Live Box

Live Box
Box set by
Björk
Released18 August 2003
GenreElectronica
Length241:08 (total)
(excluding DVD content)
LabelOne Little Indian
ProducerVarious
Björk chronology
Family Tree
(2002) 		Live Box
(2003) 		Debut Live
(2004)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Blender[1]
Rolling Stone[2]

Live Box is a set of 4 live CDs, a live DVD and a 36-page booklet by Icelandic musician Björk, released in August 2003. Each live CD roughly corresponds to one album in her (at the time of release) four album solo discography. The 4 live CDs were later released separately in June 2004

Background

When Björk was pregnant with her daughter Ísadóra in 2002 she decided to start sorting through the hundreds of hours of live recordings she had collected from her tours.[3] Assisted in the process by the head of Smekkleysa, Ásmundur Jónsson, they decided on the best performances from each of the tours to include on the live albums. This release of live material was initially confirmed by the inclusion of live tracks on the "It's in Our Hands" single in 2002, credited to the "Forthcoming album Vespertine Live". This was followed by an announcement in 2003 of a distribution-deal with US record company Navarre that would include "both CDs and DVDs".[4] Björk's official website later confirmed the release of a box set containing live recordings, not only from Vespertine but from the past ten years of Björk's solo career.[5] Björk only started to have soundboard recordings of her live shows from the Homogenic tour onwards, so the first two discs (Debut Live and Post Live) are made up primarily of the audio from the corresponding live DVDs. Shortly before the official release, a free download of "Hyperballad" from the Post Live disc was made available on the Abercrombie Vintage website.[6] The originally announced track listing for Post Live included 18 tracks (the final version has 13), and so would have included nearly the full audio from the Live at Shepherds Bush Empire DVD, from which the album takes most of its material.[7]

The box set also includes a 36-page booklet featuring numerous photos and an in-depth conversation with Björk and Ásmundur in Björk's home, discussing her career, her recordings and her live tours. The box set was originally announced as a limited release of 30,000 copies, although it is still available for purchase. The individual live discs were later released separately in May 2004.[8]

Artwork

The artwork was designed by M/M Paris, whom Björk has worked extensively with since 1999's Volumen release. At the time of release many online stores displayed an incorrect earlier version of the artwork for the box set, which features alternate artwork for the Post Live and Homogenic Live albums. For the album artwork of each live album, Björk herself found a selection of different photos available on the Internet. Because of the small resolution of the images chosen for Homogenic Live and Vespertine Live, these appear pixelated on the actual album covers.[9]

Live Book

To accompany the release of the Live Box, a separate book was released titled Live Book. This features the interview with Ásmundur Jónsson that is also included in the 36-page booklet that comes with the Live Box, but also new interviews with Lynn Fox, Zeena Parkins, Matmos and Leila, who were all involved in Björk's 2003 tour.[10] Although now largely out of print, the book is still available for purchase at the official Björk online store.[11]

