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Volta is the Grammy-nominated seventh full-length studio album from Icelandicmarker singer Björk, a follow-up to 2004's Medúlla and comprises ten new tracks.

The full album was accidentally made available on the UK iTunes Store at midnight on April 23, 2007 for a total of six hours, two weeks before the album's official release date. This led to the album being leaked online the following day. It has been certified Silver in the UK.

Album title significance

Background and development

In an interview for daily Internet publication Pitchfork, Björk talked for the first time about the theme of the album.

For this album, Björk used brass sounds for almost all the songs. These were sometimes sampled from Björk's previous project, "The Music From Drawing Restraint 9", as in the case of "Declare Independence" and "Vertebrae by Vertebrae".

Album collaborations

A wide array of artists collaborated with Björk on material for the album. Björk first contacted Timbaland about a possible collaboration in December 2005. The first session took place in February 2006 in Studio 4 at Manhattan Center Studiosmarker in New York Citymarker, USAmarker, soon after Björk had visited Banda Acehmarker in February 2006 to view some of UNICEF's work with the children who were affected by the tsunami - in May 2005 Björk released the charity album Army of Me: Remixes and Covers to help UNICEF's work in the south east Asian region. Björk's experiences in Indonesia led to the track "Earth Intruders", originally a ten-minute jam which Björk then subsequently edited for the album version. Björk collaborated on seven tracks in total with Timbaland. Timbaland had stated that he intended one of the tracks he did with Björk to appear on his new solo album but this did not materialise. The lead-off single from Volta, "Earth Intruders", is co-produced by Timbaland, as well as the second single "Innocence"; the album track "Hope" is co-written by Timbaland. Björk has stated that the other Timbaland tracks are unlikely to ever be released.

Antony Hegarty, frontman and lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons, appears on the album for two duets—"The Dull Flame of Desire" and "My Juvenile". The collaborative sessions took place in Jamaicamarker.

Björk has also put together her own fourteen-piece brass section of female Icelandic musicians who play on three tracks on the album. Its members comprise Sylvía Hlynsdóttir, Ása Berglind Hjálmarsdóttir, Dröfn Helgadóttir, Valdís Þorkelsdóttir, Karen J. Sturlaugsson, Björk Níelsdóttir, Sigrún Jónsdóttir, Harpa Jóhannsdóttir, Vilborg Jónsdóttir, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Erla Axelsdóttir, Særún Pálmadóttir, Lilja Valdimarsdóttir and Brynja Guðmundsdóttir.

Other collaborators include Brian Chippendale (Drummer), Chris Corsano (Drummer), Toumani Diabaté (Malianmarker kora player), Mark Bell (Musician and record producer), Sjón (Lyricist; contributed lyrics to Wanderlust ), Konono N°1 (Musical group from Kinshasamarker, Democratic Republic of the Congomarker), Damian Taylor (Programmer, Engineer), Michael Pärt (Music Producer) and Min Xiao-Fen (Chinesemarker pipa player).

Album release and reception

Volta spent nine weeks at number one on Billboard's Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. According to Metacritic, the album holds a rating of 77/100, indicating very favorable reviews, with Allmusic.com stating that Volta finds the perfect balance between her(Björk's) poppier work in the '90s and her experiments in the 2000s. Arwa Haider also stated that this (Volta) is arguably (Björk's) strongest album yet, while Priya Elan praised the album as another amazing statement of intent-full of hope, eccenticity and wonderfulness. Michael Keefe, in a more balanced review, said that Volta is not a great album, but it is quite good.

However, Volta also received some mixed reviews with Pitchfork Media stating that Volta is mostly proof that Björk is as fallible as the messy, unpredictable humanity she celebrates, and that even her definition of 'pop' is avant-garde.

The album attracted attention due to the inclusion of three tracks co-produced by R&B record producer Timbaland.

The track titles were confirmed in an article on MTV, March 14, 2007, and confirmed in a post on sprk.nl, 20 March 2007. One other track, "Trance", is rumored to appear as a future b-side. The track entitled "Vertebrae by Vertebrae" was retitled from the previous, "Energy". "Vertebrae by Vertebrae" and "Declare Independence" use brass samples from Björk's previous project, the soundtrack album "The Music from Drawing Restraint 9".

Volta was released in three editions in the UK: a digipak CD edition; a limited edition CD/DVD edition (featuring surround audio in DTS); and a double vinyl edition. The UK and Japanese editions of the album feature the Mark Bell Mix of "I See Who You Are" as a bonus track. Later editions were released in regular jewelcases.

The lead single from Volta was "Earth Intruders", released digitally on April 9, 2007, though leaked on April 6, 2007. Originally expected to be released as a physical single on May 21, 2007, the release was instead replaced by another digital release, "Earth Intruders - Club Mixes", via iTunes. Indeed, there were no chart eligible physical singles released at all during the Volta era, although box sets were eventually released of each single some months after the corresponding digital release.

