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Volta
Björk - Volta Logo
Released May 1, 2007
(see release history)
Recorded 2005-2007
Length 51:03
Producers Björk
Timbaland
Danja
Mark Bell
Damian Taylor
Label
One Little Indian Records
Polydor Records
Elektra Records
Atlantic Records
discography
border 1px

(2004)

Volta

(2007)

Biophilia

(2011)

From Volta
  1. "Earth Intruders"
    Released: April 9, 2007
  2. "Innocence"
    Released: July 23, 2007
  3. "Declare Independence"
    Released: January 1, 2008
  4. "Wanderlust"
    Released: June 12, 2008
  5. "The Dull Flame of Desire"
    Released: September 29, 2008

Volta is the seventh studio album by Björk released on May 1, 2007. The album's main instrument is trumpets and other brass instruments.

Background[]

I knew from the start I wanted the album to be bloody, physical and urgent. But then trying to work out how you do it is sometimes like solving a murder mystery thing. But that's so fun. I love solving riddles. So this one got solved with the use of either tribal live drumming or 808s, 909s, the old-school drum machine noises. Or the mix of all those. The rhythms were actually some of the last things we worked on. The melodies, clavichord, the pipa and kora and all the brass came first.[1]

In the run-up to the release of the album, many media outlets were lauding the album as a return to the supposed "pop" sound of Björk's earlier solo albums Debut and Post. This was due in part to the inclusion of three tracks co-produced by record producer Timbaland.

As the news of Björk's having worked with Timbaland spread across the Internet, many websites started speculating on whether the album would be "hip hop" flavoured; in one interview Timbaland himself referred to the upcoming album as "hip hop":[2]

It's crazy – I'm going tonight to go hear it. It's hip hop. I can't really describe it to you – if I had it right now I'd just play it to you. That's the best way for you to understand, and I'd let you tell me what it is.

Björk has since stated that the album was not "hip hop" and that she had not intended for it to be so. She said that she did not want to work with Timbaland as a "hitmaker", or because of his affiliation to a particular genre, but wanted to work with him solely as a musician in his own right. Björk has also explained that when the two of them were together, Timbaland asked Björk what kind of music she would like to make with him, for example a hit song or "something weird", and Björk replied that she was interested in finding out where they "overlapped" musically, and they would go from there.[3] The result was a tribal sound, because they were both interested in it. They worked on about seven songs, but only three made the cut.[3] She has also said that One Little Indian "always feel that ‘my latest release is the most commercial to date’",[4] and that she feels Volta is no more commercial than any of her previous work. This album, however, is her most commercially successful to date.

After the album's release, Björk "felt Volta was just OK", and that she regards the tour versions of the songs as better than those found on the album – in this sense the live recordings released on Voltaïc are to be seen as the true version of the album.[5]

Album title[]

Björk said about the title of the album:[6]

I am always looking for words that have some sort of energy. Usually the name just comes, from a magazine or somebody says something. I had waited for years while working on the album but it didn't come. In the lyrics there are words like "voltage" and "voodoo", which I found to be too common somehow. I have always tried to choose titles which are kind of Latin or something, which aren't English, which is a little funny because we Europeans find Latin to be sort of neutral language... But I found Volta...
I don't recall how it came about, but I Googled it and found that it is both the name of a scientist in Italy who invented the battery, and also a river in Africa which had been built by men, and a lagoon built by men called Lake Volta. So several parts come into it. I'm not going to name anything specific, people can guess for themselves what it is. There is also a mediaeval dance with carries that name, a very funny dance which is very hard to learn. Thus, I got a lot of things in one word: a dance, a river in Africa which doesn't work anymore, and the battery. So okay - this fits.

In an interview with New York Post, she revealed she initially considered naming the album 'Voodoo' or 'Voltage', "but both words felt too cliché."[7]

I liked the sound of ‘Volta’ best. It just sounds like energy.

Singles[]

Track listing[]

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Earth Intruders"  Timothy Mosley, Nathaniel Hills, Björk 6:13
2. "Wanderlust"  Björk, Sjón 5:50
3. "The Dull Flame of Desire" (feat. ANOHNI)Björk, Fyodor Tyutchev 7:30
4. "Innocence"  Mosley, Hills, Björk 4:26
5. "I See Who You Are"  Björk, Mark Bell 4:21
6. "Vertebrae By Vertebrae"  Björk 5:07
7. "Pneumonia"  Björk 5:13
8. "Hope"  Björk, Mosley 4:02
9. "Declare Independence"  Björk, Bell 4:10
10. "My Juvenile" (feat. ANOHNI)Björk 4:01
Total length:
51:03
UK and Japanese editions bonus track
No. Title Length
11. "I See Who You Are" (Mark Bell Remix) 4:02

Outtakes[]

  • Softly
  • Trance
  • Timbaland Outtakes: Björk worked with Timbaland in many other tracks (apart from "Earth Intruders", "Innocence" and "Hope"), but they didn't make the cut.[8] Björk has stated that the other Timbaland co-produced tracks are unlikely to ever be released.[9] The song titles are unknown as of today.

References[]

  1. Harp Magazine, 1 November 2007.
  2. "Bjork & Timbaland". 21 October 2006. elliottback.com
  3. 3.0 3.1 Stosuy, Brandon (23 April 2007). "Björk". Pitchfork.
  4. "Volta being a commercial record". bjork.com/facts.
  5. "A Conversation With Björk". The Reykjavík Grapevine. 20 July 2009.
  6. visir.is, 22 March 2007.
  7. Gensler, Andy (6 May 2007). "Violently Happy". New York Post.
  8. grounduphiphop.com (10 August 2006). "Björk & Timbaland @ Ground Up HipHop - Hip Hop news, reviews and mixtape". Archived from the original on 7 October 2007.
  9. ""I’m just doing my best to escape boredom": DiS questions Björk about Volta and beyond". April 2007. Drowned in Sound.
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