Last year Stereogum gave us DriveXV, a great tribute to R.E.M's masterpiece Automatic For The People. This year they decided to pay homage to Björk's 1995 sophomore album Post. Much like the original album, which was as chaotic as it was brilliant, this tribute album, titled Enjoyed, is a compilation of different sounds and atmospheres.
All the songs have their own unique identity and are quite obviously made to inspire you in very different ways. This is, of course, nothing short from obvious as it is a compilation of various artists' takes on Björk's originals. But the fragmentation works pretty well on this occasion, since the original body of work was also characterised by it's chaotic inconsistency and was almost single-handedly held together only by the presence of Björk's powerful voice.
Here are two of my favourites from the compilation. The High Places version of The Modern Things accompanies the fragile melody with samples that barely keep the song together... Until the beat finally kicks in and the song suddenly seems to have a direction.
High Places - The Modern Things
I've never heard of Bell before, but their take on It's Oh So Quiet certainly leaves me wanting more. It's even more playful than the original (although Björk's version, of course, isn't the original) and the hurried pianos, wild synth squells and stuttering drums always make me smile.
The compilations also includes Dirty Projectors, No Age and Xiu Xiu among others. You can download the whole album for free here. You should really also check the fabulous DriveXV and why not, while you're at it, the tribute to OK Computer, titled OKX, which includes Vampire Weekend's great cover on Exit Music (For A Film).
