Debut is the international debut studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk, released on 5 July 1993 by One Little Indian and Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Björk and Nellee Hooper and was Björk's first recording following the dissolution of her previous band, the Sugarcubes. The album departed from the rock style of her previous work and drew from an eclectic variety of styles, including electronic pop, house music, jazz and trip hop.
Debut received critical acclaim from British music critics, though American reviews were mixed. It exceeded sales expectations, charting at number two in Iceland, three in the United Kingdom, and 61 in the United States. Debut was certified gold in Canada and platinum in the US, where it remains Björk's best-selling album. Five singles were released from Debut: "Human Behaviour", "Venus as a Boy", "Play Dead", "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy". All charted in the UK, with only "Human Behaviour", "Violently Happy" and "Big Time Sensuality" charting on dance and modern rock charts in the US.
Background and production
While performing as the vocalist of Icelandic alternative rock group the Sugarcubes, Björk approached Ásmundur Jónsson of Bad Taste and producer Derek Birkett of One Little Indian Records with a demo cassette of her own songs. The demo included versions of songs that appeared on Debut, including "The Anchor Song" and "Aeroplane". After the Sugarcubes went on hiatus, Björk moved to London, England, where she and Birkett worked on the details of what would become Debut. The Sugarcubes' music did not fit Björk's taste, and her contact with London's underground club culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s helped her find her own musical identity. Björk said in a 1993 interview that the guitar-driven rock in her previous work felt outdated, and that house music was "the only pop music that [was] truly modern… where anything creative [was] happening [at the time]." She said that "Kate Bush has really influenced [her]" as well as Brian Eno, acid house, "electronic beats" and "labels like Warp."
Björk had already written half the songs for Debut, but had nothing recorded. She had written many of them years before moving to London, including "Human Behaviour", which she wrote as a teenager when she was in the Sugarcubes. She had put aside the songs as "I was in punk bands and [the songs] weren't punk". With no producer, she composed songs with 808 State member Graham Massey in a friend's home in Manchester, where she also wrote songs included on later albums, including "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things".
While creating electronic tracks with Massey, Björk developed a desire to work with a jazz producer. Paul Fox, who had worked with the Sugarcubes, introduced her to jazz harpist Corky Hale. Hale had planned to decline to work with Björk until her stepson, a Sugarcubes fan, insisted that she take the job. Björk recorded a handful of jazz standards with Hale in 1991, including "I Remember You" and an early version of "Like Someone in Love"; the latter song was included in Debuts track listing. Fox also introduced Björk to Oliver Lake, with whom Björk recorded another jazz standard, "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", with Lake's jazz group for the John Hughes film Curly Sue. Hughes turned down the recording, but it led to Debut being produced by Fox and arranged by Oliver Lake. Björk contracted Lake to work with session saxophonists in London for Debut; Lake's contributions are heard on tracks including "Aeroplane" and "The Anchor Song".
Björk intended to have several producers work on the album. She planned to have the album produced with Fox until she was introduced to producer Nellee Hooper by her boyfriend Dominic Thrupp. Hooper had produced albums by Soul II Soul and Sinéad O'Connor which made Björk skeptical about working with him, stating: "I thought Nellee was too 'good taste' for my liking. But then I met him, got to know him, [and] got to hear about his fabulous ideas." Björk and Hooper's recording ideas were similar, which led to her decision to end production with Massey and Fox. Hooper introduced Björk to studio technology and studio programmer Marius de Vries, who gave Debut a modern style with keyboards and synthesizers. He produced the first ten tracks on the album, while Björk co-produced "Like Someone in Love" with Hooper and produced "The Anchor Song" alone. Björk and Hooper spent many sessions in the studio working on Debut until the album was finished in early 1993.
Composition
Debut draws on an eclectic variety of sources. Treblezine described the album as "[melding] alternative dance and electronic with a graceful flow." It is said that the album "[shook] the status quo" of the contemporary musical climate, in the sense that its eclectic experimental pop leanings distanced it from the music "primarily being made by men with guitars" that was popular at the time, such as grunge and the burgeoning Britpop. Michael Cragg of The Guardian described it as an "indefinable conflation of electronic pop, trip-hop, world music and otherworldly lyrics". AllMusic described the album as "creative, tantalizing electronic pop." The New York Times wrote that "Debut often recalls the early '70s jazz-fusion of bands like Weather Report. But where these fusionists combined jazz harmony with funk and acid rock, Björk marries her scat-vocalese and off-kilter melodies with the futuristic textures and programmed percussion of today's techno and acid house. The Faces Mandi James felt Debut was "a delightful fusion of thrash metal, jazz, funk and opera, with the odd dash of exotica thrown in for good measure." Billboard described the album as "an art pop masterpiece". Björk also took influence from the music of Bollywood and "the buzz of London nightlife."
