Agree with everything you said, except that Hidden Place is a genuine masterpiece. Sophisticated harmonies, exquisite melodies clashing with exotic scales chanted by the choir, and a truly mysterious atmosphere.

And yes, while the Orca album might not be a bona fide Björk album, Selmasongs is definitely an integral part of the canon and part of her development. Scatterheart and New World are exactly the stylistic bridge between Homogenic and Vespertine.

Surely Vespertine is ranked too low, and I’m shocked at the hate it’s received in the write-up. It seems to neglect the fact that Björk set out to make an adult, unashamedly all-out erotic, intimate album so anyone looking for epic beats and dance tracks would be bound to be disappointed.
And seriously, how can anyone not get “With a beard and a pipe/And a parrot on each side”!? SPOILER IT’S ABOUT HER MAN’S PRIVATE PARTS

Overall, though, I’ve always loved Björk for growing with me as my own musical tastes change. Pretty much the only one constant in her music is the voice, and no two albums are too similar. Huge beats + cinematic strings in Homogenic, microbeats in Vespertine, all sort of vocal exploration in Medulla, a dominance of brass in Volta and so on. Compare Debut (with its cutesiness) and Biophilia (with all the irregular time signatures and almost deliberate focus on texture as opposed to melody), it’s impressive how far she’s pushed herself.

I know it’s blasphemy around these parts, but does anybody else feel OK Computer is *ever so slightly* overrated?
I love it, but maybe it’s so definitive of its era sometimes I feel it’s a bit dated. Ever so slightly.

I’m being a bit too serious I guess, but this news (be it gimmick or foresight or madness on Beck’s part) made me think how wonderfully happy this would make a music fan who has lost his/her hearing, assuming he or she has learned to read sheet music previously. More musicians should do this.