Bjork looks inwards

By Hazel Sheffield

Two of the strongest albums of the year so far have a common theme: established artists, known for wide-angled work, turning their gaze on their own hearts. The Detroit-born singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens once announced a grandiose plan to make an album about every state in the union. He got as far as Michigan and Illinois, and then his mother, Carrie, died. So he made “Carrie and Lowell”, an exquisite tribute, raw in both content and form. In concert, it should be magical.

Meanwhile, in Iceland, another singular singer was trying to forge links between music, nature and technology. Bjork’s “Biophilia” (2011) was intriguing but not entirely successful. The follow-up, “Vulnicura”, is darker and starker, drawing on the demise of her relationship with the father of her child, the artist Matthew Barney. “Is there a place/Where I can pay respects/For the death of my family?” she asks, over pounding and slicing electronic sounds, edited by Arca, a young producer born in Caracas and based in Dalston.