It may have been released back in '97, but
Homogenic still sounds like the future - in its integration and synthesis of electronic textures, samples and beats, poetically fragmentary lyrics and gloriously original melodies, it remains dazzling, astonishing. The first four songs in particular - "Hunter", "Joga", "Unravel", "Bachelorette" - are unimpeachable: they're lush, sweeping, dramatic, as Romantic as they are romantic. But the intensity of her vision, and the extent of her success in realising it, only become apparent over the course of the whole of
Homogenic, as each successive song does something entirely surprising and new yet entirely consonant with what has come before, building to the techno-organic meltdown of "Pluto" and then oceanic recapitulation of "All Is Full Of Love" that closes affairs.
There's a glamour to
Homogenic, in the old sense of the word, I mean, but also a warmth - there's never any doubt of the blood that runs through its veins. There's something very compelling about the album, and it makes real demands of the listener, but the rewards it offers are great. Loving it is the easiest thing.
