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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Vespertine
Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 51 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Elektra/Asylum
Release Date: 28 August 2001
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Electronic
Summary
Bjork's follow-up to 1997's 'Homogenic' and last year's soundtrack to Dancer In The Dark is closer in sound and mood to the latter, taking a quieter, more ambient approach. Produced by San Francisco-based electronic artists Matmos, 'Vespertine' utilizes mainly electronic instrumentation, much of which was recorded by Bjork in Iceland. The lead single is "Hidden Place."
Also By This Artist: Drawing Restraint 9 OST Medulla SelmaSongs: Music from the Motion Picture Dancer in the Dark Volta Voltaic [Live]
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Nude As The News
A beautiful, magical, mystical soundtrack; similar to Homogenic, but in a sense, more light-hearted and full of love.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
It's unlikely you'll hear anything as near to perfect, magical and downright lovely all year.
Read Full Review >CDNow
With Vespertine, Bjork has constructed a whispering wall of wonders, and instead of forcing everyone out, has invited the world to look through the cracks.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Vespertine isn’t so much a departure from her previous work as a culmination of the musical distance she’s traveled...
Read Full Review >The Wire
In the end, Vespertine commits its magic by daring to go places more obvious and more human than one would have ever expected. [#210, p.52]
Read Full Review >Ink Blot Magazine
While Homogenic, Post, and Debut were emotionally frenetic and often musically confrontational, Vespertine is rich in its tranquillity and spiritual divinity, full of astute observation and patient acceptance.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Her best album to date.... Vespertine is an album of small gestures, one almost challenging in its stillness.... The cumulative effect is an album both timeless and of the moment, an avant-garde electronic-pop exploration of classic themes.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine
Her new album, Vespertine, is the singer's most complete and compelling expression of that wondrous worldview yet.
Read Full Review >Drawer B
As difficult as it is gorgeous, Vespertine ranks among Bjork’s finest albums.
Read Full Review >Billboard
This intimate, often breathtakingly beautiful collection (primarily produced by the artist herself) finds solace in the calm after the storm.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
This is breathtaking, life-affirming music with the power to heal and restore. It's that beautiful.
Read Full Review >Spin Cycle
The most introspective and slow-tempo collection in Björk's catalog, "Vespertine" proves to be a rousing showcase of her captivating vocal talent.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
When it all comes together, as on ''Hidden Place'' or ''It's Not Up to You,'' Björk and her electronica collaborators create moving interplanetary chorals. ''Vespertine'' is also her most erotic work....
Read Full Review >E! Online
Björk's latest is as delightfully eccentric as her choice in outfits, blending scratchy electronic programming with tinkling music boxes and squeezing her formidable voice into ancient-sounding harmonies or futuristic whispers.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
This is a Warp-inspired wonderland of intricate glitches, murmuring glacial low-end smoothness, and subtle, filmic orchestration.
Read Full Review >Blender
Vespertine is her most intensely private and intimate-sounding work, a journey through an interior world that is quietly ecstatic, erotic and playful.
Village Voice
Vespertine is an album for small curtained establishments, for taking your "little ghetto blaster" onto back streets, for intimate and precious occasions.
Read Full Review >Uncut
She uses her voice as well as she ever has, giving the moods light and shade. [Sep 2001, p.104]
Sonicnet
1997's Homogenic, also a mixture of heavy beats and strings, was not as varied or complete as this album, and while Selmasongs, last year's soundtrack to "Dancer in the Dark" (in which Björk starred), was lovely in its own sweeping, cinematic way, Björk has surpassed herself with this new work.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Björk continues to mine the fine line of minimalist lushness that her last album gave birth to; with tiny, crackling, skittery beats weaving open-toned ambient beds in which her breathy, pushed-forward vocals lithely lay, the closeness and drama of her every syllable commanding attention.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
The best solo record of her career... Vespertine is the closest any pop-vocal album has come to the luxuriant Zen of the new minimalist techno, even beating Radiohead's nervy Kid A. Where Kid A sounded like a record of risk, the work of a band on unfamiliar ground, Bjork sings here as if she owns and knows every inch of space and shadow in these songs.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
Vespertine isn't immediately accessible, but after repeat listens, a smoldering heart of emotion and a true pop sensibility reveal themselves. [Oct 2001, p.77]
Mojo
A gorgeous reverie. [Sep 2001, p.99]
Q Magazine
Vespertine quietly proves that cutting-edge production and human contact aren't mutually exclusive. [Sep 2001, p.109]
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
While undeniably beautiful, Vespertine fails to give electronic music the forward push it received on Björk's preceding albums. Rather than designing sounds never before imagined, the album merely sounds current, relying on the technology of standard studio software and the explorations of the Powerbook elite.... Still, Vespertine makes for an intriguing listen, and manages to hold its own after hours on repeat.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
If there's one question to be raised with the album, it's that it's all simply so lush and nice that on some levels it fails to excite.
Read Full Review >Armchair DJ
The entire LP takes on a sort of plodding sameness even as the overall sonics soar.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Enzo P gave it a10:
The best album I've ever heard so far. Amazing, perfect, emotional... words cannot describe it. Good job, B!
Clif gave it a10:
I really don't give easily a 10 for an album (it's extremly rare), but this one even deserves a 11! It surpasses everything we had heard. For the first time until 2001 (maybe we can consider "Selmasongs" as the tourning point) Björk delivers us minimalist (in a good way), spiritual and introspective parts of her soul. Even if I've always admired what she's done previous to this album (the excellence and lava-ish "Homogenic", the breathtaking "Post", and so and so), she has reached the culminate point of her career with "Vespertine". Maybe because of the facts of 1997 (for example, when she smashed a journalist in Bangkok; one retarded fan who wanted to kill her; ...), paradoxally she gained a certain tranquility (and the best is that she accepted to get that), something she had never explored in her previous albums. Since then, we can consider that she has done (almost) everything in her music career. ... Facts are... Even if she's too modest to accept that, she has released, I think, the greatest album ever, by any artist. Music blessed and embarrassed her!
Mike H gave it a10:
My personal favorite album of any musician I have ever come across. It can not be beaten (in my opinion) in craft, compositional complexity and perfection, pure hearted, genuine, soulful, painful, euphoric expression, and down right love. This album inspects the inner workings of our bodies, the introspection that comes with being human -- our minds, hearts, and even subtle physiological phenomena in a single micro beat. Everything is included in an infinite, yet minute space, crafted by sound in an arrangement to beat all arrangements. This album feels, breathes, loves, and lives. The closest music comes to mirroring primal human life.
Robbie C gave it a10:
A phenomenon.
Esteban V gave it a9:
This album is beautiful. The best track is Unison, with her voice at its peak and the interlude Frosti sounds magical. Although a few tracks sound similar if you understand music you can find each tracks uniqueness beyond the lyrical context.
Neezaam R gave it a10:
My personal favourite Bjork album,transports you to a very beautiful sensual place.
David O gave it a10:
Like Kid A with a soul.
