How Björk’s ‘Post’ embraced club culture to create pop perfection

Björk may have arrived as a solo artist with ‘Debut’, but she blossomed into a star with ‘Post’, a deeper, bolder and even more perfectly poised album than her first. Released on 13th June 1995, ‘Post’ was the record that made Björk into Björk. Drawing from a dizzying array of sounds and styles, and from the energy of London’s club culture, it cemented her place in the musical firmament.

It sometimes feels like you could find the whole musical world in ‘Post’. You want slamming industrial pop? Try the brutal album opener ‘Army of Me’. Contemplative IDM with a jubilant conclusion? There’s ‘Hyperballad’. A cinematic trip-hop slow burn? Go for ‘The Modern Things’. A big band jazz classic that will effortlessly become an enormous hit? Look no further than ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’. And that’s just the first four songs.

Bristol producer Mun Sing, aka Harry Wright, who has DJ’d with Björk at club nights in New York and Reykjavík at her invitation, was first introduced to the artist’s work when he discovered a ‘Post’ cassette in his parents’ house as a child. “I thought it was amazing,” he says. “The first two songs, ‘Army of Me’ into ‘Hyperballad’, I thought it was just pretty crazy. It had this euphoric thing to it, and by the time you get to ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, you’re like, how did we end up here?”

Six singles were released from ‘Post’: ‘Army of Me’, ‘Isobel’, ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, ‘Hyperballad’, ‘Possibly Maybe’ and ‘I Miss You’. Really though, there could have been more. It’s a mark of the incredible confidence and poise that Björk harnessed to create it. This is not an album that doubts; it is an album that does, utterly sure of its own ability, each creative choice perfectly correct. It’s as though ‘Post’ was discovered rather than written, like the “modern things” in the song of the same name were just waiting there in the mountain, ready to be found.