The second single from Volta was originally meant to be "Declare Independence", but due to the worldwide success of Volta Björk had to perform more international promotion work than her label One Little Indian had originally planned, meaning that the previously-planned video shoot for "Declare Independence" with Michel Gondry in London couldn't take place. The deadline for the music video contest for "Innocence" (originally announced on March 19, 2007) was then brought forward a month to June 10, 2007 so as to provide a finished video able to coincide with the July release originally planned for Declare Independence. "Innocence", the other Timbaland-co-produced track, was released digitally across the globe on July 23, 2007. It was announced that the release would be available in the US on July 31, 2007, though this date was moved later.

"Declare Independence" was released as the third single from Volta on January 1, 2008. The video, directed by Michel Gondry (his seventh video with Björk, and the first since 1997's Bachelorette), was premiered on AOL on 6 December 2007 and on Channel 4 in the UK on December 13, 2007. A making-of was made available on November 29, 2007. The video shoot took place on October 11, 2007 in New York Citymarker. Unlike the first two singles from Volta, the single will have a physical release in the form of two 12” Vinyls, a CD and a DVD.

A video was also shot for the track "Wanderlust", directed by Encyclopedia Pictura and shot in New York City in stereoscopic 3D. The video involves "a mixture of large scale puppeteering, live action acrobatics, miniatures, and CG". The video and single were released in February, 2008. The video was choreographed by Chris Elam, artistic director of Misnomer Dance, and features Brynne Billingsley and Coco Karol.

It was reported on the official site of Antony and the Johnsons that Antony Hegarty and Björk had shot a video for "The Dull Flame of Desire". The news was subsequently removed from the site.. Then Björk in a recent interview said that she and Antony have recorded themselves singing the song on a green screen, and that she sent the video to three directors of the Innocence video contest, and that they're doing the Dull Flame Of Desire video together via e-mail. Björk's official website finally confirmed "The Dull Flame of Desire" to be the fifth single from "Volta" on July 31, 2008, also crediting the following "Innocence" Competition Applicants as the promotional video's directors: Cristoph Jantos, Masahiro Mogari, and Marçal Cuberta Junca. The single will be released in a 2x12" CD/DVD Box Set on September 29, 2008.

A special edition of the album was released on June 23, 2009 as Voltaïc, and includes two live concerts filmed in Paris and Reykjavík, remixes and videos from the Volta era and a live session at Olympic Studios in London. The release was originally announced as 'Volta Revisited' and rumoured to be released in March 2008, and some online music shops made the album available for pre-order, while the Olympic Studio session was originally announced on September 4, 2007 as the "Live Sessions Album". The Voltaïc release is available in five different editions, each featuring varying versions of the 'full' 2 CD and 2 DVD edition.

Björk has since said that "Initially after its release, I felt Volta was just OK", and that she regards the tour versions of the songs as better than those found on the album - in this sense the live recordings released on Voltaïc are to be seen as the true version of the album.

Promotion

As part of the marketing campaign for the album, a series of cryptic videos were circulated on various websites, specifically via YouTube and MySpace. The videos contained distorted audio samples and snippets of the lyrics from some of the tracks on Volta. The videos were discovered on March 28, 2007, though one of the videos had been uploaded to YouTube as early as March 19, 2007. A mysterious MySpace profile ( link) was then discovered on March 28, 2007 which featured another cryptic video and four new audio samples. The profile belonged to a fictitious "Gerome Voltaire" (a play on Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electric battery) of the band "itshardtofindabandname" from Iceland. An article on Pitchfork on March 29, 2007 later confirmed the authenticity of the viral marketing campaign. A podcast shot by Ragnheidur Gestsdóttir detailing the album's production was made available on iTunes on April 10, 2007 - six episodes were made for download, though the final installment cuts out before the video ends. As of yet, the podcast hasn't been fixed by iTunes.

On April 21, 2007, Björk appeared as musical guest on an episode of the U.S.marker comedy-variety show Saturday Night Live in promotion of the album. She performed the songs "Earth Intruders" and "Wanderlust".

On June 8, 2007 (recorded on June 5, 2007), Björk performed on the contemporary UK music show Later With Jools Holland for the fifth time in her solo career. She performed the songs "Earth Intruders", "The Anchor Song", and "Declare Independence."

On September 27, 2007, she appeared on the Americanmarker late night talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, performing the song "Wanderlust". This show was after her headlining performance at a sold out show at Madison Square Gardenmarker.

Alleged "return to pop"

In the run-up to the release of the album, many media outlets were lauding the album as a return to the supposed "pop" sound of Björk's earlier solo albums Debut and Post. This was due in part to the inclusion of three tracks co-produced by record producer Timbaland; in interviews before the album's release he had stated that seven of the tracks he worked with Björk on would end up on her album, seemingly indicating that there would be more of Timbaland's involvement on the record than there eventually was. At the time Timbaland had also had recent hits with Justin Timberlake (SexyBack) and Nelly Furtado (Promiscuous and Maneater), with him and his protégé Danja being responsible for some of the biggest hits of 2006 and 2007. As the news of Björk having worked with Timbaland spread across the internet, many websites started speculating on whether the album would be "hip hop" flavoured; in one interview Timbaland himself referred to the upcoming album as "hip hop".

