technology, and artistic development of the medium. A remix album titled Telegram was released in 1996.
During the album's commercial peak, Björk was affected by media attention and Post's promotional tour. She assaulted a reporter and survived a murder attempt. Björk would relocate to Spain away from the press and produce her next album, Homogenic (1997). Considered an important exponent of art pop, Post has been praised by critics for its ambition and timelessness. It was named one of the greatest albums of 1995 by numerous publications, and has since been named one of the greatest albums of all time by publications including Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.
Recording and production
"I always use the word 'promiscuous' for this album. I just wanted to try to work with several people. It was very much also reflecting my life at the time. Kinda big city, big lights, Trafalgar Square kind of energy. I was going to a lot of clubs, I was meeting a lot of new friends that ended up being friends for life, actually. I was very extrovert. [I'd been an introvert] all my life and then suddenly I was very extroverted, very extroverted friends, [...] being over the top. But really enjoying it. But maybe also knowing that you didnt want to do that forever. You know, it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing."
–Björk, 2022.
Björk released her previous studio album Debut in 1993. At that time, she had moved to London. The production of Debut was "long and laborious", as Björk sought to fully realise her compositional ideas from the past. After its release, she was free to concentrate on her present life for new musical clues for her following album. She contacted producer Nellee Hooper who had worked with her on her previous album. He refused initially, encouraging her to produce the album herself, but agreed when she insisted. However, Björk agreed to co-produce along with other enlisted producers; "to make it stay fresh, she had to think about other people being involved". With Hooper's confirmation, Björk commenced work on the album in late 1994 at the Compass Point Studios in Nassau. The picturesque locale inspired Björk to meld the recording process with the exotic natural environment. Biographer Mark Pytlik writes: "The tales surrounding these recording sessions are appropriately evocative". For example, Rolling Stone wrote that for her vocals: "Björk extended her mic cord to a beach so she could sing to the sea". In fact, Björk waded out into the ocean and recorded her vocals while the sun set, captured to a digital recorder powered by a generator on the beach. Additionally, the first version of "Cover Me" was recorded entirely from a nearby cave.
For this record, Björk incorporated shelved songs she wrote in Manchester with 808 State's Graham Massey, which had preceded the recording sessions for Debut. These included "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things", which had become live staples over the summer, and did not need to undergo extensive transformations at Compass Point. Björk explained her decision to include "Army of Me" in Post rather than Debut: "I was gonna make it as a part of Debut but for me [that album] was a more gentle energy and Post was more raw, more brutal. And maybe you can say that Debut was London but Post was more a little bit Manchester, a little bit Scotland, a little bit Bristol. So it was not so sleek. At that time, anything that came from London was a little bit sleek, and people from Scotland and Manchester and Bristol looked down at all things sleek, they wanted things to be raw. When I use the word 'sleek' I actually don't use it as a bad word, I think it worked really well on Debut, to kinda glue everything together. But I think on Post I was like: 'okay, I've put aside this raw energy, now I want to bring it in." Massey stated: "With 'Army of Me' we wanted to try something that was quite hard and techno-y. I'm not sure how she wrote those lyrics so fast but I remember that song being almost instantaneous. [...] We kind of knocked that off in one day and then started on 'The Modern Things' the same day and finished that the next".
Although the album was supposed to be delivered the day after she returned from the Bahamas, Björk felt it was not yet complete and decided to continue its production back in London. She enlisted a new team of engineers and programmers, and spent the next months "tweaking, rearranging, and sometimes completely rerecording her pre-existing tracks". Ultimately, it was the inclusion of more "real" instruments that "resuscitated Post for Björk". Björk continued to compose songs such as "Isobel", which was created while she was visiting Reykjavík for Christmas, before bringing it back to Hooper's studio. The song's lyrics were written in collaboration with Icelandic poet Sjón, which was his first songwriting experience. Sjón would become a frequent collaborator throughout Björk's career. She also enlisted trip hop artist Tricky to assist in producing the album, on the condition that he would work on two tracks on her album and she would contribute two vocals for his album. Their collaboration resulted in the Post songs "Enjoy" and "Headphones"—in addition to "Keep Your Mouth Shut" and "Yoga", which appeared on Tricky's 1996 studio album, Nearly God.
