20. Hayley Williams — Unison
Here is another one of those dreaded truncated, off-the-cuff, seemingly noncommittal covers as done by an immensely popular musician with an obsessive fanbase—or is it? Sure, Hayley Williams of Paramore is an iconic 21st-century rock star, with millions of fans, but her seemingly off-the-cuff cover of twinkling, genius “Unison” is no throwaway. It is a nakedly beautiful little diamond with a fabulous vocal. It is definitive evidence that a Hayley-helmed acoustic Björk covers album (or at least an EP) needs to happen as soon as possible. Get crackin’, girl. — Hope Silverman
19. Robyn — Hyperballad
This is a natural choice of songs for Robyn to cover with her ability to sing lightly yet still communicating the rawness of the emotion behind the lyrics. She maintains the restrained approach to the verses, but doesn’t quite bring the same edge in the choruses that the original does where almost a cry creeps out. With this version’s orchestral focus, we don’t get the same ominous background undertone throughout, but we still get a switch to electronic and club beats in the middle of the song. The orchestra remains the stars of the supporting sounds, rather than completely letting go to make the full switch. — Sara Stoudt
18. Norberto Lobo — Unravel
Norberto Lobo is an amazing instrumental acoustic guitarist from Lisbon. They call this style “American Primitive” here, but for Lobo it’s really Portuguese Primitive. His 2009 album Pata Lenta is a masterwork, and I didn’t even realize until researching this list that one of the songs was a Björk cover. When you know that, it’s easy enough to spot, but it’s also easy to just find yourself carried away by his beautiful playing. — Ray Padgett
17. Julia Jacklin & RVG — Army of Me
Björk’s almost industrial “Army of Me” feels like a genuine threat. Everything in the song is menacing. Singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin, backed by fellow Aussies RVG, keeps the menacing bass keyboard riff in the verses. But they lighten things up considerably in the choruses. Jacklin expresses some annoyance with the target of the song in the early verses, but she and RVG have more of a weariness to their voices in the softer sections. Lead guitarist Romy Vager adds some guitar solos to bring a little bit of the edge back. Whereas the original is threatening, this version is a little more long-suffering. It feels like there’s still love here for the target of the lyrics. — Riley Haas
16. Deep Throat Choir — Stonemilker
This cover trades swooping strings for an a cappella choir whose community of voices maintains the matter of fact, patient enunciation of the lyrical delivery. The choir builds in volume and intensity throughout, and in the fullest sounding moments, a hint of those missing strings returns. Both versions have deep sounding percussion to mark the progress of the song. This version is abbreviated, shaving about two minutes off of the original, but its swelling sound surrounds you while it lasts, especially if you are listening via headphones. — Sara Stoudt
15. Sneaker Pimps — Venus As A Boy
Sneaker Pimps always struck me as a band who should have gone further than their brief flirtation with fame. “Venus as a Boy” has always seemed one of Björk’s more hopeful songs, an outlier, almost, at least in the arrangement. So what the Pimps do with it is almost to make it into something more typically Björky. The electronics are harsh and industrial, the vocal cold and observational, rather than interpretative, adding further to the mix of ice and fire. If Venus were indeed a boy, I suspect this is just the sort of androgynous mystique that the goddess would display. — Seuras Og
14. Georgi Kay — Jóga
It seems like a lot of the good Björk covers get that way by stripping down the songs. It becomes a game of sorts: how many flowers can you remove from a bouquet and still have it be beautiful? Georgi Kay’s version of “Jóga” goes one better; she makes it just as gorgeous with only voice and electric guitar. “When I first sung it,” Kay said in an interview, “I freaked out. I was terrified that if I couldn’t do the song justice then I would have ruined an incredible track that so many people love. I didn’t want to be ‘the chump who failed at that Björk cover.'” She needn’t have worried. — Patrick Robbins
13. Annie Lennox — Mama
In her remake of a song from the first Sugarcubes album, Annie Lennox adds volumes of space after each line of each verse, and she makes a lot of Björkian octave leaps, too. She’s not imitating Björk, but she’s summoning the same sense of excitable possession. The original’s stabbing guitarwork is removed entirely, replaced with an ominous background thrum that acts as a blank soundscape (or, as I imagine it, a blanket of snow and glacial ice) to foreground Lennox’s vocal. That oceanic background is just right for a song about a primal energy, the mother-figure, something in turns loving and terrorizing. This is not your usual Annie Lennox, but the Sugarcubes were never your typical band. — Tom McDonald
12. BAILEN — Hit
Describing Einar Örn as Björk’s “co-vocalist in the Sugarcubes” is somewhat reductive. He passionately recited. He crazily rapped. He was a horn-playing rabble-rouser. A completely deranged Fred Schneider. He was a quirky counterpoint to Björk. Einar could be fun. But he could also be extremely disruptive and distracting.
Case in point, his vocal contribution to the Sugarcubes joyous, lovesick pop wonder from 1991, “Hit.” I absolutely love three quarters of it, especially Björk’s frothy, sweeping vocal. And I actively detest its last quarter featuring Einar yelping “I said ouch, this really hurts!” It nearly torpedoed the whole song for me back in the day. It was a bucket of paint thrown on the canvas of a swoony, glorious masterpiece. I actively contemplated how good it would be without him.
It took a minute, but in 2019, New York indie band Bailen’s beauteous Laurel Canyon-flavored, harmony-laden cover of “Hit” answered that longstanding pop wish. Their “Hit” is a starry summer night of supreme gorgeousness. All is forgiven, Einar. — Hope Silverman
11. Radiohead — Unravel
Thom Yorke had the chance, pretty much as a solo artist, to cover what he described as “one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard” for Radiohead’s “Thumbs Down” webcast in November 2007. The song was Björk’s “Unravel,” and the recording session, in the band’s studio in Oxfordshire, was to help celebrate the release of the glorious In Rainbows album. Thom’s performance of the Homogenic classic didn’t sound out of place amongst the new Radiohead songs, either, because he made it sound like a Radiohead song, such was his emotional investment in its dark subject matter around the pain of being left alone by a loved one. Yes, he obviously found it challenging to sing, with his voice a little wobbly in places, but he sure paid the most heartfelt tribute to one of his favorite singers. A singer who influenced the elite Oxford band just as much as New Order or the Smiths. Gorgeous piano outro, as well! — Adam Mason
