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Bjork: TELEGRAM (1996)

Chad DeFeo | Philadelphia, PA USA | 09/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In 1996, Bjork released her third album entitled, TELEGRAM. This album is a remix album, featuring most of the songs that were featured on her second album, POST. But the songs from her 1995 album that are on TELEGRAM are remixed. Though not as good as her first two albums, this is an extremely creative remix album.



POSSIBLE MAYBE (Lucy Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.



HYPER-BALLAD (Brodsky Quartet Version)

Original version from the album POST (1995). The album/single version was incredible and amazing, but this string-band quartet version is just plain awful.



ENJOY (Further Over The Edge Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.



MY SPINE

New song. This song should have been released as a single, especially for its sound and quality. Bjork could have made a great video for this one.



I MISS YOU (Dobie Rub Part One-Sunshine Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.



ISOBEL (Deodato Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.



YOU'VE BEEN FLIRTING AGAIN (Flirting Is A Promise Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Great remix.



COVER ME (Dillinja Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). Another great remix.



ARMY OF ME (Masseymix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). This remix could have been a lot better, which is why I prefer the album version of this song, over this remix.



HEADPHONES (0 Mix)

Original version from the album POST (1995). This remix is a lot better than the album version of this song.



I MISS YOU

From the album POST (1995). Great song. Why Bjork included the album version of this song here is beyond me, but this is still a great song.



This remix album is another successful masterpiece by the Iceland Queen. This is a great buy for all Bjork fans."

Björk in the Mix

Alex Joseph | 07/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A remix usually constitutes just what it implies: vocals with some new instrumentals, and maybe a reverb, delay, and cutup, or two. But Björk being Björk, her less-than-monumental yet doubtlessly ambitious 1996 remix album Telegram is cut from a different cloth than most remixes. In fact, it's another fabric entirely.



Before any commentary, it should be duly noted that, if you disliked Post, stay far away from Telegram. There is certainly difference between the two, but if you found yourself moaning at the LP version of "Headphones," you'll practically gag on the minimalist remix on this disc.



But "Headphone" is the only track that's drastically minimized. The other songs feel busier, in fact. "Army of Me," for example, goes from the lead character to the anthropomorphic tree in the background. "Army of Me" is not minimized in a traditional sense, though the harsh electronic beats applied to it on Telegram diminish its original declaratory beauty.



If you found "Hyper-ballad" lacking on Post, you'll be happily surprised by the Brodsky Quartet version here. It sweeps into a Top Forty, Coldplay-esque crescendo that communicates such a rife, orchestral beauty----a beauty not found in the aforementioned forty. The hip-hop remix of "I Miss You" is a decent, slow-moving old-school mix that not everyone will find Björkish enough. Then again, the yuppie-lounge mix of "Isobel" may cause some listeners to instantly press "eject." And as for "Enjoy"? I don't what the hell is going on there. It's grating and pretty damn annoying. Instantly forgettable.



"Cover Me" has a little drum n' bass thing going on, and it works to an exciting degree. "Possibly Maybe" is possibly better than the original. A misty mysteriousness surrounds it, a blackened fog. Portishead vibes result, sans the emotional whining of Beth Gibbons. "You've Been Flirting Again" reminiscences a deathly little music box. It shimmers and then ogles at it own pity. An excellent track; perhaps another vastly preferable to the original.



The b-side "My Spine" is also included. It's a tiny sensuality that's breezy and a bit ominous at the same time, thanks to Evelyn Glennie's percussion.



Is the luxurious electronic silk that Telegram is made of worth your time, or should you stay to the classics and stick with Post? For a Björk fan, it's a worthy album and deserving of a spot on the CD rack. Otherwise, skip Telegram as a whole and buy its best tracks: "Hyper-ballad," "Possibly Maybe," "You've Been Flirting Again," and "My Spine.""

The most essential Bjork release

mianfei | 09/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Iceland's Bjork, who originally came to attention throughout the world as a member of the Sugarcubes, was not actually heard by me on radio until "It's Oh So Quiet" from her second solo album Post, when I was becoming fed up with commercial radio as awful bands like Silverchair and the Presidents of the USA emerged. At first, I found "It's Oh So Quiet" annoying and no less terrible than grunge, but as I grew to adore artists like Laura Nyro and Kate Bush I came to realise that Bjork was regarded by many as the successor to those women. This realisation, indeed, caused me to reappraise the whole of Bjork's canon, which is (like all these eccentric female artists) very much an acquired taste.



Upon buying Post from a discount store and then the quieter Vespertine, I realised that there really was so much more to Bjork than I had thought half a decade earlier. rather than dreadfully overblown noise that easily surpasses any hated 1980s hair-metal band, the predominant theme in Bjork's work is vocal acrobatics that move far beyond such classics as Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry. Bjork was able to achieve this because she relied on very sprasely used electronics instead of a piano, so that fewer, but deeper notes accompany her voice.



Nowhere is the deep emotion created by this pattern of simple synthesisers over a dramatic voice better seen than on the 1997 remix album "Telegram". With songs taken almost exclusively from Post, the various co-workers actually added to what was already an exceptionally high emotional level by retaining and expandion upon only the barest essentials of Bjork's sound. The opener "Possibly Maybe" is truly eerie and seemingly otherworldly, yet the echo-like tone set through the piece is remarkably resonant and even catchy - kind of like Parliament with only the essential drum and bass.



The second track, a remix of her minor hit single "Hyperballad" that evokes perfectly the famously celebrated Icelandic landscapes, is a total contrast. Bjork sings in a deeply sensual manner that touches the listener much more deeply than the original album version can. Then the remixers move to the opposite extreme with a techno-intense version of "Enjoy". Though I hate the techno played on the radio in the 1990s, "Enjoy" is truly ferocious and has a level of depth that ought to have made horrible dance groups like the Real McCoy think about not making music. "My Spine", the only track unique to this album, sees Bjork at her very best over a beat of jazzy percussion and lyrics clearly derived from "Hyperballad".



"I Miss You" might feature the distasteful rapping that ruined and ruins so much music to this day, but Bjork's seductive voice is sufficient to largely, if not completely overwhelm this fault. "Isobel", wiht its brilliant lyrical celebration of remoteness and solitude, is further enhanced by the strings, whilst "Cover Me" (probably her most underrated song) is expanded in a remarkable way from the album version without losing its distinctive simple harpsichord sound. "Army of Me", in its original version perhaps the best opening track on any 1990s album, is made into a gothic instruemntal piece by the dense, layered synthesisers. It is so different that even if you find it unlistenable it's worth a try. The version of "Headphones" continues the gothic tone but in a slower, though even deeper kind of manner. the way Bjork's voice enters when one least expects it adds to the wonders of what is achieved on "Telegram".



All in all, "Telegram" is a most remarkable deconstruction of what was an exceedingly impressive album to produce some of the most daring, yet most sedctive and passionate, sound to come from the music world in the last thirty years. If you want to see what made Bjork so unique and original, there is no better place than "Telegram"."