Debut (Björk album)

Debut
Björk's studio album
Publication (s)	5th July 1993
Label (s)	One Little Indian Records Elektra Records
Format (s)	CD , LP , MC , DVD-A
Genre (s)	Art-Pop , Electro-Pop , House , Trip-Hop
Title (number)	12
running time	48:15
occupation	See cast
production	Nellee Hooper , Bjork
Studio (s)	Wild Bunch, London Olympic Studios , London Townhouse Studios , London Livingston Studios, London Matrix Studios, London Swanyard Studios, London Workhouse, London Beats Studio, Mumbai Summa Studio, Los Angeles
chronology Björk (1977) Debut Post (1995)
Single releases June 1993 Human behavior 23rd August 1993 Venus as a Boy October 11, 1993 Play Dead November 22, 1993 Big time sensuality March 7, 1994 Violently Happy

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Debut   DE 24 08/16/1993 (44 weeks)   AT 27 08/29/1993 (18 weeks)   CH 18th 08/28/1993 (17 weeks)   UK 3 07/17/1993 (79 weeks)   US 61 09/11/1993 (31 weeks)

Singles

Human behavior   UK 36 06/19/1993 (2 weeks) Venus as a Boy   UK 29 09/04/1993 (4 weeks) Play Dead   UK 12 01/24/1994 (6 weeks) Big time sensuality   UK 17th 04/12/1993 (8 weeks)   US 88 02/19/1994 (5 weeks) Violently Happy   UK 13 03/19/1994 (4 weeks)

Debut ( French for debut , first appearance ) is the first solo album by the Icelandic singer Björk after breaking up with the Sugarcubes . The title of the album is a bit misleading as Björk released her actual debut album as a solo artist back in 1977 at the age of eleven. The recordings for Debut took place mainly in London with various producers, e. B. Nellee Hooper , Howie B. and David Arnold . The album was released in July 1993 by One Little Indian Records and Elektra Records .

Track list

With the exception of the marked exceptions, all songs were written by Björk .

1. Human Behavior (Björk, Nellee Hooper )
2. Crying (Björk, Hooper)
3. Venus as a Boy
4. There's More to Life Than This ⁽¹⁾ (Björk, Hooper)
5. Like Someone in Love ⁽²⁾ ( Johnny Burke , Jimmy Van Heusen )
6. Big Time Sensuality (Björk, Hooper)
7. One day
8. Airplane
9. Come to me
10. Violently Happy (Björk, Hooper)
11. The anchor song
12. Play Dead

¹ Recorded live in the toilets of the Milk Club in London

² Jazz standard recorded with Corky Hale

occupation

• Björk - vocals , keyboard , music programming
• Nellee Hooper - percussion , drums
• Garry Hughes - keyboard , Hammond organ , music programming
• Oliver Lake - tongue
• Corky Hale - harp
• Gary Barnacle - saxophone , flute
• Marius de Vries - keyboard , music programming
• Luís Jardim - bass , percussion , drums
• Talvin Singh - Tabla
• Bruce Smith - percussion , drums
• Martin Virgo - keyboard , music programming
• Paul Waller - keyboard , music programming
• Jon Mallison - guitar
• Mike Mower - saxophone , flute
• Jhelisa Anderson - backing vocals

Success and importance

Debut was released in 1993 and can be described as an international breakthrough for the artist and at the same time one of the most important albums by an artist from Iceland . It reached number 2 in Sweden , number 3 in the United Kingdom , number 5 in the Netherlands and New Zealand , number 10 in Germany, number 10 in Australia , number 18 in Switzerland and number 25 in France. Debut also landed at number one on Billboard Magazine's Top Heatseekers charts when it was released and reached number 61 on the US album charts.

Debut was a turning point in Björk's career towards self-realization . After the more rock-oriented Sugarcubes had ended, she had moved to London and met musicians with an electronic background like Nellee Hooper, who provided the club-friendly beats and synthetic sounds for the production of Debut . With the combination of Bjork's eccentric vocals, the most indie-rock trained songwriting and modern grooves she succeeded as a bridge from the pop - mainstream through to indie and rock , -Publikum, who was not only so amazing because he an Icelandic succeeded artist but also because there was skepticism and rejection of the other sounds in both camps in the early 1990s. On the 25th anniversary of the album, the radio station ByteFM wrote in 2018: “Even on her first album, the Icelandic artist had perfected the blueprint for her unique solo career: the mixture of nature and machine, of unworldly esotericism and tangible emotions. The human being viewed from the perspective of the non-human ”.

Because of the success of the single Play Dead recorded together with David Arnold for the soundtrack of the film Young Americans in the United Kingdom (number 12 in the UK singles chart), this piece was added to later editions as the 12th title. In Japan , Atlantic was added as the 13th song.

In June 2006 the album was re-released as a DualDisc with a DTS sound track as part of the (____surrounded): box set.

The photo on the album cover was taken by the fashion photographer and filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Mondino .

reception

source	rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone
New Musical Express

The album has won several awards for its sales figures, including two platinum status in the UK , gold in the USA in 1994 and platinum in 2001, once platinum in Sweden and gold in Canada. The platinum award in the US reached Debut , although the album never got above number 61 on the Billboard charts.

Debut is featured in several leaderboards. It ranks 46th in the New Musical Express' selection of the 500 best albums of all time . Q magazine selected Debut as number 6 of the 100 best albums of the 1990s. The album was included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

Videos

Not only the electronic sound of the singles caused a sensation, but also the visual implementation in the videos . In Human Behavior led Michel Gondry directed and gave Björk in a variant of Goldilocks and the Three Bears . The video was nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy Award in 1994, but was unable to win an award. Even the black and white video for Big Time Sensuality by Stéphane Sednaoui where Björk on the loading area of a truck by New York dances, and in an insane asylum playing Violently Happy by Jean-Baptiste Mondino were daring and contributed their songs to the popularity . Sophie Muller directed the video for the second single Venus as a Boy , and Danny Cannon directed Play Dead .

Web links

• Official minisite ( memento of October 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on bjork.com
• Debut on allmusic.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Björk albums on Chartsurfer
2. ^ Billboard 200: Björk Debut Chart History on Billboard
3. ↑ Björk Songs on Chartsurfer
4. ^ Hot 100: Björk Debut Chart History on Billboard
5. ^ Björk: Full Official Chart History on OfficialCharts
6. ↑ International chart placements of "Debut"
7. ^ All reviews of Björk on nordische-musik.de
8. ↑ "Be ready to get confused": "Debut" by Björk is 25 years old. Retrieved on August 20, 2018 (German). 
9. ↑ Biography on The Björk Picture Pages
10. ↑ Review by Heather Phares on Allmusic (accessed July 6, 2019)
11. ↑ Review by Tom Graves on Rolling Stone (accessed July 6, 2019)
12. ↑ Review by Johnny Dee ( Memento August 17, 2000 in the Internet Archive ) on New Musical Express (archived) (accessed July 6, 2019)
13. ↑ Gold & Platinum - RIAA on RIAA (accessed July 6, 2019)
14. ↑ “Debut” minisite ( memento from October 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on bjork.com
15. ↑ The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time on New Musical Express (accessed July 6, 2019)
16. ↑ Q Magazine: 100 Best Albums Of The '90’s on RockListMusic (accessed July 6, 2019)