The track that underwent the most extensive change was "I Miss You", an old song from the Debut era. Howie Bernstein gave the song its "Latin-tinged [rhythm]". Back in London, Björk contacted "old standby" Talvin Singh to record additional percussion parts for it. Fellow former Sugarcubes member Einar Örn Benediktsson was also contacted to play the trumpet on "Enjoy". English sessionist Gary Barnacle was enlisted to play the saxophone. Although he had not been involved in music for a long time, Brazilian composer Eumir Deodato immediately agreed to participate on the album at Björk's request. Björk decided to contact him after being impressed by his arrangements of a rare Milton Nascimento song called "Travessia". Deodato's presence as composer and conductor "immediately bolstered" "Hyperballad", "You've Been Flirting Again" and "Isobel". This addition of strings, brass and percussion elements gave Post the balance Björk felt her original recordings had lacked. "It's Oh So Quiet" was the last track to be recorded. By the time the album was finished in April 1995, the list of co-producers included Björk, Hooper, Bernstein, Massey, and Tricky. Björk has said: "The people I collaborated with were all people I was hanging out with in clubs in London. I had known them all for a while before we ended up working together."
Composition
Musical style
"On Post she uncovers a range of specific sounds—not broad styles—that best express her emotions and color her arrangements. With little awe or irony, Björk blends these recognizable scraps and otherworldly snippets into a striking pattern of her own design, making Post an album that's post-everything but akin to nothing else."
–Lorraine Ali, Rolling Stone, 1995.
Björk's website described Post as "a bit of a bolder side of [Björk], who now had ventured all the way from Iceland to England, and was exploring the faster pace and big city life that this new country brought. This album became influenced of that and became more adventurous and club-friendly as a contrast to the shy first album, Debut." Likewise, The Guardian wrote in 2011 that "Post tapped into the vortex of multicultural energy that was mid-90s London where she had relocated, and where strange hybrids such as jungle and trip-hop were bubbling". Noted for its eclectic nature, Björk described Post as "musically promiscuous" and "spastic". Peter Tabakis of Pretty Much Amazing said that it has a protean form and "wide emotional palette". While the album is recognised as an experimental work, it is also characterised by its accessibility and pop framework. Post has been described as art pop, experimental pop, and avant-pop.
Post touches on various musical styles, including industrial music, big-band jazz, trip hop, chillout, and experimental music. Jim Farber, reviewing the album in 1995 for Entertainment Weekly, considered Post to be a "connecting point between industrial-disco, ambient-trance, and catchy synth pop". When asked if this variety of genres was intentional, Björk replied: "Yes, I'm very aware of that. I've got very many sides to me." She recognises Post as darker and more aggressive than Debut, and has identified independence, strength, and instinct as its lyrical themes. The balance between synthetic and organic elements in the album—generated through the combination of electronic and "real" instruments—is a recurring characteristic of Björk's output. In 1999, Vibe stated: "Fusing techno, industrial, ambient, punk, and the rarefied yet tuneful spheres of art rock, Björk explores a jungle of tones, supported by her eternally buoyant voice from Mars." Part of the album's innovation was Björk's further embrace of electronic instrumentation, an interest established on Debut. While IDM and trip hop influences were present on Debut, Post is characterised by Björk's fuller incorporation of these genres.
The Rolling Stone review stated that Björk "[foraged] for inspiration in the soundscapes of orchestral jazz, ambient techno and classical". Influences of jazz fusion were also noted by a contemporary review by The New York Times. In 1996, when asked about the album's musical influences, Björk stated: "I'm influenced by everything. By books, by the weather, by the water, by my shoes, if they're comfortable or not. Everything."
