Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there are a few dark images (corpses and pregnant terrorists, for example) sprinkled amidst charming poetry and an experimental hodgepodge of sound effects. There are also subtle messages of female empowerment.
Families can talk about creating something different. What makes Bjork's music and songwriting stand out from the other pop music out there? What is it about popular culture that makes so many artists try to sound the same? Do you think it's hard to be different?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Kathi Kamen Goldmark
VOLTA, Bjork's sixth album, is filled with odd musical juxtapositions and playful experimentation. As is often the case with quirky artistic efforts, some of it works and some of it doesn't -- and the songs that work the best are those that are the least self-consciously "artistic." When Bjork manages to get over herself and just be fun, her music is absolutely charming.
Kids will find the surprising mix of sound effects and inventive percussion on many of the tracks very cool, Timbaland fans will enjoy the fact that he produced two of the tunes, and feminists will love the all-female Icelandic brass section. Parents will appreciate the "PG-13" sensibility as the few mentions of anything sexual are buried deep in innuendo ("Let's celebrate now all the flesh on our bones/let me push you up against me tightly") and the small amount of potentially frightening images ("turmoil carnage," "suicide bomber made to look pregnant") are softened with intriguing musical arrangements and wispy, ethereal vocals.
And, there's something delightfully refreshing about Bjork's way of turning a phrase. "I am leaving this harbour/giving urban a farewell/Its habitants seem too keen on God/I cannot stomach their rights and wrongs/I have lost my origin and I don't want to find it again/rather sailing into nature's laws/and be held by ocean's paws," she sings on "Wanderlust," and who wouldn't, when you put it that way?
Bjork is really one of a kind, but fans of this album might also enjoy Arctic Monkeys and Tori Amos.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual Content |
 |
|
|
|
ViolenceSome darkly poetic death imagery here and there ("What's the lesser of two evils:/If a suicide bomber/made to look pregnant/manages to kill her target/or not?"). |
 |
|
|
|
Language |
|
|
|
|
Message |
|
|
|
|
Social BehaviorA subtle feminist message throughout ("Declare independence!/Don't let them do that to you!/Raise the flag!"). |
 |
|
 |
|
Commercialism |
|
|
|
|
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|
|
|
