Friday, December 26, 2014

"Army of Me" (Björk)

I recently stumbled upon an old interview with Björk from 1995 via The Quietus website.  In it, the artist discussed her album Post (1995) and the song "Army of Me" with music journalist Jon Savage.  I had always liked the track's driving, electronic funk (which is built upon a tasty sample of John Bonham's thunderous drums from "When the Levee Breaks").  But reading her explanation of what the song is about made me love it even more:
"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."
She expanded on that a bit in another interview with Stereogum's Scott Lapatine in 2008, noting that the song was directed at her baby brother, who apparently was acting like a self-destructive jerk back in the mid-90s.  
"It's sort of a big sister telling a little brother off song."
Björk's pixie-with-a-flame-thrower delivery and that unstoppable, grinding groove make "Army of Me" one of her more immediate, most accessible tunes.  And few songs make me want to get off my butt and get moving quite like this track.



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