Selmasongs

ビョーク自身が主演と音楽を担当した映画『ダンサー・イン・ザ・ダーク』のサウンドトラック!(2000年作品/2016年リイシュー盤)
トム・ヨーク「I've Seen It All」、女優シオバン・ファロン「107 Steps」、カトリーヌ・ドヌーヴ「Cvalda」、デュエット曲収録! 楽曲はグラミー賞、アカデミー賞、ゴールデングローブ賞にノミネートされた!
・ダイレクト・メタル・マスタリング(DMM)仕様/180g重量盤レコード!
<音楽賞/映画賞ノミネート歴>
「Overture」 : グラミー賞「最優秀ポップ・インストゥルメンタル・パフォーマンス」、・ゴールデングローブ賞「主題歌賞」「I've Seen It All」 : グラミー賞「最優秀ヴォーカル入りインストゥルメンタル編曲賞」、アカデミー賞「歌曲賞」

Rolling Stone (9/28/00, p.56) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A particularly accessible career highlight....an appropriate marriage of industrial clanging and symphonic melodrama..." Spin (11/00, p.197) - 8 out of 10 - "...Beguiling...evidence of [her] unstoppable growth....organic rhythms are modernized in the grand sweep of Vincent Mendoza's orchestral arrangements, with Bjork's voice the uncategorizable element in between..." Q (11/00, pp.99-101) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A slalom of a record, there's still enough synapse-jangling vocal invention and moments of great beauty to make it a worthy addition to [her] singular oeuvre." Uncut (10/00, p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Hisses, stomps, thuds and buzzes which evoke everything from Einsturzende Neubaten to Fred 'n' Ginger..." Alternative Press (12/00, p.91) - 5 out of 5 - "...100 percent pure Bjork and may well be her best work yet..." CMJ (1/08/01, p.10) - Included in CMJ's "Best of the Year" for 2000. CMJ (9/18/00, p.3) - "...An absolutely absurd pairing of forms, styles and voices, but one [she] pulls off brilliantly..." Melody Maker (9/26/00, pp.50-1) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A unique talent doing what comes naturally....she's a genius. This is a mere half-hour of wild story-telling thoughts made musical..." Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, p.100) - "...Innovative and exuberant..." NME (Magazine) (9/16/00, p.37) - 8 out of 10 - "...Strange and rewarding..."

Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Dancer in the Dark is, and is not, a Bjork album. While it's filled with rampant creativity, startling emotional leaps, and breathtaking vocals and arrangements, it isn't as playful as her other albums, even 1997's relatively dark Homogenic. Instead, it presents Bjork as Selma, her character from Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark: a Czech factory worker who is going blind but finds hope and refuge in the musicals she watches at the cinema. (Von Trier wanted to work with Bjork after seeing Spike Jonze's musical-inspired video for "It's Oh So Quiet.") She acts through the music she composed, performed, and produced with conductor/arranger Vincent Mendoza and her longtime collaborators Mark "Spike" Stent and Mark Bell. Selma's unsinkable optimism and tragic end are telegraphed through songs like the irrepressible, cartoonish "Cvalda" to the sad, starry lullaby "Scatterheart." Selmasongs' best tracks are poignant, inventive expressions of Bjork's talent and Selma's daydreams and suffering. "In the Musicals" shows how easy it is for Selma to slip into one of her Technicolor reveries: "There is always someone to catch me," Bjork sighs as clouds of strings, harps, and xylophones rise up to meet her. "New World" reprises the simultaneously hopeful and ominous melody of "Overture," adding striking vocals and shuffling, industrial beats that reflect Selma's life in the factory as well as Bjork's distinctive style. Selmasongs also succeeds as a soundtrack, sketching in details of Selma's story. "I've Seen It All," a duet with Thom Yorke, captures her stunted romance with a co-worker, while the tense "107 Steps" takes the listener to her journey's end. Intimate and theatrical, innovative and tied to tradition, Selmasongs paints a portrait of a woman losing her sight, but it maintains Bjork's unique vision. ~ Heather Phares