Lyrically Speaking: How Björk designed an escapist reality with ‘So Broken’
By 1993, at the age of 27, Björk was well on her way to becoming the innovative experimentalist she had always wanted to be. Her authenticity made her stand out, and she started getting attention faster than she could keep up. While this largely fed her career with positives, it exposed her to the more sinister aspects of fame, including a name that would forever haunt her: Ricardo Lopez.
In the beginning, Lopez’s fixation with the Icelandic singer was exactly as you would expect. As a fan, he became drawn to her artistry, finding solace in its ability to make him feel less alone. It was an escape that made him feel a part of something that distracted him from his genetic disease. Learning to live with Gynecomastia would have been a burden for anyone, and oftentimes, it’s during life’s intense struggles that we look to external factors for comfort.
In this case, however, Lopez fell into a parasocial relationship with the singer, where the lines between celebrity and reality became blurred. When Björk started dating Goldie, Lopez struggled, resulting in him making a decision that would later cause him to make a drastic, life-changing decision. In 1996, Lopez sent a letter bomb rigged with acid to Björk’s residence, went home, and recorded a harrowing video about his plans.
In the aftermath, Björk relocated to Spain to record the album she had been working on, called Homogenic. To deal with the stress of the entire ordeal, she imagined herself in a Spanish soap opera, getting lost in her song ‘So Broken’ as the ultimate escape from such an intense turn of events. ‘So Broken’ was inspired by the image of the character she had fictionalised, which she sang to herself in the kitchen as she dealt with her current struggle.
At a glance, the lyrics to ‘So Broken’ seem to mirror stereotypical soap opera narratives, including the irreparable damage between two lovers, but closer examination reveals a more sinister layer. Although the song was written as a means for the singer to momentarily experience a different reality, the first verse could be viewed as a direct reference to her stalker.
“So broken / In pieces / My heart is so broken / I’m puzzling,” she sings, trying to make sense of something that she cannot understand, no matter how hard she tries. Her heart is hurting, causing a pain that feels more confusing than any other emotion, which could be viewed as the appropriate reaction considering the situation she was in.
Finding yourself in a strangely “puzzling” headspace after such events may seem like a natural response, but when you’re in the thick of it, as Björk was, it can cause you to question a lot about your life and the impact you have on others as a reputable musician. Nothing that happened was the singer’s fault, of course, but it’s likely that she felt a sense of responsibility given that Lopez’s infatuation was with her.
Another natural response to trauma is the fight-or-flight response. Björk touches upon this in the next verse as she sings the lines: “Here I go / Trying to run ahead of that / Heart break train / Thinking / It will never catch up with me.” Aside from the Spanish soap opera subplot, the age-old feeling that your problems will “never catch up with” you isn’t too difficult to apply here, especially as anyone in her position would likely feel the need to run away from it all.
The Flamenco-inspired sounds that pervade the track from start to finish accompany the melodramatic feel well, especially when the singer alludes to a failing relationship as an “aeroplane” that she is trying desperately “to land”, but which also “seems just destined to crash”. Referring to the typical formatting of such television shows, she details the issues of “continuity”, claiming it to have “vanished away”, leaving her “broken”.
The song concludes with Björk stating she is “completely unhealable,” but her vocals seem to have reached some sort of catharsis as she navigates her feelings, almost as if recognising the depth of her trauma has enabled her to experience some sort of breakthrough. Even as she rambles seemingly unintelligible lyrics, there’s an element of romanticism as the final notes play out.
Björk utilises the dramatic flair of soap operas to process her genuine emotions, using exaggeration as a tool for empowerment and control. By embracing pretence and amplifying the narrative in her vocal expression, she paradoxically diminishes the weight of the subject matter, making it more manageable. As a result, magnifying the issue makes it seem conquerable.
The seriousness of Lopez’s story cannot be understated, but crafting ‘So Broken’ provides a significant insight into Björk’s way of dealing at the time. She may have crafted a different reality as a means to escape, but the song became a simultaneous commentary on how we, as humans, learn to process distress.
