Army of Me
"Army of Me" | ||||
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Single by Björk | ||||
from the album Post | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 24 April 1995 | |||
Studio | Fon (Sheffield)[citation needed] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:55 | |||
One Little Indian | ||||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Björk singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Army of Me" on YouTube |
"Army of Me" is a song by Icelandic musician
Björk premiered the song on some gigs during the
The song's accompanying music video was directed by frequent collaborator Michel Gondry. It features the singer driving an enormous vehicle through a city, fighting a gorilla dentist to get back a diamond he took from her mouth, and bombing a museum with dynamite to free a boy. In 2005, Björk released a UNICEF charity benefit compilation entitled Army of Me: Remixes and Covers, which featured a series of covers and remixes by artists from all over the world.
Background
"I'm a polar bear and I'm with five hundred polar bears, just tramping over a city. The lyric is about people who feel sorry for themselves all the time and don't get their shit together. You come to a point with people like that where you've done everything you can do for them, and the only thing that's going to sort them out is themselves. It's time to get things done. I identify with polar bears. They're very cuddly and cute and quite calm, but if they meet you they can be very strong".
—Björk talking to Jon Savage about the song.[1]
"Army of Me" was written in 1992[citation needed] by Björk and Graham Massey, during one of the first recording sessions for Debut, along with "The Modern Things", but Björk decided to put the songs on hold and to wait for releasing them.[2] Even so, Björk performed the songs during some dates on her Debut tour.[3] The singer further explained the song: "Imagine you're in a club full of heavy metal types and grunge people; 'Army of Me' is like someone's granny blasting out over the PA and saying, 'Snap out of it! Stop whining! Wash your hair! Smarten yourself up!'"[4]
The single was released in the United Kingdom on 24 April 1995 as a cassette and two-CD single.
Composition
"Army of Me" is an aggressive[7] industrial rock[8] and trip hop[9] song with elements of techno[10] dominated by a heavy bassline in C Locrian.[11] The song's drum part is sampled from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks".[12] Mim Udovitch has described the song as "grinding techno fusion".[13]
The lyrics of the song are about Björk's brother, as revealed by the singer,[14] and show Björk daring him to move up and find a job to keep his life on, and also for him to not fall into bad things and learn to defend himself: "It's actually written to a relative of mine who had been a bit out of order for a while. I'm not sure why I wrote it. Maybe I felt that Debut had been such a polite, shy album – there was a side of me that was so shy and such a beginner, I was very flattered when everyone loved Debut but also a bit confused because it wasn't really me. Maybe 'Army Of Me' was an attempt to balance it out."[15] In the chorus of the song she sings: "And if you complain once more/You'll meet an army of me!"[9]
Critical reception
Eric Handerson of
In a positive review, Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that "'Army of Me' casts Björk against type as a warrior goddess fed up with whining, instead of her usual cyber-pixie persona...the song's pounding industrial beat, menacing synth bass, and unusually aggressive lyrics ('And if you complain once more / You'll meet an army of me') stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the album and to most of her previous work."[21]
Pan-European magazine
In 1995, "Army of Me" won an Icelandic Music Award for Song of the Year.
Music video
Background
For the music video of the song, Björk collaborated again with French film director Michel Gondry, who had previously directed the video for "Human Behaviour" in 1993. In the video, Björk is the driver of a tanker truck. The singer "said that she wanted to capture that 'tanker-truck' feeling, the sense of a big machine grinding unstoppably through town"[33] and further stated: "I thought I should be driving a very, very big truck to try to wake this person who's asleep, so I get the biggest truck in the world, and I'm so mad I've got metallic teeth, because when you're really angry, you grind your teeth. So I have to go to the dentist, who tries to steal away from me a diamond I don't know I have."[33]
The dentist is actually a gorilla, and Björk explained:
When Michel [Gondry] gets his strokes of genius and, in the video for "Army of Me", wants a dentist that's a gorilla to find a diamond in my mouth, some people call it nonsense. But it's probably the most realistic way of expressing what situation I'm in – all these people trying to take things away from me, and the gorilla finding a diamond that I don't know I have and then stealing it. "Army of Me" is so much about me actually learning that I have to defend myself. I have to stand up and fight the fucking gorilla. Once I've got the diamond and I run away with it, it becomes massive 'cos it's mine. But if the gorilla had kept it, it would have gone really tiny. That's surrealism for me.[34]
Björk and her label declined to use footage from the film Tank Girl (which features the track on its soundtrack) in the music video for "Army of Me".[35]
Synopsis
The first seconds of the music video show a young man in cryonic slumber. It then cuts to Björk, wearing a black karate gi, driving a large vehicle through a city. The passers-by seem to ignore the mass of the vehicle. The vehicle begins to sputter and slow, prompting Björk to check the motor. Before floating off the vehicle, she turns to the camera and shows metallic teeth. The vehicle's engine assembly consists of a mouth in which all of the teeth appear rotten, comically exaggerated by a shaggy-looking man engulfed in a stench-cloud crawling out of the mouth and offending passers-by.
Björk touches her cheek, appearing to have a toothache, and proceeds to a nearby dentist's office. While she is going to the room of the dentist, her image appears reflected in a series of mirrors that make it impossible to distinguish her real self. She is examined by the dentist, an anthropomorphic gorilla, who discovers a diamond in her mouth. The dentist attempts to steal the diamond for himself, but Björk leaps onto his back and pummels him, and, retrieving the diamond, escapes the office. She takes the diamond back to her vehicle, all the while it multiplies in size until she is barely able to carry it. Björk tosses the diamond into the vehicle's mouth, apparently correcting its earlier affliction.
