BJORK – DEBUT LP – Nr MINT A1/B1 1993 INDIE DANCE SUGARCUBES

Bjork – Debut
(One Little Indian Records  1993  TPLP31)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are a few light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

Björk Guðmundsdóttir OTF; (born 21 November 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer and actress. Over her four-decade career, she has developed an eclectic musical style that draws on influences and genres including electronic, pop, experimental, trip hop, alternative, classical, and avant-garde music.

Born and raised in Reykjavík, Björk began her music career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes. After the band’s breakup in 1992, Björk embarked on a solo career, coming to prominence with albums such as Debut (1993), Post (1995), and Homogenic (1997), while collaborating with a range of artists and exploring a variety of multimedia projects. Her other albums include Vespertine (2001), Medúlla (2004), Volta (2007), Biophilia (2011), Vulnicura (2015) and Utopia (2017).

Several of Björk’s albums have reached the top 20 on the US Billboard 200 chart. As of 2015, she had sold between 20 and 40 million records worldwide. 31 of her singles have reached the top 40 on pop charts around the world, with 22 top-40 hits in the UK, including the top-10 singles “It’s Oh So Quiet”, “Army of Me”, and “Hyperballad” and the top-20 singles “Play Dead”, “Big Time Sensuality”, and “Violently Happy”. Her accolades and awards include the Order of the Falcon, five BRIT Awards, and 15 Grammy nominations. In 2015, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Rolling Stone named her the 60th greatest singer and the 81st  greatest songwriter.

Björk starred in the 2000 Lars von Trier film Dancer in the Dark, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “I’ve Seen It All”. Biophilia was marketed as an interactive app album with its own education program. Björk has also been an advocate for environmental causes in Iceland. A retrospective exhibition dedicated to Björk was held at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2015.

Debut is the second studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. The album was released in July 1993 on One Little Indian in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States. Björk worked on the album with producer Nellee Hooper who co-wrote five of Debut’s songs with her. The album mostly consists of love songs relating to subjects such as her boyfriend Dominic Thrupp, her producer Nellee Hooper and the love of life itself. Musically, the songs on this album took a different direction from her previous albums with her former band the Sugarcubes, with the backing music ranging from house, jazz and trip hop styles.

Most of the songs from Debut were written years prior to the production of the album. As well as working with Graham Massey, Björk wanted to work with jazz musicians and contacted Oliver Lake and Corky Hale to record jazz arrangements to some of the songs. After meeting producer Nellee Hooper, the two completed production on the album in 1993. On Debut’s initial release, the album sold far greater than her label predicted, charting at number three in the United Kingdom and 61 in the United States. The album was certified gold in Canada and platinum in the United States, where it remains her best-selling album to date.

Debut received widespread critical acclaim from British music critics, who praised Björk’s vocals and the choice of a wide range of musical styles on the album. In the United States, the album received more mixed reviews, with some critics complaining about its lack of rock music.

Five singles were released from Debut: “Human Behaviour”, “Venus as a Boy”, “Play Dead”, “Big Time Sensuality” and “Violently Happy”. “Play Dead” was recorded after the album’s release and was later issued as a bonus track in a few regions. All five singles charted in the United Kingdom with only “Human Behaviour”, “Violently Happy” and “Big Time Sensuality” charting on dance and modern rock charts in the United States. Despite the continued praise from critics, Björk did not find Debut to be one of her best albums stating that she has made and will make better music on later works.

Track listing

Personnel