Post is the second studio album by Icelandic singer Björk. It was released on 12 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, alongside that of 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.
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 Post's commercial peak, Björk was affected by promotional touring and media attention. She assaulted a reporter and survived a murder attempt. 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.
Recording and production
Björk released her previous studio album Debut in 1993. At that time, she had moved to London. The production of Debut was "long and laborious", as Björk sought to fully realise the songs she wrote from the past. After its release, she began to look for new ideas in the present for her next album. She contacted producer Nellee Hooper who had worked with her on Debut. He initially encouraged her to produce the album herself, but agreed when she insisted. Björk agreed to co-produce with other enlisted producers; "to make it stay fresh, she had to think about other people being involved". With Hooper's confirmation, Björk commenced work on the album in late 1994 at the Compass Point Studios in Nassau. The picturesque locale inspired Björk to meld the recording process with the exotic natural environment. For example, Björk waded into the ocean and recorded vocals while the sun set, captured by a digital recorder powered by a generator on the beach. The first version of "Cover Me" was recorded entirely from a cave.
Björk incorporated songs she had written in Manchester with 808 State's Graham Massey before the recording of Debut. These included "Army of Me" and "The Modern Things", which she had performed live and did not need to be extensively changed. Björk said she left "Army of Me" off Debut as she felt Debut "was a more gentle energy and Post was more raw, more brutal". Massey said: "With 'Army of Me' we wanted to try something that was quite hard and techno-y. I'm not sure how she wrote those lyrics so fast but I remember that song being almost instantaneous. [...] We kind of knocked that off in one day and then started on 'The Modern Things' the same day and finished that the next."
Although the album was supposed to be delivered the day after she returned from the Bahamas, Björk felt it was not yet complete and continued its production in London. She enlisted a new team of engineers and programmers, and spent the next months "tweaking, rearranging, and sometimes completely rerecording her pre-existing tracks". Ultimately, it was the inclusion of more "real" instruments that "resuscitated Post for Björk". Björk continued to compose songs such as "Isobel", which was created while she was visiting Reykjavík for Christmas, before bringing it back to Hooper's studio. The song's lyrics were written in collaboration with Icelandic poet Sjón, which was his first songwriting experience. Sjón would become a frequent collaborator throughout Björk's career. She also enlisted trip hop artist Tricky to assist in producing the album, on the condition that he would work on two tracks on her album and she would contribute two vocals for his album. Their collaboration resulted in the Post songs "Enjoy" and "Headphones"—in addition to "Keep Your Mouth Shut" and "Yoga", which appeared on Tricky's 1996 studio album, Nearly God.
The track that underwent the most extensive change was "I Miss You", an old song from the Debut era. Howie Bernstein gave the song its "Latin-tinged [rhythm]". Back in London, Björk contacted "old standby" Talvin Singh to record additional percussion parts for it. Fellow former Sugarcubes member Einar Örn Benediktsson was also contacted to play the trumpet on "Enjoy". English sessionist Gary Barnacle was enlisted to play the saxophone. Brazilian composer Eumir Deodato participated on the album at Björk's request. She contacted him after hearing his arrangements of a Milton Nascimento song called "Travessia". Deodato's presence as composer and conductor "immediately bolstered" the songs "Hyperballad", "You've Been Flirting Again" and "Isobel". This addition of strings, brass and percussion elements gave Post the balance Björk felt her original recordings had lacked. "It's Oh So Quiet" was the last track to be recorded. By the time the album was finished in April 1995, the list of co-producers included Björk, Hooper, Bernstein, Massey, and Tricky. Björk has said: "The people I collaborated with were all people I was hanging out with in clubs in London. I had known them all for a while before we ended up working together."
Composition Musical style
Björk's website described Post as "a bit of a bolder side of [Björk], who now had ventured all the way from Iceland to England, and was exploring the faster pace and big city life that this new country brought. This album became influenced of that and became more adventurous and club-friendly as a contrast to the shy first album, Debut." While IDM and trip hop influences were present on Debut, Post is characterised by Björk's fuller incorporation of these genres. The balance between synthetic and organic elements in Post —generated through the combination of electronic and "real" instruments—is a recurring characteristic of Björk's output. Simon Reynolds wrote in 2011 that "Post tapped into the vortex of multicultural energy that was mid-90s London where she had relocated, and where strange hybrids such as jungle and trip-hop were bubbling". Post has been described as art pop, experimental pop, and avant-pop.