She then drives to a museum and proceeds inside, carrying a satchel containing a bomb. Sneaking past the museum's guards, she places the bomb on one of the exhibits – the young man seen in the beginning of the video lying on an altar in a deep sleep. She then bolts toward the museum's exit, concerning the guards and other patrons. She makes it out of the building just moments before the bomb explodes. After the explosion, she re-enters the building to find the man from the altar, who appears to have been just wakened by the blast. Björk hugs him, crying teardrops of jewels.
Reception
The video was well received by critics. Tim Walker of The Independent thought that "catchy, commercial song that was utterly original, and she's easily beautiful enough to have taken advantage of her sexuality in the video, but instead she got Michel Gondry to make a brilliant promo about her going to a gorilla dentist to get a huge diamond pulled out of her mouth".[36] Gondry's visual imagery was heavily praised: "Gondry is a treat with visual details in defining his realities, and he provides in 'Army of Me'. The museum sequence furnishes an example: Before Björk bombs it, there are many artworks on the walls, each piece reflecting the apparent banality of the museum. One area shows a person observing a work which is a painting of a person in an art museum observing a work. After the explosion, everything is torn apart, bathed in smoke. Björk comes and retrieves her loved one, crying small diamonds onto his shoulder."[37]
The ending of "Army of Me"'s music video depicted Björk bombing an art museum, and due to a recent terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, MTV removed it from its playlist before it even aired.[38] However, within weeks it was broadcast,[38] but cut off before the bomb goes off. There exists some version of the music video which censored the explosion of the bomb, and some showing "To Be Continued" at the end.[37]
In 1995, The video was nominated for two
Live performances
The song was performed in a few live shows. Björk premiered the song four days before the release of the single, on 20 April 1995, on
The song was performed on the
The song was performed on the Greatest Hits tour and on the Volta tour, with the latter performance being included on Voltaïc, both in the live version recorded at the Olympic Studios in London, and in the DVD Live in Paris.
The song was performed again in summer 2012 in Lollapalooza Chile as part of the Biophilia tour replacing most of the instrumental part with a Tesla coil.
Covers
The song received a wide coverage from other artists. German metalcore band
In 2005, Björk opened a contest to choose from various remixes for the song, to release a compilation to help raise funds for charity.[45] Over 600 remixes were submitted[46] and Björk was helped in the choosing of the tracks by fellow writer and composer Graham Massey. The compilation, called Army of Me: Remixes and Covers was released in May 2005 and as of January 2006, the album had raised around £250,000 to help UNICEF's work in the south east Asian region.[47]
Track listings
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Notes
- A This is a different version than the one which appears on the album. It was recorded in a cave and is also known as "Cover Me" (Cave Version)
- B This is the Icelandic version of "You've Been Flirting Again".
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the Post album liner notes.[48]
- Björk – vocals, songwriter, producer, keyboards
- Graham Massey – songwriter, producer, keyboards, programming
- Marius de Vries – keyboards, programming
- Nellee Hooper – producer
- Al Fisch – recording
- Mark Stent– mixer
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Versions
- ABA All-Stars Mix (Mike D)
- ABA All-Stars Mix Instrumental (Mike D)
- Featuring Skunk Anansie
- Featuring Skunk Anansie with Skin
- Masseymix (Graham Massey)
- Marius De Vries)
Several other remixes (and covers) appear on Army of Me: Remixes and Covers.
References
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- ^ Baydar, Eralp. "Interview Eralp Baydar". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ a b c Maconie, Stuart. "All Together Now". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 22 April 1995. p. 43. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
- ^ "Skunk Anansie". Retrieved 5 January 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Palmer, Tamara (31 October 1995). "Björk comin' on strong". UHF.
- ^ MTV News Staff (1 April 2019). "How Billie Eilish, Halsey, and more are tapping into trip-hop, nu-metal, and industrial to vent their angst". MTV News. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
- ^ a b "Volcanic Action Singer". Pulse!. 30 June 1995.
- Wondering Sound. eMusic.com. 9 September 2010. Archived from the originalon 26 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
- ^ Hein, Ethan (17 November 2015). "Musical simples: Army Of Me". The Ethan Hein Blog. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ Patrin, Nate (11 January 2019). "Breaks With Tradition: "When The Levee Breaks"". Stereogum.
- ^ a b Udovitch, Mim. "Thoroughly Modern". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ "Army Of Me". Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ "Army Of Me".[permanent dead link]
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- ^ Phares, Heather. "Post Björk". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. 6 May 1995. p. 13. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 22 April 1995. p. 31. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
- NME. p. 43. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
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- ^ Press, Joy. "Björk : 'Post'". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
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- ^ a b "Volcanic Action Singer".
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- ^ Atwood, Brett (13 May 1995). "Elektra's Bjork Putting A Love Letter In The 'Post'". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 19. pp. 17–18. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
- ^ Walker, Tim. "Björk: fire and ice". Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ a b "Bjork – Army Of Me". Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ ISBN 1-55022-556-1.
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- ^ "Björk Soars in Windy City". Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ Maginn, Ryan Patrick ("Ryu") (2016). "Official Music Video: The One". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ "In This Moment Debut Their Cover Of Björk's "Army Of Me"". ThePRP. 19 September 2023. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
- ^ Carter, Emily (20 September 2023). "In This Moment release cover of Björk's Army Of Me". Kerrang!. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
- ^ "Army of Me-xes for Charity Record". Retrieved 5 January 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Army of Me turning into Armies of Me". Retrieved 5 January 2012.[permanent dead link]
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External links
- Army of Me webpage
- "Army Of Me" at Discogs (list of releases)
- Army of Me releases at 77ísland