BJORK – Homogenic

"In many ways, Homogenic, released in September 1997, was the sound of Björk retreating from the spotlight after the huge success of Debut and Post – albeit in a combative way. Having lived in London throughout her initial solo success and after much-publicised relationships with Tricky and Goldie, she moved to Malaga in Spain and then back home to Iceland to work on the songs that would eventually become Homogenic. From the album cover – Björk representing a king of warrior mother-figure who, as she put it, fought wars with love – down to the stripping back of her sound to just beats and strings, this was no outlandish bid for more fame but, rather a fight back against the extraneous forces that fame had brought with it. It is, at times, an incredibly confrontational album. For Björk, Homogenic was a return to her Icelandic roots; she wanted the beats to sound volcanic, for the strings and the lyrics to be almost comically epic, and for the album to be a modern take on Icelandic pop.