The online music magazine Pitchfork, in their exclusive first interview with Björk for the promotion of Volta, quoted Björk as saying that the new album would be "full-bodied and really up". This was taken by fans as further evidence of a more "pop" album (as compared to her more recent output). A week later the head of Björk's record company, Derek Birkett, heralded the new album as "the most commercial thing she's ever done" in Music Week, the trade paper for the UK record industry.

Björk has since stated that the media effectively "got it wrong" with regard to their coverage of the album , insisting that the album was not "hip hop" (and that she had not intended for it to be so either). She said that she did not want to work with Timbaland as a "hitmaker", or because of his affiliation to a particular genre, but wanted to work with him solely as a musician in his own right. She has also said that One Little Indian "always feel that ‘my latest release is the most commercial to date’", and that she feels Volta is no more commercial than any of her previous work.

Track listing

Bonus tracks

  • "I See Who You Are" [Mark Bell Mix] – 4:06
    • Available on UK and Japanese editions and with pre-order from U.S.marker iTunes Store
  • "Earth Intruders" [Mark Stent Extended Edit] – 4:26
    • Available from iTunes
  • "Innocence" [Mark Stent Mix] – 4:21
    • Available from iTunes


Volta worldwide tour

Björk went on an 18 month tour in support of the album, which was her first tour in four years. On the tour, which was conducted on a month-on/month-off basis, Björk performed with fourteen musicians on stage. Björk's touring band for this tour constisted of drummer Chris Corsano, musician Mark Bell (who also accompanied Björk on the Homogenic tour), pianist Jónas Sen (who played celeste on the tracks Gratitude and Cetacea on the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack), musician Damian Taylor and a 10 piece female Icelandicmarker brass section. Timbaland did not join Björk on the tour. Björk had described the tour as "kind of primitive, raw, almost butch", in marked contrast to her 2001 tour for Vespertine. At several of the concerts Björk had been joined on stage by some of the musicians who collaborated on the album (but who are not part of the touring band), including Antony Hegarty, Min Xiao-Fen and Toumani Diabaté. Many of the live performances from the current tour can be viewed on the video sharing website YouTube, shot by people in the audience. However, Björk has voiced her dislike of fans recording video/taking pictures (with flash) at her concerts using their mobile phones ("little cameras"), stating that it affects her ability to perform. The tour is taking Björk to countries that she has not played in for over a decade, including Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Live footage of two concerts in Paris and Reykjavík, as well as a session with the tour band at Olympic Studiosmarker, were released as part of the Voltaïc box-set on June 23, 2009.

Although not part of her touring schedule, Björk performed three songs at a benefit concert at Club NASA in Reykjavík on April 1 for FORMA, an Icelandic organisation which deals with people who have eating disorders. Tour rehearsals began after this performance. Björk's touring schedule throughout 2007 and 2008 was as follows.

2007

First leg



Second leg



Third leg



Fourth leg



2008

Fifth leg



Sixth leg



Seventh leg



Chart performance

Chart Peak

Position		 Sales
Australian ARIA Albums Chart 20
Austrian Albums Chart 5
Belgium (Flanders) 9
Belgium (Wallonia) 14
Canadian Album Chart 6
Canadian Alternative Album Chart 3
Czech Album Chart 16
Denmark Albums Chart 1
Finnish Albumm Charts 7
French Album Charts 3 70,000
German Albums Chart 9
Iceland Album Chart 1
Irish Top 75 Albums 10
Italian Albums Chart 11
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart 12 50,984
Mexican AMPROFON Albums Chart 6 50,000
Netherlands Albums Chart 17
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart 32
Norwegian Albums Chart 1
Portuguese Albums Chart 9
Spanish Albums Chart 5
Swedish Albums Chart 11
Swiss Albums Chart 3
UK Albums Chart 7 60,000+
U.S. Billboard 200 9 150,000+
U.S. Billboard Top Electronic Albums 1
European Hot 100 Albums 4


Singles

Year Single Chart Peak

position
2007 "Earth Intruders" (digital release) U.S. Billboard Hot 100 82
2007 "Earth Intruders" (digital release) Official UK Singles Chart 77
2007 "Earth Intruders" (digital release) Belgium (Wallonia) 46
2007 "Earth Intruders" (digital release) Belgium (Flanders) 48
2008 "Declare Independence" (physical box release) Italian Singles Chart 1
2008 "Innocence" (physical box release) Italian Singles Chart 9
2008 "Wanderlust" (digital release) U.S. iTunes Store 8
2008 "Wanderlust" (physical box release) Italian Singles Chart 1
2008 "The Dull Flame Of Desire" (physical box release) Italian Singles Chart 1


References

External links




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