One of the most expected albums of this year might be Björk’s sixth studio album Volta, so we forced ourselves to make an objective and impartial review, although as a Björk fan I think that it would be a difficult task.

When Björk announced the release of an album that will pick up again the beats issue, a lot of us were impatient to finally know how she could sound like, because she is always in the innovation terrain with almost everything that she puts her mind on.

So, let’s start talking about Volta with the list of the professional musicians who Björk invited this time:
Antony Hegarty (from Antony And The Johnsons), unfortunately he is on two tracks, in my opinion he’s the worst collaborator that she has ever chosen. Is not that Hegarty’s music is bad is just that both tracks on Volta are insipid and flat, the usual innovation level here is simply in a hidden place. I don’t really think his voice makes a match with the vocalization of the Icelandic lady.
Timbaland, the famous producer who materialized the percussion section for three songs, brings back those fantastic Isobel’s tribal beats.
Mark Bell, which is an extraordinary electronic producer and member of LFO, he’s guilty for the bass lines, low frequencies and strange sounds on Volta.
Chris Corsano and Brian Chippendale, both outstanding drummers they complement the Volta recipe by adding a unique flavor to the beats.
Toumani Diabate, which is a talented kora player from Congo who won the BBC World Music Award last year, his collaboration is one the best here.
10 piece female brass section from iceland, who helped Björk in creating the orchestration to obtain sweet and emotive chords.
Min Xiao-Fen, which is a chinese pipa player, her collaboration is extraordinary and emphasizes the fact that Björk was again experimenting and looking for new sounds.

Björk, describes Volta as techno voodoo, pagan, tribal and extroverted. For me, the most significant word is “extroverted” because Björk in her previous efforts sang with such a sweetness and tenderness, like someone in love, and some songs were almost children’s lullabies. For this album it was not only the return of strong beats, but also she was determined to be impulsive. I guess that is a better way to focus her energy, singing, instead of showing her bad temper, remember that she lives violently happy, after all. All this impulse and playfulness was reflected on three songs: Earth Intruders, Innocence and Declare Independence, the latter simply breaks her own recent rule of creating tender songs, resulting in a recording so extroverted and full of energy that she seems to be singing a revelation song or giving an alarm call, and it is something like that, because her message is “Start your own currency! Make your own stamp! Protect your language!”

Volta is entirely written and produced by Björk so that could be one of the reasons for not resulting in a homogenous album (or should I say homogenic?), Volta might be considered Björk’s most mirthful and risky experiment, she combined so many flavors, so many beat textures, so organic frequencies and samples, that she created a unique collage of electro-worldmusic. I hope for the next records this experimentation will be expanded towards other countries and collaborators, imagine a Björk album using latin beats, it could be marvelous, I hope one day that happens.

After listening scrupulously to the album more that 6 times with my headphones, I have to say that this album is magnificently well done, I especially love Hope, in my opinion is, by far, the best track… nevertheless it is not my favorite Björk album, possibly –maybe– I was expecting another kind of surprise. So go and get one copy for you, so you can built your own opinion, try to buy Volta on the original Special Edition CD, the artwork is extraordinary, and the audio is way much better than if you download it from rapidshare or elsewhere.