i'm obsessed i know

One of the many, many things that constantly excites me about Bjork is how she constructs her tours to go along with her albums. I mean she has to be one of the very few artists who decides and picks out exactly what kind of sound, instrument, and people to bring along on tour to recreate the entire theme of every album one varying so radically from the next. It's very obvious with her current tour Biophilia where she actually had instruments created to objectify theories of nature in such a gorgeous and beautiful sounding way. But my very favorite part of this whole process is the way she reworks her old songs to sound so different on tours. Not only is it interesting and exciting to hear one of her songs sung with a choir or with different instruments but even the way she sings it changes. It's just amazing how every aspect of her artistry is so well put together and thought out and orchestrated not only does she obviously have talent singing, writing music, crafting albums and themes and choosing wonderful collaborators on everything that she does but even just the way she handles her performances are something that no one else could do. Well I just wanted to put down some of my favorite live versions of her songs out of all the versions available to me.

Possibly Maybe at Craneway Pavillion Biophilia Tour 2013 

My VERY favorite live version of any of her songs or really anyone's songs ever. Possibly  maybe has always been one of my favorite songs and I would have never seen it getting reworked the way she did it here. I love the playful aggressiveness she sings with and the hip-hop back beat on those steal drum things she's been using for  biophlilia and of COURSE the fucking tesla coil like this had to be one of the greatest "drops" of any song in my opinion it literally made me cry and it all just sounds so good together it fits together perfectly in a kind of swingy loop.

Bachelorette at Glatsonbury Volta tour 2007

The best thing that came out of Volta was the tour in my opinion, don't get me wrong i didn't hate the album although i feel most Bjork fans always like this album the least, the tour was just that good. Volta was a very powerful and hard album with many songs about political consciousness so Bjork brought that aggressiveness for Voltaic with that bustin ass brass band. I personally love brass and horns and to hear a nice full horn section accompanied with Bjork's voice was just ridiculously stimulating. But to hear one of Bjork's most aggressive songs accompanied by an aggressive live brass band sung with her strong voice where she always sings this song in a certain kind of forceful masculinity in an almost sexual palpitating tribal tango was just unreal. also her versions of All is full of love and Hunter on her voltaic live album are my favorites too.

Modern Things & Anchor Song at Shepard's Bush Post tour 1997

 Post was a very eclectic album so on the tour Bjork had a jazz drummer, beats, and an accordionist all of which sounded so peculiar and strange together yet somehow fitting for her whimsical pop songs. Modern Things particularly meshed well with all the layered noises since it's original recording had lots of different sound on it and the live version of the Anchor Song sounds so sweet with just the accordion and her voice playing off each other. 

Sun in My Mouth on icelandic tv show Átta raddir 2011

I Love when it's just Bjork's voice and one other instrument together. It's like she's not just singing on top of some music it's like the two are both creating a sound together it almost reminds me of two butterflies flying around each other. And it always sounds more special when the instruments are rarely used for music like this and the sound fits so comfortably with the piece and theme of the music.

Violently Happy on Mtv Unplugged Debut tour 1994

I think Bjork was the only one to go onto Mtv Unplugged and choose instruments that would not only sound well with the music she was performing with but were also a sort of curious nature to her in the way of acoustic sound. And this Version of Violently Happy has the most of the many different instruments she had lined up for this gig. From waterglasses to a double bass this interestingly layered performance ends with the jazziest build up i've heard in any song.

Unravel at Le Zenith in Paris Biophilia tour 2013

I'm just going to cap things off with another biophilia live favorite because i've been writing this thing forever and i can't remember any more off the top of my head. But this certain version of unravel is insane not only do i really dig the choir on this but Bjork completely made it new by the crazy over the top enveloping of words she does. This song was always kind of a lullaby and it's cool how much it just sounds like a proud declaration of love here.