Every Björk album, ranked

Highlights: “Earth Intruders,” “Innocence,” “Declare Independence”The thing with Volta is: It’s not even a bad record, it’s just not a great Björk record. With her sixth studio album, Björk sought to return to the joy and vibrancy of her earlier work by embracing a straightforward pop sound. Well, as straightforward as she could possibly be. Unfortunately, Volta doesn’t evoke the same lust for life as say, Debut, and hardly grapples with anything new. While she brought in new collaborators such as Timbaland, the effect is minimal, marking a missed opportunity. Much of Volta certainly is accessible—as she promised upon its release—but it also falls flat, begging for the breath of life. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Highlights: “Blissing Me,” “Tabula Rasa,” “Saint”The first time Björk met Spanish electronic experimentalist Arca in 2013, the pair reportedly together, and their magnetic relationship comes to creative fruition on 2017’s . The album manages to feel meditative on an enormous scale–introducing Arca’s industrial stylings into Björk’s fairytale ether adds a hard edge to Björk’s sprawling musings. Whether an intended or gleefully accidental consequence of Arca’s influence, Utopia also finds Björk looking at love in an endearingly online manner. “Is this excess texting a blessing?/ Two music nerds obsessing” she laments on “Blissing Me,” insinuating that even Bjork isn’t immune to Googling a “does he like me” quiz every once in a while. The line feels especially lived in given the album’s sprawling, often amorphous lyrical content. Utopia’s dual vision may not ring as clearly as some of Björk and Arca’s respective solo work, but their masterfully uncompromising creative synergy is undeniable. [Hattie Lindert]

Highlights: “Where Is The Line?,” “Who Is It? (Carry My Joy On The Left, Carry My Pain On The Right),” “Desired Constellation”Medulla marks some of Björk’s most vanguard vocal work. Not only does she lean into the spectrum of animalistic tones within her own voice, but she employs disparate vocal techniques from around the world to layer her fifth album’s brazenly discordant soundscape. Tracks like “Where Is The Line?” mesh throat singing, beatboxing, and whistling, all while Björk wonders just how “elastic” she’ll have to be to be recognized by a lover. The quest to reach a clear sense of identity is Medulla’s beating heart—wracked with existential uncertainty, Björk relies on the full expanse of her rhythmic and melodic tastes to find her place in the world. Her haunting yelp of “How am I going to make it right?” on “Desired Constellation” finds her immersed in existential uncertainty. Even overcome with hurt and resentment (brought to a crescendo on the endlessly hooky “Who Is It?”), Björk yearns to make right and find equilibrium over the din. [Hattie Lindert]

Highlights: “Ancestress,” “Fungal City,” “Her Mother’s House”With her newest work, Björk thrust her hands deep into the soil, pulling up ancestral roots, soil, and fungi. Fossora (from the Latin word for “ hole digger”) connects the singer to a deep, nearly primal place, where she meditates on motherhood, history, and what it means to be home. In one moment, vocal choruses wash over us, and in the next, we’re bombarded with techno beats and robust bass clarinets. Standard songwriting structures fly out the window, and Björk tinkers with new avenues of melodic and vocal expression. The result is compelling, even puzzling at moments. With esoteric Fossora is, Björk once again dares to go where not many would—creating something entirely unique, engaging, and beautiful. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Highlights: “Crystalline,” “Virus,” “Mutual Core” Biophilia rips into the meat of Björk’s experimental tastes—its strangest, most ethereal moments are also some of Björk’s most dexterous. But as the artist sings on “Thunderbolt,” “My romantic gene is dominant, ” we’re reminded that in all its alien oddities, this is a love album. Björk’s working definition of romance is overwhelming and nebulous, but her skillful eye for luscious instrumental drama is the perfect match for the enormous emotions she tries to capture. Take the album’s thrashing denouement “Mutual Core,” both an instrumental high-point and lyrical statement. The electronic beat maniacally, cathartically builds as she cries “You didn’t know I had it in me.” Despite its avant-garde nature, Biophilia takes on a grief-wracked, near-universal battle cry Björk would further expand upon (to monumental effect) on 2015’s Vulnicura. However overwhelming and disarming, this is a sonic landscape worth multiple revisits. [Hattie Lindert]

Highlights: “Stonemilker,” “History of Touches,” “Family” Björk’s eighth studio album finds her lost in heartbreak—sometimes angry, sometimes whimpering. The result is an open wound of an album documenting the artist’s own fragmented grief. “Moments of clarity are so rare/I better document this,” she cries on the opener, “Stonemilker,” providing a thesis to this painstaking personal exploration that marks some of her most formidable vocal work. Muted, syncopated bass races like an anxious heartbeat on the armor-clad “Lionsong”—the fluttering synths on “History of Touches” elucidate the shivering heartbreak of recalling a lover’s tenderness. On the album centerpiece, “Family,” Björk falls to her knees begging for “solutions”—the only difference is, Björk doesn’t look to God for the answers. finds her returning to her own spiritual center, replenishing herself without her other half. Heartbreak is far from pretty—in Björk’s hands, it’s bittersweet and beautiful. [Hattie Lindert]

Highlights: “It’s Not Up To You,” “Undo,” “Unison” Björk’s albums are all a world unto their own—Vespertine is a universe. Exploring a relationship from formation to dissolution, Björk’s reverential fourth studio album is a hero’s journey that wades boldly through her own mythos. Although a penchant for minimal, twinkling production creates cohesion, “It’s Not Up To You” is a stadium-sized pop anthem, while “Pagan Poetry” begs to be freestyled over by an intrepid rapper—the further Björk strays from any traversed genre, the weirder and more wonderful she becomes. But Vespertine’s most searing moments are also its most vulnerable—“Undo” begins over an icy instrumental with Björk lamenting a relationship that’s all “strife,” and by the time the track ends, it’s a thundering, choral call for anyone shackled by love to “undo.”On the exultant album closer “Unison,” passion and pain have coagulated, and Björk can laugh at her “hermit” tendencies as a partner. But the soaring vocal refrain—“I never thought I would compromise”—paints self-reflection as a knife’s edge. Looking back on a great love’s trajectory is no easy feat, and on the unsparing Vespertine, Björk offers a masterclass in coming out on the other side, battered but breathing. [Hattie Lindert]

Highlights: “Like Someone In Love,” “Big Time Sensuality,” “Venus As A Boy”On Debut, Björk reaches the gratifying highs and lows of being truly alive to the tune of jangly percussion, lively club beats, and the howl of her own voice. Much of the work grapples with the vulnerability that comes with the human body—how we strive to connect and emote, with the undeniable need to reach out and touch one another. There’s a certain delirium within Debut as we see Björk at her most inhibited, propelled by a lust for life. At times, even Björk is baffled by the human experience as well as the way feelings work—and Debut honors that confusion. The record is rich with pop hooks that deeply sink their claws into your mind, despite their unorthodox delivery. It’s with Debut that Björk established herself as a singular artist, confounding expectations for the first time. [Gabrielle Sanchez]

Highlights: “Unravel,” “Bachelorette,” “5 Years”Homogenic often feels so advanced—so futuristic—that even 25 years later it still sounds modern. Within the album, Björk examines her relationship with those around her as well as her capacity to love, to an arresting effect. While she set out to make a work of a singular sound (hence the title), she integrates elements of trip-hop, art pop, and house, embellishing them with full-bodied orchestral work. The result is an intimidating, monumental piece of art worth revisiting again and again. Homogenic is a testament to not only Björk’s resilience, but her ability to tell stories, innovate, and push her sound into new frontiers. [Gabrielle Sanchez]