Björk - Wanderlust
It would not be in any way an understatement to consider Björk a musical expeditionary. Her varied 15-year solo career has seen her gorging herself on myriad musical cultures in order to construct perpetually evolving tracks. Unsurprisingly, it can have mixed results. Lyrically, ‘Wanderlust’ consolidates this journey into a hopeful pragmatic yearning, seemingly trying to get to the bottom of her own sound. Singing “peel off the layers until you get to the core”, it is a shame she has not done the same with the arrangements. A striking song with magisterial horns and affecting vocals, the industrial bass and clicking beat seem superfluous, as if there is not enough faith in the quality of the song itself. The knob-twiddling should have been left to the abundant and particularly reliable remixes - Matthew Herbert’s appealing to a nu-rave love of pulsing synths and Ratatat providing a distinctive and playful take which only gets too fidgety when needlessly twisting the vocals. Perhaps it would be too stripped-down with only horns and vocal, but sometimes a less-is-more approach is the way to go. Matt Nesbitt
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