Björk – Utopia (2017)

February 11, 2024

I’ve struggled with reviewing this album for seven years. I just keep putting it off and off and off, and today, after one more listen, I feel exactly the same way.

For as lush and as dense as Utopia’s production is, I cannot shake the feeling that this is a listless, rudderless voyage through a sea of magnolia coloured clouds. Every so often, a huge piece of glass or crystal is visible through the mist, which refracts light beautifully. But then the horror hits me: what if our rudderless ship collides with one of these huge pieces of glass? Our vessel would be torn asunder and we’d be doomed to float amongst this artsy, ethereal music for an eternity, akin to some sort of hipster paradise purgatory.

Honestly, this trip is about an hour long but feels like four. As we get further into the rabbit hole of Bjork’s career, more and more of her records succumb to this seemingly directionless formulae of songwriting, but Utopia is borderline unlistenable in its approach.