Debut incorporates dance music, reflecting the contemporary styles of London's club culture, with which Björk had established close ties. While elements of subgenres such as Euro-house, acid jazz, worldbeat and IDM are present, "they hadn't yet broken free from the primal thump of four-on-the-floor house music." Tom Breihan of Stereogum wrote that "even as dance music took on all these new sounds, that basic pulse was still the most important thing about it, and that pulse reverberates all through Debut." Björk said: "A lot of the songs on my record have dance beats, but I think they're beats that are more reflective of daily life—like life in the middle of the day in a city, as opposed to the night life of the clubs." The four on the floor style, typical of house music, is evident in songs such as "Human Behaviour", "Crying", "Big Time Sensuality", "There's More to Life Than This" and "Violently Happy".
Being a fan of dance music since the early days of acid house, she used it as the framework for her songs. She told Rolling Stone that she "was more influenced by ambient music… and by things that were happening way back in Chicago and Detroit". Björk's embrace of England's dance culture also extended to her image, considered representative of 1990s acid house fashion.
Hooper had been a member of Bristol's "Wild Bunch", a group that took from acid jazz, funk and hip-hop and helped create trip-hop. The less dance-oriented electronic Debut tracks have a more trip-hop style sound and a "more delicate atmosphere". i-D noted that Debut—and Björk's subsequent album Post—integrate ambient techno and jungle, stating that they "couldn't have existed without Aphex Twin, Black Dog, A Guy Called Gerald, LFO and all the other producers who reshaped the language of music since 1988." Available at bjork.fr Also present are elements of jazz, with WUOG stating that "while many see Debut as Björk's clubbiest album, it may also be her jazziest." Brad Shoup of Stereogum wrote that "though her electronic bent gets the most attention, it's her interest in jazz that courses through the set." Tim Perlich of Now felt Debut "bridges jazz and pop", Available at bjork.fr and Simon Reynolds characterized it as "jazzy love songs tinged with an oceanic feeling."
Songs The lyrics of Debut contain themes of love. They range from "flesh-and-blood passion" for another person to the love of life itself. According to i-D, with a couple of exceptions, the songs of Debut fell into two types: "those where Björk addressed the listener as someone in pain and told them fireworks would light their nights and all would be well;" and "songs where she sang about her own pain." The Face stated that the album's lyrics "[consolidated] her love affair with language," while The Sunday Times felt that Björk "rigorously [avoided] the obvious" by using lyrics that do not rhyme. Available at bjork.fr
The first track "Human Behaviour" features a "bouncing riff" sampled from Antônio Carlos Jobim, with "its syncopated beat consigned to a venerable orchestral instrument, the timpani." Its lyrics refer to Björk's experience as a child, finding the behaviour of adults "rather chaotic and nonsensical," instead finding harmony with other children, nature and animals. Inspired by naturalist David Attenborough, she sings from the point of view of an animal, with its opening line being "If you ever get close to a human/And human behaviour/Be ready, be ready to get confused". Following track "Crying" shows a contradiction between its "bubbly, shiny-surfaced acid disco-pop" sound and lyrics that describe the turmoil of feeling alienated in a big city. "Venus as a Boy"—considered an ambient track by Rolling Stone—reflected Björk's newly found interest in Bollywood, having befriended people of Indian origin in London, most notably tabla player Talvin Singh. In a spontaneous fashion, the song's strings—and also those of "Come to Me"—were recorded by a film studio orchestra in India, thanks to Singh. The lyrics of the track are about the sensitivity of her then boyfriend Dominic Thrupp, with lyrics that have been described as "sweet and just the slightest bit naughty." In the dancefloor-oriented "There's More to Life Than This", Björk leaves romance behind, with "her mischievous side [coming] to the fore". Its lyrics were inspired by a party she attended and promptly left. "Like Someone in Love" is one of the several jazz standards she recorded with Corky Hale, with her voice "cradled in harp and swoony strings."