Post (Björk album)
Post is the second studio album by Icelandic singer Björk.[a] It was released on 7 June 1995 by One Little Indian Records. Continuing the style developed on her first album Debut (1993), Björk conceived of Post as a bolder and more extroverted set of songs than its predecessor, featuring an eclectic mixture of electronic and dance styles such as techno, trip hop, IDM, and house, but also ambient, jazz, industrial, and experimental music. Björk produced Post herself with co-producers including Nellee Hooper, 808 State's Graham Massey, and former Massive Attack member Tricky. She wrote most of the songs after moving to London and intended the album to reflect her new life in the city.
Post
7 June 1995
Late 1994–April 1995
46:10
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 survived a murder attempt, and caused controversy by assaulting a reporter. 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.
Release and promotion[edit]
Post was released on 7 June 1995,[30] as a 12" record, CD, and compact cassette.[66] 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.[66] 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".[67] It contained interviews with Björk and also focused on the European leg of the tour.[67] The Post tour was her first proper North American tour as a solo artist, with Aphex Twin as her opening act.[68] 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.[68] In the United Kingdom, Björk also performed on Top of the Pops on several occasions.[69][70][71][72] In 1996, Björk took part in Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, conducted by Kent Nagano and the Opera orchestra of Lyon.[65] In addition, Björk also appeared in several music magazines.[73]
In November 1996, Björk released the "often-delayed" remix project Telegram, which contained reworkings of several songs from Post, with her voice re-recorded.[59] Telegram has been described as "effectively a completely new album".[74] Author Mark Pytlik writes, "Promises of a Post remix album had been circulating since the release of "Army of Me" in April 1995.[75] To compensate, Björk announced the release of a string of 12″ remixes beginning in June, limited to only 1,000 copies each.[75] Producers and musicians featured on Telegram include: Dillinja, Eumir Deodato, LFO, and Graham Massey, among others;[76] Björk only remixed "You've Been Flirting Again" herself.[59] The album also contains a new composition, "My Spine", a collaboration with British percussionist Evelyn Glennie.[6] Telegram spent five weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 66.[77] In the UK, it peaked at number 59, spending two weeks on the albums chart.[78]
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".[79] All profits went directly to the charity, to assist the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[79] 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.[80] Post Live, a live album consisting of songs recorded during the Post tour, was included in the 2003 box set Live Box.[81] The 2002 box set Family Tree includes demos and alternate versions of various tracks off the album.[82] Post has been reissued several times, adapting to different formats such as colored records, 180g vinyl, and DualDisc.[66] A remastered version of the album in surround sound was included in the box set Surrounded, which was released in 2006 on Elektra Records.[83] In 2012, Universal Japan issued a limited edition of Debut and Post together as one compilation .[84] All of Post's music videos were included on the 1998 video release Volumen, and its 2002 reissue Volumen Plus.[85][86] They also appear on Greatest Hits – Volumen 1993–2003, a release that includes the videos featured on Volumen and Volumen Plus.[87] 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.[88][89][90]
Commercial performance[edit]
Post reached the top ten of several countries, including Australia,[138] Belgium,[139] Canada,[140] Denmark,[141] the Netherlands,[142] Finland,[141] France,[141] Germany,[143] Ireland,[144] New Zealand,[145] Norway,[146] Portugal,[147] Sweden,[148] Switzerland,[149] and the United Kingdom.[150] Post also peaked at number two on the European Top 100 Albums chart.[151] The album peaked at number 32 in the Billboard 200,[77] almost 30 places higher than the peak position of its predecessor Debut. It also received an enthusiastic reception from college radios.[152][153] Post also reached top 40 in Hungary[154] and Japan.[155] The album was certified platinum in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe; and gold in Sweden and New Zealand. In 2007, The Washington Post reported that Post had sold 810,000 units in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan;[156] it had sold 36,000 additional copies by 2015.[157]
Controversies[edit]
The music video for "Army of Me" was removed from MTV's playlist before it aired because its ending depicted Björk bombing an art museum; the Oklahoma City bombing happened at this time.[158] Author Mark Pytlik wrote that this "foreshadowed a string of unlucky events that would further hinder Post's unveiling".[158]
An unsourced sample by Robin Rimbaud, prominently heard throughout "Possibly Maybe", resulted in a lawsuit demanding a co-songwriter credit. After Rimbaud's label New Electronica refused a sample clearance compensation of £1,000 from One Little Indian founder Derek Birkett, Björk and Birkett resolved to destroy over 100,000 copies of the album to create a new version without the sample. However, at the request of Rimbaud, New Electronica gave Björk permission use the sample.[158][159]
Musician Simon Fisher sued Hooper and Björk over writing credits in Debut (1993), but these charges were cleared by judge Robin Jacob.[159] According to Pytlik, these events resulted in "the strangest promotional tour anyone could have ever envisioned: in the week since Post had been released, Björk had seen her album deleted, her video banned, and two separate lawsuits brought against her".[152] One Little Indian were also better prepared to promote the album, scheduling a string of European and American tour dates from the beginning of July into late August.[152]
During the Post era, the extensive media attention and a world tour of 105 dates began to affect Björk.[65][160] She repeatedly complained about the intrusiveness of tabloids and reporters.[161] On tour in February 1996, Björk arrived at Bangkok International Airport with her son Sindri after a long flight. While the pair walked through the arrival terminals, reporter Julie Kaufman approached them and said, "Welcome to Bangkok!" Björk charged at Kaufman and wrestled her to the ground.[160] It was later reported Kaufman had been bothering Björk and Sindri for days prior.[160] The incident was reported around the world.[160][162]
On 12 September, an obsessed American fan, Ricardo López, sent a letter bomb rigged with sulfuric acid to Björk's residence in London, returned home and filmed his suicide. Police contacted Scotland Yard, who intercepted the package without incident. To record in privacy away from the unwanted interest of the press, Björk's tour drummer Trevor Morais offered her his studio in Málaga, Spain, to record her next album, Homogenic.[162]
Notes[205]