Track listing

Disc 1 — Debut Live
All tracks taken from Björk's MTV Unplugged concert on 7 November 1994 except where noted.
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Human Behaviour"
4:09
2."One Day"
  • Björk
6:09
3."Venus as a Boy" (Later with Jools Holland, 17 June 1995)
  • Björk
2:33
4."Come to Me"
  • Björk
3:45
5."Big Time Sensuality"
  • Björk
  • Hooper
5:08
6."Aeroplane"
  • Björk
4:03
7."Like Someone in Love"
4:01
8."Crying"
  • Björk
  • Hooper
4:12
9."The Anchor Song"
  • Björk
3:25
10."Violently Happy"
  • Björk
  • Hooper
5:44
Total length:43:03
Disc 2 — Post Live
All tracks recorded at Shepherd's Bush Empire on 27 February 1997 except where noted.
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Headphones"
2:58
2."Army of Me"
4:04
3."One Day"
  • Björk
3:37
4."The Modern Things"
  • Björk
  • Massey
3:52
5."Isobel"
5:27
6."Possibly Maybe" (Later with Jools Holland, 17 June 1995)Björk5:22
7."Hyperballad" (Later with Jools Holland, 17 June 1995)Björk5:05
8."I Go Humble"
4:03
9."Big Time Sensuality"
  • Björk
  • Hooper
4:53
10."Enjoy"
  • Björk
  • Tricky
3:39
11."I Miss You" (TFI Friday, 19 April 1996)
3:56
12."It's Oh So Quiet" (Taratata, 14 December 1996)
3:52
13."The Anchor Song"Björk3:11
Total length:53:59
Disc 3 — Homogenic Live
No.TitleWriter(s)Recorded[12]Length
1."Vísur Vatnsenda-Rósu"
Cambridge, 2 December 19981:52
2."Hunter"
  • Björk
Paris, 6 June 19984:17
3."You've Been Flirting Again"
  • Björk
Washington, 15 May 19983:34
4."Isobel"
  • Björk
  • de Vries
  • Hooper
  • Sjón
Prague, 13 June 19984:55
5."All Neon Like"
  • Björk
Spain, 9 August 19984:56
6."Possibly Maybe"
  • Björk
Spain, 9 August 19985:43
7."5 Years"
  • Björk
London, 17 September 19974:09
8."Come to Me"
  • Björk
Prague, 13 June 19984:20
9."Immature"
  • Björk
Tourhout, 4 June 19982:59
10."I Go Humble"
  • Björk
  • Bell
Vienna, 14 June 19984:24
11."Bachelorette"
  • Björk
  • Sjón
Later with Jools Holland, 29 November 19975:17
12."Human Behaviour"
  • Björk
  • Hooper
Montreux, 10 June 19983:52
13."Pluto"
  • Björk
  • Bell
Prague, 13 June 19983:55
14."Jóga"
  • Björk
  • Sjón
Later with Jools Holland, 29 November 19974:25
15."So Broken"
  • Björk
Later with Jools Holland, 16 October 19984:27
16."The Anchor Song"
  • Björk
Cambridge, 2 December 19985:53
Total length:68:58
Disc 4 — Vespertine Live
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Frosti"
  • Björk
1:23
2."Overture"
  • Björk
3:36
3."All Is Full of Love"
  • Björk
4:04
4."Cocoon"
4:31
5."Aurora"
  • Björk
3:44
6."Undo"
  • Björk
  • Knak
5:48
7."Unravel"
3:38
8."I've Seen It All"
5:17
9."An Echo, A Stain"
  • Björk
  • Sigsworth
4:35
10."Generous Palmstroke"
4:08
11."Hidden Place"
  • Björk
5:37
12."Pagan Poetry"
  • Björk
5:30
13."Harm of Will"
4:31
14."It's Not Up To You"
  • Björk
5:24
15."Unison"
  • Björk
6:22
16."It's In Our Hands"
  • Björk
6:27
Total length:74:35
Disc 5 — Bonus DVD
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."One Day" (from MTV Unplugged)Björk 
2."It's Oh So Quiet" (from Taratata)
  • Reisfeld
  • Lang
 
3."Jóga" (from Later with Jools Holland)
  • Björk
  • Sjón
 
4."Aurora" (from Vespertine Live at the Royal Opera House)Björk 
5."It's Not Up to You" (from Vespertine Live at the Royal Opera House)Björk 

Charts

Chart (2003) Peak
position
France[13] 99
U.S. Top Electronic Albums (Billboard)[14] 12

References

  1. ^ Orlov, Piotr. "Bjork: Livebox". Blender. Archived from the original on 24 October 2004.
  2. ^ Fricke, David (2 October 2003). "Compilations & Soundtracks". Rolling Stone. No. 932. p. 120.
  3. ^ grapevine.is (2010). "A Conversation With Björk". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  4. ^ crave2ya.iespana.es (2010). "Live Box – History". Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link‍]
  5. ^ bjork.com (2010). "bjork.com / news". Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  6. ^ tonews.com (2010). "BEP-L Digest – 30 Jul 2003 to 31 Jul 2003 (#2003-212)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  7. ^ bjork.com (2010). "DVDs coming up and Live Box". Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  8. ^ bjork.com (2010). "Live albums and mini things". Archived from the original on 2010-01-01. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  9. ^ tonews.com (2010). "BEP-L Digest – 11 Sep 2003 to 12 Sep 2003 (#2003-254)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  10. ^ bjork.com (2010). "Björk Live Book". Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  11. ^ bjork.grapewire.net (2010). "björk.com/unity online music store". Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2010-08-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |author= (help)
  12. ^ "Björk - Homogenic Live". discogs.com. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  13. ^ Steffen Hung. "Björk – The Live Box Set". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2012-02-28.
  14. ^ [1][dead link‍]