Songs
The album opens with "Army of Me", an aggressive song with industrial rock, and trip hop influences. It incorporates a looped drum sample of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". Dedicated to Björk's younger brother, the song's lyrics are, according to Björk herself, "about telling someone who is full of self-pity and doesn't have anything together to get a life and stand up"; as she sings: "And if you complain once more/You'll meet an army of me!" "Hyperballad", which incorporates a spectrum of electronic and orchestral styles, has been described as "a love song penned by Aphex Twin". NME wrote that its music "altered from gentle folktronica to drum and bass-tinted acid house"; an attempt to reflect the song's lyrics, which are about "the art of not forgetting about yourself". In them, Björk describes living at the top of a mountain and going to a cliff at sunrise. She throws objects off the cliff while pondering her own suicide. The ritual allows her to exorcise darker thoughts and return to her partner. The track is followed by "The Modern Things", a song that, in a magical realist tone, "playfully posits the theory that technology has always existed, waiting in mountains for humans to catch up". Interview described it in 1995 as a "spooky tune", noting "the odd scratchings at the end" of the track. In a startling shift in style, the big band track "It's Oh So Quiet" covers a German composition made famous by Betty Hutton. It has been described as "a palate-cleanser during the course of the record". Björk included the song "just to make it absolutely certain that the album would be as schizophrenic as possible, that every song would be a shock".
The following track, "Enjoy", a song concerning the links between sex and fear, has been considered "decidedly trippy", and "Post's most abrasive track". NME described it in its 1995 review as, "a dark and deranged techno thing". Over military drums and "squalls of noise", Björk sings about "her hedonistic tendencies". The orchestral interlude "You've Been Flirting Again", like the previous track "Enjoy", features "mysterious or open-ended lyrics". They are an attempt to describe the ambiguous nature of flirting. "Isobel" is a string-laden, orchestral trip hop song, Craig McLean of The Face called the track "Broadway on breakbeats". Conceived by Björk as "part autobiography part storytelling", its lyrics concern Isobel, a woman magically born in a forest who finds people in the city "a bit too clever for her", eventually retreating back to nature and sending them a message of instinct through trained moths. Inspired by South American literature—particularly Gabriel García Márquez—the track's lyrics discuss "the duality between reason and emotions, between intuition and intellect"; in Björk's words, "asking how 20th century civilisation clashes with nature and, in places like Iceland and Thailand, people really believe they can have a TV remote control in one hand and a ghost sitting beside them".
"Possibly Maybe" is an ambient dub track that fuses trip-hop and chill-out music. Björk has said that it was the first unhappy song she wrote, stating in 1997: "That was very hard for me. [...] I was ashamed writing a song that was not giving hope". Its lyrics document the various stages of Björk's ill-fated relationship with Stéphane Sednaoui. With the track, De Vries "create[d] a vinyl-crackling ambience, full of glissando strings and leaden, muted bass. The slide guitar heard in the background of the song was originally intended to be its focal point, as Björk initially strived for an "ambient country" sound inspired by Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". "I Miss You" was described in 1997 as an "amalgam of styles, with electronic drums melding into African bongos mixed with jazzy horn playing". A house music number, its "horn-infused Afro-Cuban strains [...] reflect the romantic whimsy of [its] lyrics". Björk wrote "Cover Me", one of the quieter moments on the album, to her co-producer Nellee Hooper after he agreed to participate in the making of Post. She has said: "I guess I was trying to make fun of myself, how dangerous I manage sometimes to make album making. And trying to lure him into it. But it is also a admiration thing from me to him". The album ends with the experimental "Headphones", an ambient track. Featuring "just-for-headphones studio tricks", it has been described as "a chiming, somnolent dip into Björk's heavy-lidded pre-dream state". Its lyrics were written as a thank you to Graham Massey, who would make compilation cassettes for Björk. She also stated: "But, of course, it is also a love letter to sound. The sound of sound. Resonances, frequencies, silences and such... a music-worship thing".
Title and artwork
Björk chose the title Post for two reasons. Firstly, it refers to the fact that all the songs on the album were written after her move to England, while the songs on Debut were songs she had written during the previous ten years of her life in Iceland. In a 1996 interview, Björk said: "I always knew it would be two albums and that's why I called them Debut and Post. Before and after". Secondly, the title was inspired by Björk's desire to communicate with friends and family back in Iceland, giving Post the additional meaning of "mail".
