Selmasongs

1	Overture 3:38
2	Cvalda 4:48
3	I've Seen It All 5:29
4	Scatterheart 6:39
5	In the Musicals 4:41
6	107 Steps 2:36
7	New World 4:23

Barnes & Noble

With her idiosyncratic phrasing, sweeping vocals, and intimate whispers, Björk has always possessed a flair for the dramatic. Her last album, 1997's Homogenic, triangulated her unmistakable voice with little more than programmed beats and cinematic strings. Selmasongs is even more cinematic, and not only because the strings are now part of a full orchestra. The album contains songs Björk wrote for Lars von Trier's film Dancer in the Dark. Selma, played by Björk, escapes into dreams inspired by old-fashioned movie musicals. She drifts into song-and-dance sequences keyed to rhythms created from objects within the scenes. But the music is anything but old-fashioned -- these are still Björksongs. Set in a factory, "Cvalda" begins with clattering, industrial clanks and hums that coalesce into a swinging techno beat before the orchestra sweetens Björk's vocals with strings and horns; it's a noisy, jumpy, and exciting track that features a cameo from co-star Catherine Deneuve. "I've Seen It All," an intimate ballad about giving up on eyesight, features beats constructed from train-track sounds, and for the version heard on Selmasongs, Radiohead's Thom Yorke duets with Björk. Björk won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as Selma, and she deserves accolades for Selmasongs, too. Steve Klinge

All Music Guide

Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Dancer in the Dark is, and is not, a Björk album. While it's filled with rampant creativity, startling emotional leaps, and breathtaking vocals and arrangements, it isn't as playful as her other albums, even 1997's relatively dark Homogenic. Instead, it presents Björk as Selma, her character from Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark: a Czech factory worker who is going blind but finds hope and refuge in the musicals she watches at the cinema. (Von Trier wanted to work with Björk after seeing Spike Jonze's musical-inspired video for "It's Oh So Quiet.") She acts through the music she composed, performed, and produced with conductor/arranger Vincent Mendoza and her longtime collaborators Mark "Spike" Stent and Mark Bell. Selma's unsinkable optimism and tragic end are telegraphed through songs like the irrepressible, cartoonish "Cvalda" to the sad, starry lullaby "Scatterheart." Selmasongs' best tracks are poignant, inventive expressions of Björk's talent and Selma's daydreams and suffering. "In the Musicals" shows how easy it is for Selma to slip into one of her Technicolor reveries: "There is always someone to catch me," Björk sighs as clouds of strings, harps, and xylophones rise up to meet her. "New World" reprises the simultaneously hopeful and ominous melody of "Overture," adding striking vocals and shuffling, industrial beats that reflect Selma's life in the factory as well as Björk's distinctive style. Selmasongs also succeeds as a soundtrack, sketching in details of Selma's story. "I've Seen It All," a duet with Thom Yorke, captures her stunted romance with a co-worker, while the tense "107 Steps" takes the listener to her journey's end. Intimate and theatrical, innovative and tied to tradition, Selmasongs paints a portrait of a woman losing her sight, but it maintains Björk's unique vision. Heather Phares

Spin Magazine

..the album is evidence of Bjork's unstoppable growth. Ann Powers