Björk - Jóga

There are certain artists that I hold such respect for, that their music is almost a happy coincidence. These would be musicians that have longstanding and strong careers; a few miss albums here and there but mostly hits. With these artists, I have certain ‘rituals’ that I perform with new albums involving solitude and deep introspection. I have high expectations of new releases and assume the best until I hear otherwise. Certain artists require specific first-time listening sacraments. Some of these special artists include: U2 (obviously), Oasis, Elbow, Alanis Morissette, Erasure, Daft Punk, Björk… you know, the essentials... ;)

When Björk’s album Homogenic was released in 1997, I literally took the day off work, dragged a sketchbook and box of colored pencils off with me and spent several hours in the abandoned courtyard of a practically deserted strip mall and bonded on a deeply ethereal level with this album. From the first song, I knew I had found a special place to hide in my headphones with this one. I love Björk not only a musician, but as an artist on every possible level. My respect for her is through the roof, she is living art. So much I can’t hardly talk about it because it seems like I should say more than what I could ever possibly say about how much she inspires and enraptures me as a human being.


Some Björk albums, as I alluded to above, are more art for art’s sake with me (i.e. – Medúlla… yowza. What was that?!) But I own them all and I love them all, because it is her. It’s like if you were dating someone and they were in a band and you didn’t really like that band but you loved the guy and you went to every show regardless because you support him and love him… it’s like that with Medúlla for me. I own it, but I've barely listened to it… Homogenic, that was a special occasion. There isn’t a single song on that album, much like Post, to which I don’t have some deeply romantically/idyllic attachment. (And I mean romantic in the idealist sense, not the flowers and candy sense here.)

At the time of the first listening, I was working at the Courtyard in Cary. Spending most of my days with my best friend Summer, making thrift store runs, drinking coffee and making big plans for ‘zines that never happened. This was the era of all the paper journals that now line the shelves of my office at home. I could put my hands very easily on the journal and the few pages that came into creation as a direct result of homogenic, specifically from the simplistic beauty of Jóga.

From line one, (all the accidents that happen / follow the dot / coincidence makes sense only with you…) I got it, man. I knew what that feeling was. The chorus of this song is one of my top 5 most perfect love song lyrics. I have tried to explain the empathy I feel from this song to others when they are with me and it happens to come on the stereo. I always ask, "haven’t you ever felt that way? That 'state of emergency'? Have you ever loved someone so much that it sets you into a full scale panic? Didn’t you feel the most alive you’ve ever felt? Like your entire life rested on the precipice of this one simple little human being’s heart? The next words out of their mouth could change your whole life? Isn’t it terrifying? Isn’t it amazing?" I feel emotional landscapes. I really fucking understand this song on a level most people don’t let themselves feel. It can really be too much for the human heart sometimes to love like that.

There isn’t anyone in particular attached to me for this song. It mostly makes me think about the *idea* of love, as a lifestyle, as a choice, as a system of belief... Honestly it also really makes me think about Summer more than anyone else, no boys really, because it came out around the time we were hanging out the most. It was a really awesome and inspiring time in my life. I just think about being young and figuring out how to fall in love without dying, writing writing writing, notebook journals, prismacolor pencils, Waverly Place shopping center, mesh wire patio chairs, my Discman covered with Keroppi stickers, not ever seeing but fully believing in a love like that. Always. Once you figure it out, it never goes away. Once you know a love like that, in any capacity, for another person, for yourself, in theory or in practice… it never leaves you and you spend the rest of your life looking for it and defending it's honor like family.