The album cover was taken from an April 1, 1995 photoshoot with photographer Stephane Sednaoui. It shows Björk standing in a London street, her pale skin and dark hair contrasting with the vivid colours of the Japanese-inspired signs behind her. Designer Paul White of Me Company—who had been a frequent collaborator since the Sugarcubes—"surrounded her with giant postcards to represent communication with friends and family". Björk also said that "my musical heart was scattered at the time and I wanted the [cover] to show that". Me Company designed the artwork, while Martin Gardiner modeled the lotus flower used in the album's booklet and packaging. The jacket Björk wears, shown on the cover, was inspired by Royal Mail airmail envelopes, referencing the album's title. It was specially crafted from envelope paper called Tyvek by designer Hussein Chalayan. The jacket is displayed under glass at Hard Rock Reykjavík, and was part of a 2015 MoMA retrospective on Björk, Björk. Vice has identified the airmail jacket look as one of the "ultimate fashion moments" of Björk's career.
A shot of Björk surrounded by silver balls was planned as the cover, but it was scrapped in favour of something "more poppy". The photo would later appear in a 1995 article for The Face.
Release and promotion
Post was released on 7 June 1995, as a 12" record, CD, and compact cassette. It was issued on One Little Indian Records in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States and Canada; Polydor Records issued Post in Australia and Japan, also releasing the European edition of the album. In September 1995, Björk and poet Sjón released Post, a paperback book meant to be a "pictorial and verbal record of the making of that album". It contained interviews with Björk and also focused on the European leg of the tour. The Post tour was her first proper North American tour as a solo artist, with Aphex Twin as her opening act. While in the United States, she also appeared on Late Night with David Letterman; this tour "helped maintain Post's momentum and keep Björk in the public eye", since airings of "Army of Me" and "Isobel" had been relegated primarily to after-hours alternative music shows in MTV. In the United Kingdom, Björk also performed on Top of the Pops on several occasions. In 1996, Björk took part in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, conducted by Kent Nagano and the Opera orchestra of Lyon. In addition, Björk also appeared in several music magazines.
In November 1996, Björk released the "often-delayed" remix project Telegram, which contained reworkings of several songs from Post, with her voice re-recorded. Telegram has been described as "effectively a completely new album". Author Mark Pytlik writes, "Promises of a Post remix album had been circulating since the release of "Army of Me" in April 1995. To compensate, Björk announced the release of a string of 12″ remixes beginning in June, limited to only 1,000 copies each. Producers and musicians featured on Telegram include: Dillinja, Eumir Deodato, LFO, and Graham Massey, among others; Björk only remixed "You've Been Flirting Again" herself. The album also contains a new composition, "My Spine", a collaboration with British percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Telegram spent five weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 66. In the UK, it peaked at number 59, spending two weeks on the albums chart.
In 2005, the UNICEF charity record Army of Me: Remixes and Covers was released; it is a collection of seventeen eclectic remixes of "Army of Me". All profits went directly to the charity, to assist the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Live at Shepherds Bush Empire was released as a VHS in November 1998, containing the last performance of the Post tour, which took place at Shepherd's Bush Empire in February 1997. Post Live, a live album consisting of songs recorded during the Post tour, was included in the 2003 box set Live Box. The 2002 box set Family Tree includes demos and alternate versions of various tracks off the album. Post has been reissued several times, adapting to different formats such as colored records, 180g vinyl, and DualDisc. A remastered version of the album in surround sound was included in the box set Surrounded, which was released in 2006 on Elektra Records. In 2012, Universal Japan issued a limited edition of Debut and Post together as one compilation . All of Post's music videos were included on the 1998 video release Volumen, and its 2002 reissue Volumen Plus. They also appear on Greatest Hits – Volumen 1993–2003, a release that includes the videos featured on Volumen and Volumen Plus. They are also featured on video compilations of its directors, including The Work of Director Michel Gondry and The Work of Director Spike Jonze, all of them from 2003.