With its eclectic nature, Post touches on various musical styles. When asked if this variety of genres was intentional, Björk replied: "Yes, I'm very aware of that. I've got very many sides to me." Björk described Post as "musically promiscuous" and "spastic". In 1996, when asked about the album's musical influences, she stated: "I'm influenced by everything. By books, by the weather, by the water, by my shoes, if they're comfortable or not. Everything."
Songs
The album opens with "Army of Me", an aggressive song with industrial rock, and trip hop influences. It incorporates a looped drum sample of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". Dedicated to Björk's younger brother, the song's lyrics are, according to Björk herself, "about telling someone who is full of self-pity and doesn't have anything together to get a life and stand up"; as she sings: "And if you complain once more/You'll meet an army of me!" "Hyperballad", is a track that incorporates electronic and orchestral styles, with a sound NME described as being "altered from gentle folktronica to drum and bass-tinted acid house". Its lyrics are about Björk pondering her own suicide, as she throws objects off a cliff as a form of Exorcism before returning to her partner. The track is followed by "The Modern Things", a song that, in a magical realist tone, "playfully posits the theory that technology has always existed, waiting in mountains for humans to catch up". Interview described it in 1995 as a "spooky tune", noting "the odd scratchings at the end" of the track. The big band track "It's Oh So Quiet" covers a German composition made famous by Betty Hutton. It has been described as "a palate-cleanser during the course of the record". Björk included the song "just to make it absolutely certain… that every song would be a shock".
The following track, "Enjoy", a song concerning the links between sex and fear, has been considered "decidedly trippy", and "Posts most abrasive track". NME described it in its 1995 review as, "a dark and deranged techno thing". Over military drums and "squalls of noise", Björk sings about "her hedonistic tendencies". The orchestral interlude "You've Been Flirting Again", like the previous track "Enjoy", features "mysterious or open-ended lyrics". They are an attempt to describe the ambiguous nature of flirting. "Isobel" is a string-laden, orchestral trip hop song, Craig McLean of The Face called the track "Broadway on breakbeats". Conceived by Björk as "part autobiography part storytelling", its lyrics concern Isobel, a woman magically born in a forest who finds people in the city "a bit too clever for her", eventually retreating back to nature and sending them a message of instinct through trained moths.
"Possibly Maybe" is an ambient dub track that fuses trip-hop and chill-out music and has a slide guitar in the background. Its lyrics document the various stages of Björk's failed relationship with Stéphane Sednaoui. With the track, Marius de Vries (keyboards/programming) "create[d] a vinyl-crackling ambience, full of glissando strings and leaden, muted bass. "I Miss You" was described in 1997 as an "amalgam of styles, with electronic drums melding into African bongos mixed with jazzy horn playing". A house music number, its "horn-infused Afro-Cuban strains [...] reflect the romantic whimsy of [its] lyrics". Björk wrote "Cover Me", one of the quieter moments on the album, to her co-producer Nellee Hooper after he agreed to participate in the making of Post. She has said: "I guess I was trying to make fun of myself, how dangerous I manage sometimes to make album making. And trying to lure him into it. But it is also thing from me to him". The album ends with the experimental "Headphones", an ambient track. Featuring "just-for-headphones studio tricks", it has been described as "a chiming, somnolent dip into Björk's heavy-lidded pre-dream state". Its lyrics were written as a thank you to Graham Massey, who would make compilation cassettes for Björk. She also stated: "But, of course, it is also a love letter to sound. The sound of sound. Resonances, frequencies, silences and such... a music-worship thing".
Title Björk said the title Post refers to the fact that all the songs were written after her move to England, in contrast to Debut, the songs of which were written while she was still living in Iceland. In a 1996 interview, Björk said: "I always knew it would be two albums and that's why I called them Debut and Post. Before and after." The title also has the meaning of "mail", inspired by Björk's desire to communicate with friends and family in Iceland.
Artwork