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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Volta
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 98 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Atlantic
Release Date: 08 May 2007
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
The typically eclectic guest lineup on Bjork's first studio album in three years includes Timbaland, a ten-piece all-female horn section, and members of Konono No. 1, Lightning Bolt, Antony & The Johnsons, and LFO.
Also By This Artist: Drawing Restraint 9 OST Medulla SelmaSongs: Music from the Motion Picture Dancer in the Dark Vespertine 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...
Stylus Magazine
As with much of her past work, it’s almost embarrassingly human, sometimes sounding too close to you to believe it’s not your own.
Read Full Review >Filter
You have not only a Bjork that's fun again, but an album that is simultaneously politically charged, esoteric and glossy with mainstream appeal. [#25, p.88]
Los Angeles Times
Even as the music settles into some of the visionary Icelandic artist's familiar contours, she stirs in enough new ingredients to keep things moving.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Volta is a weird mess of an album, but it's also Björk's most approachable and immediate since Homogenic.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
It finds the perfect balance between the vibrancy of her poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
An album so confident in its experimental spirit that its eclecticism seems nothing short of captivating, even though its charms are subtle enough to require a little time before they become apparent.
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
Volta is a strong album with memorable, remarkable tracks that have great variety, so much that the album loses cohesion.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
It's in the vein of 'Debut' in terms of songwriting but there are a lot more samples of foghorns on this record.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
'Volta' is another amazing statement of intent - full of hope, eccentricity and wonderfulness.
Read Full Review >Uncut
She's rarely sounded more alive. [Jun 2007, p.92]
Mojo
Volta bristles with life. [Jun 2007, p.102]
musicOMH.com
Björk's mind remains artistically open to just about anything, and on this album she sounds like she's enjoying recharging it with another tranche of skewed new ideas.
Read Full Review >BBC collective
The result is less cohesive than Vespertine or Medulla but the fun’s in the exuberance, the jolting between musical styles.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Volta lacks the unity of vision and enveloping sensuality of Vespertine and Medulla, but no one else could have made this record, voracious in its synthesis of world music.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
Initial listens leave the impression that Volta is a top-heavy release, but as with Vespertine repeat visitations see the record smoothing and flattening out, with consistency becoming apparent over a shorter period of time than with many a Bjork LP before it.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Volta is arguably Bjork's loosest and most ruminative record, and though it touches on everything she's ever done, it's not as gripping or coherent as her best stuff.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
Listen intently, repeatedly, and you'll hear much to widen your consciousness... But listen for, you know, enjoyment and you'll be left wanting.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Every song on Volta sounds like it was birthed in no fewer than 10 months, if not five years. "Fun" hardly has an opportunity to enter the picture when Björk's now seemingly permanent fastidiousness remains her métier.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Volta is her most accessible album in years, even if it is sometimes at the expense of its own best interest.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
As rich as this stuff sounds (it’s hard to think of a working musician with classier production values) or how much she emotes on the mic, it’s calculated, cerebral and a little bit cold.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
By no measure is Volta a great album, but it is quite good. And, the deeper you delve, the more it has to offer.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
While Bjork's past sounds are arguably better than most, Volta is perhaps the first Bjork effort that looks backwards instead of forward into the future. [Summer 2007, p.79]
Blender
Even if nobody's made a record that sounds much like this before, she's given her performance here too many times already. [Jun 2007, p.106]
Spin
Her vision is worth the price of submission. [Jun 2007, p.90]
Prefix Magazine
As she sets her sights on bigger targets, namely war and terrorism, it's hard not to wish she'd remained as narrowly focused on the politics of personal freedom.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Beyond the interstellar electro-club vibe, it's still distinctively Björk on the ballads.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
"Volta," much like "Medulla," is an appealing series of collaborations and musical ideas that do not quite jell in their final, recorded versions.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Even Björk's misses are more exciting than most of what we currently call hits. [12 May 2007]
Hot Press
Nothing Bjork does is ever less than provocative... Just don’t expect to it to force you out of your seat.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Where even her most divisive albums have managed to push her artistic boundaries, Volta feels limp and strangely empty-- almost unfinished.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
An album of pasty songs, severe missteps and bizarre overreaches, but an album nevertheless shimmering occasionally with the inherent sometime-genius of its creator, Volta is one of those pretty-bad records that may stick around, may sound better in a few years.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
Fans might find it a fascinating revelation, and Madonna will likely swipe a few ideas, while everyone else is left wondering what happened to the tunes.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 98 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Oleg V. gave it a10:
Dull Flame Of Desire is an incredibly amazing and touching tune - my favourite in last 5 years. It brings me to tears every time I listen to it (ok, now - not but first 20 listens it did :). I See Who Your Are is another tune here which brings to tears. Declare Independence is an amazing electroindustrial energetic, but Pheumonia is one of her most beautiful "quiet" songs. The whole album is as good as her other work, here are only two songs which did not work for me: Wanderlust and My Juvenile. Interesting a lot of fans claim Wandelust as on the the best :) And I think Innocence is too poppy and has too much of Timbaland but it's fine. Earth Intruders shows a perfect balance betweet Timbaland's and Bjork's producing.
