60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #48

Debut – Björk (1993)

I’ve written a few times before about this album, but I’ve never bettered what I said over on the old blog in October 2009, which I was later able to salvage and re-post on T(n)VV in October 2016.  As it’s almost another seven years on, I’m going to re-post with just an occasional edit to cut down the number of words.

Debut is something that I first heard snippets of in a record shop while browsing. Being familiar with Sugarcubes, I recognised that Björk was singing, but my first assumption was that she was doing guest vocals for someone else. It was only after the third or fourth track in a row to feature her talents that I thought there was more to it, and this was confirmed by the ever-friendly indie-store sales assistant. He also told me that in the week or so since the CD had arrived in the shop it had been on very heavy rotation as it was that rare beast – i.e. an album that found favour with all four folk who worked in the shop.

I told him I was a fan of her former band – he replied that it was nothing at all like any of the old stuff. And he also offered me, as a well-known face in the shop who spent something in the region of £40 a week on CDs, a free copy over the weekend that I could bring back on Monday morning if I didn’t like it. And if I did…..well it would be added to my next bill.

I don’t know how many times the CD was played over the course of that Friday night, the Saturday and the Sunday, suffice to say that not many other things got a look in.

Debut is a record that shifts from one music genre to another with the greatest of ease, class and style  As such, it is impossible to get bored with it. It’s a combination of the songwriting genius of Ms Gudmunsdottir and magical production from Nellee Hooper (and no I haven’t forgotten that he also co-wrote at least half of the songs).

Thirty years on and it has not dated one bit whatsoever. It still makes me smile, makes me dance, and every now and again stops me in my tracks and makes me think about loved ones present and past.

It’s a truly remarkable piece of work.

It was an album that was a slow-burner, spending ages in the UK charts, but never getting any higher than #3. Four singles were taken from it, and, in a strange reversal from the norm, they reached progressively higher chart positions.   Human Behaviour got to #36 in June 1993. Venus As A Boy reached #29 in August, while Big Time Sensuality climbed to #17 on its release in November. However, in March 1994, Violently Happy launched its way to #13.

If you don’t own this record, do something about it.

mp3: Björk – Come To Me

JC