How many top 10 songs has Björk had?
When Björk emerged with Debut in 1993, she did so as a musical shapeshifter.
To some, she could be heard as a dance artist, evidently influenced by house music and rhythms. To others, she was a lounge artist, her vocals soundtracked to jazz and trip-hop melodies. Or, she resonated with the masses in her inability to be confined to one genre or sound.
Evolving from her time as the frontwoman of The Sugarcubes, the Icelandic musician became immediately regarded for her avant-garde approach to craft. In the early 1990s, when Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ ushered in a wave of grunge and alternative, and the seeds of bubblegum pop in the latter half of the decade were planted, Björk was a breath of fresh air—albeit an uncanny, yet enticing one.
Her imperfect vocals rattled across drum patterns and dance beats that felt like insular worlds and became a wholly original listening experience. For instance, on Debut’s ‘There’s More to Life Than This’, we hear Björk journey through the frenzied chatter in London’s Milk Bar club to the toilets to record a verse. Her roots in the underground club scene withstood her presence as an original, embracing the quirky, improvisational ambience of a dance setting in her work.
Björk’s sonic and visual influence is undeniable. With her artistry mirrored in the likes of Lady Gaga, Aurora and Poppy, to her enchanting collaboration with Rosalia on her album Lux‘s lead single ‘Berghain’, Björk has carved a path for the strange and unusual to pervade pop music. Her skyrocketing recognition from Debut made her an instant legend, but it was not until her sophomore album, 1995’s Post, that Björk would achieve a UK top ten single. In fact, she would earn three – the only three to ever reach so high on the charts.
The first was ‘Army of Me,’ which peaked at number ten. Post, as a whole, elevated Björk’s eccentric mix of sounds and abilities into bolder territory, and its lead single was an anthemic display of a louder, more confident streak from the musician. ‘Army of Me’ has an industrial undertone that invokes danger and sounds like a song that could mesh with Nine Inch Nails in a goth club.
Björk has said that the song’s inspiration was her brother’s damaging behaviour; in conversation with Jon Savage, she explained: “The lyric is about people who feel sorry for themselves all the time and don’t get their shit together. You come to a point with people like that where you’ve done everything you can do for them, and the only thing that’s going to sort them out is themselves. It’s time to get things done”.
In ‘Army of Me’s music video, directed by her frequent collaborator Michel Gondry, Björk takes matters into her own hands: driving a massive army tank, she tramples through a post-apocalyptic city, fights a gorilla dentist and detonates a bomb in an art museum. Leaning into Björk’s usually bizarre imagery, ‘Army of Me’ remains a standout in her discography.
Björk’s second top ten single was ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, peaking at number four. As Post’s third single, it is a cover of a song by American singer Betty Hutton, first released in 1951. Its Spike Jonze-directed music video is fashioned as a tribute to old Hollywood’s Technicolour musicals, complete with spontaneous dance numbers and cinematic close-ups of the singer during its quieter verses. As the title suggests, the song begins with Björk hushing the listener, before a sudden burst of an orchestra accentuates her shouts of “Zing boom!” and “Wow bam!” in the chorus. ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ is an unexpected display of Björk’s peculiar, yet lovely, side.
Björk’s final top ten hit was ‘Hyperballad,’ which peaked at number eight. Its title is perfectly succinct, as the song is a prime example of “folktronica”, woven with elements of hyper-pop synths and the slower, melodic folk tradition. The lyrics immerse the listener into Björk’s dreamworld, where she lives with her lover atop a mountain. Each morning, she walks to the edge to throw objects off, a ritual performed before her lover wakes up, so that she feels “happier” and “safe” with them.
“I imagine what my body would sound like slamming against those rocks,” she admits. “And when it lands / Will my eyes be closed or open?” Also directed by Gondry, ‘Hyperballad’s music video is a digitised rendering of Björk’s dream, mimicking a video game-style of art.
While staggering to think that an artist as illustrious as Björk has had only three top ten singles across three decades’ worth of discography, the chosen three are glorious displays of her versatility. In them, Björk reveals an angered, vengeful side, an opposite, whimsical side and another more in a pensive introspection, which has defined much of her work.