Simon B gave it a0:
How come with every single artist that makes complete psychotic gibberish his or her artstyle, there are people claiming things in the nature of the cock-eyed argument that GOD MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS? I listened to this album and I find that all of her songs are nothing but noise. It's Björk WITH instruments. This should be referred to as a single instrument which makes lots of noise. Björk resorts to yelling a bunch of stuff at different tones and intervalls and calls this music. I'd like to consider that seeing an artist live will make me appreciate their music better... But excuse me, that means the album is shit and her prestations are good. Björk is a visual musical artist. Notice what's wrong here? The only way she can be awesome is through looks. Her music... It. SUCKS. ASS. She picks bits and pieces from other types of musics and just goes on having a seizure. The song "The Dull flame of Desire" was the worst torturous piece of trash I've ever heard in my life. I don't know how long it is but to me, it felt like twenty minutes of a girl and a guy having auditory sex, REPEATING "THE DULL FLAME OF DESSZZZZAAYURRRRRRRR" ... I liked some of her older songs which I'd hear at random, but this... THIS IS GARBAGE! Only buy this shit if you're a fan. I still feel damn dumb I bought it and I deserve to be shunned.
Chris K gave it a10:
Bjork is my favorite singer of all time. The only problem with her is that she is soo ahead of her time it is ridiculous and that is why alot of people(including myself when i first heard her) don't get her music.... but after seeing her live performing volta i was blown away..... if you want to hear volta at its best download the mp3 of her at coachella 2007.
ixat a gave it a10:
one thing needs to be clarified here - this is not a pop album. don't get ur mind confused when knowing that timba's workin with her n this one.. he's merely putting beats on 3 of the numbers here... not a poplover material this one, i say.. n only real fans of hers will know how to appreciate this album
Aaron R gave it a4:
Bjork seems to have been aiming at musical abstract art with this album(as with Medulla) instead of real musical art, as her previous albums were. Most of the songs on this album sound make you feel like you're in an art gallary, watching a bunch of wealthy socialites admire a canvas with random pocka dots all over the place. I must say, I don't get it, and I question the sincerity of those who think the album is awesome.
Khalid B gave it a10:
First time i listened through the cd, i thought it was a complete dissapointment, then i listened it again, it was possibly one of the most amazing things ive listened to this year (besides The Con,Ga Ga Ga,Maths and English etc.) i think a high light is the duets with Anthony, it showed how much emotion she can sing with, it was soo haunting, so original, it almost brought a year to my eye when i first heard the song, it was soo amazing. Bjork, good job, another great success. I hope you put the dull flame on your greatest hits cd (which i expect will be out in the following years)
C P gave it a2:
Prior to Medulla, I can scarcely remember even thinking of skipping a song on a Bjork album. I have loved them all -- almost equally. Volta is an utter disappointment for me. The arrangements are far too sparse and for the love of god -- where is the melody? Earth Intruders is a decent song, but after dozens of listens over a week, I've felt no urge to listen to any of the remaining tracks on this Volta. I'm blown away ... just shocking.
