Björk starts her discography off with an iconic debut album promptly titled 'Debut' featuring wacky vocals, eccentric interesting instrumentals and fun art-pop.

Context!

Famous Icelandic singer-songwriter known from her mononym Björk, of Icelandic alt rock group 'the Sugarcubes' fame (being their main vocalist), moved to London and had her demo song cassettes (including songs that made it into the record such as "Human Behavior" and "Aeroplane") shown to a record label manager and producer, and said producer decided to work with her on what would be Debut.

She would then be surrounded by the underground club musc culture in London which would help define the albums sound. Many song's writings were in development over the course of years especially "Human Behavior" which was written in her teen years.

Björk having the album composed of various Electronic instruments co-produced by herself and her producer also had jazz producers, saxophone players, and harpists contribute to the album's production.

Track 1: Human Behavior

Starting the record STRONG I'd say with one of the best tracks on the whole album (which is a trend among her other albums i've noticed personally!) is Human Behavior with its narrative about how weird humans can be which (as a neurodivergent i feel IMMENSELY), which are sung in Björk's very iconic and eccentric vocal style in its unique delivery. The instrumental matches this track VERY well with its tribal-ish instrument choice and sick-ass electric guitars playing the bassline.

This track is honestly one of my personally most streamed off this record, it's sincerely like no other song, its a quinessential Björk song.

★ music video ★

Track 2: Crying

A nice follow-up to the first track, Crying starts off very intriguing and moves into a very funky beat with Björk describing her loneliness and desire to be met with the person she truly desires.

This is a very nice track and a good listen, I like this one a good bit!

Track 3: Venus As a Boy

Starting off the track with a sample from 'Music for Sho and Harp by Mayumi Miyata', accompanied with gentle electronic kicks, subtle shakers and percussion, and a smooth bassline, with beautiful strings and electronic pads, I'm already hooked. Björk then hits the track with her iconic, breathy yet passionate, eccentric singing describing the love she has for this boy saying he's Venus as a boy!!!!! Like the name of the song!!

★ music video ★

Venus As a Boy is my personal favorite off the ENTIRE album, and it's actually one of Björk's most iconic and popular songs to DATE! I'd have to say this is yet another quinessential Björk song, an essential, a staple of her discography.

Track 4: There's More to Life Than This (Live Version)

Björk was really ahead of her time here, starting the "song but you're in the party bathroom and itws playing outside" trend 3 DECADES before it happened. No, but seriously this song is a nice tune even with the "you're hearing this song from a distance" quirk. The song tells a story of Björk telling you in this party that you two could be doing a lot more fun things than just being at the club like jumping between boats at the harbor.

To be clear, this album would NOT be the same without this track, and it adds a good bit to the charm of this already quirky record. I just feel this is one of the weaker points of the record and is unfortunately not the only weak track on this album.

Track 5: Like Someone In Love

Lowering the mood, this track starts off with downtown ambience and what I can only assume is a harp(?) and continues to be a pretty simple song instrumental depth wise. Björk paints this image of her going about life drastically different due to her being in love with this person so intensely. This song is very calm, pretty, and effortlessly beautiful.

I literally have this song on a playlist just dedicated to purely beautiful, romantic, and pretty songs. Honestly one of the prettiest songs I know. I love love LOVE this one.

Track 6: Big Time Sensuality

"I’ve got a lot of courage, but I’ve also got a lot of fear. You should allow yourself to be scared. It’s one of the prime emotions. You might almost enjoy it, funny as it sounds, and find that you can get over it and deal with it. If you ignore these things, you miss so much. But when you want to enjoy something, especially when it’s something you’ve just been introduced to, you’ve got to have a lot of courage to do it. I don’t think I’m more courageous than most people. I’m an even mixture of all those prime emotion." - Björk

Being one of her biggest songs, Big Time Sensuality wastes NO time diving into the point Björk makes about needing to have courage to want to enjoy something even if its a foreign concept to you. I really love this song, the vocal delivery, the instrumental, the meaning, the structure, is just FUN, even the music video is fun!!! and (which BTW, Venus As a Boy and Human Behavior also have music videos! They're great!)

★ music video ★

I'd say this is up there with Human Behavior and Venus As a Boy for me. Great track, super fun, love this one.

Track 7: One Day

This track starts off with a baby just blabbering gibberish and making silly little noises. Honestly this song makes me giggle a lot when listening LOL. For some reason when I listen to this song i think about Wii Sports Resort. I've maybe played that game like twice in my life. But this track is quite nice, a good bit of fun, and funk. Don't forget the weird occasional noises.

Not the biggest fan of this track, but it is a nice listen.

Track 8: Aeroplane

Starting off very mysterious and continuing the mysterious vibe for most of the track, Aeroplane feels like the introverted sister of Human Behavior, with tribal-ish instrumentalization returning and soley just focusing on one person and Björk herself the entire song in the narrative.

Not my favorite but it's still pretty good. I like how weirdly charming this track is.

Track 9: Come to Me

This song is Björk expressing her desire to support this person she cares about. The vocal delivery and instrumentalization is yet again very nice, eccentric, and interesting. This song feels very intimate and pulls off what it's trying to do very well.

I like this song a good bit. This song feels like it has a subtextual question mark and is waiting for the person who Björk is speaking at, to answer or make a decision.

Track 10: Violently Happy

This track is Björk expressing how much she loves this person to the point where she'll get in trouble if she's without this person for long enough. As with every single track on this album the instrumental and vocals are executed amazingly given how good of a vocalist Björk is and the lengths she will take to make sure each song sounds like no other.

One of my favorites of the latter half of this album's tracklist. Very cool song.

★ music video ★

Track 11: The Anchor Song

This track starts of with what I can only assume are trumpets(?) and is Björk's homebody song. She expresses her longing to stay where she is in the lyrics. The instrumental stays pretty consistent conveying this sense of contentness she has with her home.

A very nice final track to a great iconic album.

Tallying up the scores!!!

Sonic Consistency/Coherency: 1

-you really never feel like you leave Debut's world.

Production/Sound Quality: 1

-I really cannot sincerely deduct from this record just because it's an oldie. It's somewhat innovative for its time as well.

Variety: 1

-You're truly never bored listening to this album.

Track Order/Flow: 0.5

-I personally think the album starts to get a little weak near the end.

Innovation/Uniqueness: 0.5

Cover Art/Naming/Branding: 0.5

-The name being Debut as her debut is iconic. Also the cover art is just too iconic too. However, not anything truly jawdropping.

Narrative/Lyricism: 1

Theming: 0

Tracklist Quality (Dull, Full, Bloated): Full (1)

-While I do personally think some tracks on this album aren't as great as some of my favorites. The album just wouldn't be the same if it was missing 1 of the tracks.

Age/Discography Evolution: 1

-This album aged pretty well and is a staple in her discography.

The FINAL SCORE is..............

(7.5/10)

★ home! ★