30. The Mars Volta — Birthday
You have to have a lot of nerve to cover “Birthday,” Björk’s first international hit (recorded with the Sugarcubes). But Mars Volta has plenty of nerve. This cover meets fire with fire: lots of sonic mayhem is brought to bear, from the strange brew of sound effects burbling in the background, to the strained chords wavering in and out of pitch (just as in the original, but with a different instrument). Then we have Cedric Bixler Zavala’s warped and dreamlike falsetto; it is highly processed, and yet somewhat earnestly wants to follow Björk’s phrasing. Except where Björk screams the climactic “Oh! oh! oh! oh!” vocal riff. There’s no following Björk there, at least not for Cedric, so here a synthesizer of some kind takes over. Some take that moment as a complete fail. Others see it as a knowing nod to the zany humor of the Sugarcubes. But, I mean, did you really think anyone could attempt those notes? Only Björk can do that. — Tom McDonald
29. Stornoway — It’s Not Up to You
The British indie-folk band Stornoway had a good run in the UK, lasting about a decade before they took a farewell tour in 2017 and dissolved on good terms. So good, in fact, that they came back together in 2023 with a new album, Dig the Mountain. It featured a cover of Björk’s “It’s Not up to You.” Singer/guitarist Brian Briggs said that “I think people are a bit scared” to cover her. “It’s hard to improve, but we didn’t really aim to do that. We just tried [to] bring it back towards a more rootsy thing, with real instruments. Her original version of that song has a lot of digital and electronic sounds. We changed the rhythm a little bit and had some fun with it…. It just turned out sounding even better than I hoped it might.” That’s thanks in part to Chinese musician Yijia Tu contributing vocals, reminiscent of Björk without aping her, but all credit to the band for making their music sound more organic than grafted on. — Patrick Robbins
28. EVT — Deus
It’s a little unfair, maybe, to slide “Deus” into a Best Björk covers list. While Björk’s performance is as moving and imaginative as any on the Sugarcubes’ Life Is Good album, it’s her former bandmate Einar Örn Benediktsson who takes “Deus” into greatness. This tribute by EVT flattens out the song in many ways, from the affectless and decidedly un-Björk-like lead vocals to the bot used to “voice” Einar’s spoken-word interventions. But this flattening is in the spirit of the original, which let its brainy Devo-like antics try to cancel out Björk’s emotive force (and fail to do so). As with the more famous Sugarcubes track “Birthday,” there is musical humor in the mix, as well as an aura of threat and corruption. — Tom McDonald
27. Bristol — All Is Full of Love
Björk had a close affiliation with the Bristol trip-hop scene as a frequent collaborator with the likes of Nellee Hooper, Tricky, and Massive Attack mixing engineer Howie B. She, in fact, made the powerful Homogenic closer “All Is Full Of Love” with the latter, helping to account for its ethereal, softly pulsing, and psychedelic vibe, complete with Aeolian harp and string sounds. No wonder French composer and Nouvelle Vague main man Marc Collin, under the alias of “Bristol,” wanted to reinterpret it in 2015 as part of a trip-hop covers project. We’re glad he did, mainly because he got the incredible Lebanese singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan in on vocals. She added considerable gravitas to Björk’s incomparable Ode to Spring, which courses wondrously through a dark synth opening, a church-organ-imbued middle section, and a climax of guitars and uplifting Eastern beats. — Adam Mason
26. No Age — It’s Oh So Quiet
Perhaps noise rock duo No Age is not the first band you’d pick for a Björk cover. Or, if you did, you’d choose something more cacophonous, like “Army of Me.” But here they are, covering Björk’s cover of the Betty Hutton standard. And like the original, they deliver the exact same quiet/loud/quiet dichotomy that you expect from the song, but they keep it well in their own distinct sound and style. So, really, the perfect balance of what you’d expect and what you wouldn’t. — Luke Poling
25. Her New Knife — Pagan Poetry
One of the highlights of Vespertine, “Pagan Poetry” is built around the unusual combination of harp and music boxes, plus the usual electronic elements. Björk’s vocal and the harp dance around the bass pulse, not really finding a consistent footing until the refrain in the coda. Philadelphia indie rockers Her New Knife lean into the brittleness of the original, taking it to extremes. They drop the pulse that gives the song its form and so their version feels even freer, even more as if it is floating around in the ether. That is, until the refrain, which gives the band a chance to go off, building in musical intensity, threatening to explode until they pull back to end the cover. Lead singer Edgar Atencio does not have Björk’s vocal ability, but his hushed performance has a similar emotional intensity. — Riley Haas
24. SONOS — Jóga
So you’re an enterprising young a capella group recording your debut album of cover songs and you want to tackle Björk. Let’s see, maybe Medulla, which is by and large an a capella record, performed using similar digital effects? Nah… let’s go with “Jóga,” the track that is largely orchestral strings and glitchy electronic drums.
That’s the direction SONOS (now renamed ARORA) went, and it’s an absolutely banger. The sextet layer their voices perfectly to represent the oceanic strings, anchored by Christopher Given Harrison’s pitch-shifter-enhanced bass with multi-part harmonies laid over top. Ben McLain’s beatboxing and vocal effects drive the song forward while the lyrical vocals are handled mostly unaccompanied, giving them the effect of standing alone in a swirl of activity around them. It’s a beautiful arrangement and one that holds up well almost 20 years later. — Mike Misch
23. Kali Uchis — Venus As a Boy
“Venus As a Boy” is the second single from Björk’s 1993 album Debut, and is one of the artist’s most well-loved songs across the decades. The song’s ambient soundscape lends well to covers, allowing other artists to impose their own sound atop the lush yet chill composition. “Venus As a Boy” is not about aesthetics or commercial, superficial beauty, but rather, finding splendor in the things that surround us in everyday life.
In the hands of Kali Uchis, the song has become a grooving live cover with a rich and locked-in rhythm section. If you listen closely, you can hear a sample of the original being built up and morphed into something new. A jazzy yet effortless, intimate rendition with a transcendent hand-percussion ending. — Aleah Fitzwater
22. Dear Evangeline — Big Time Sensuality
“Big Time Sensuality” is a pop house track that just oozes positivity. Björk celebrates meeting new people and taking risks in her life as she begins her solo career. Her exuberant and sometimes guttural vocal performance makes you think you can too. Metalcore probably isn’t a genre most people associate with this kind of empowerment. But metal is empowering for plenty of people. All-female Canadian metal band Dear Evangeline fully embrace the energy even if it sounds scary. Lead singer Kiki Kennedy screams the verses with anger, but she sings the chorus over sludgy guitars. The song is a call to embrace challenges and change and these women from Brampton playing a style of music considered extremely masculine have certainly done so. — Riley Haas
21. Xiu Xiu — Isobel
Arguably it is the exotic wash of strings that are the star of this rare ballad in the Björk catalog, co-written with Soul 2 Soul man Nellie Hooper. To expect Xiu Xiu to stick much to any such received template would be, clearly, ridiculous, As ever, asking whether the San Jose experimentalists even ever listened to the original would not be an unusual question. That’s how much they deviate from any orthodox understanding of the song’s construction. But, by virtue of that, a slight and barely perceptible beauty still flickers between the lines, a distant fever dream of how it once sounded. — Seuras Og
