Bjork: Greatest Hits

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Oddly enough, this greatest hits manages a cohesion that the studio efforts of the Icelandic avant-pop star haven't always achieved. The 15 tracks, all chosen by fans, capture the most melodically thrilling moments of her 90s solo years. And the songs here are many and varied.

There's lush emotive balladry mixing glacial strings with electronica at their incandescent best on the likes of All Is Full of Love, Joga, Hidden Place and Bachelorette; there are smatterings of the sort of Bjork-pop that made the charts a stranger, better place in Venus as A Boy, Human Behaviour and the grinding Army of Me; and there are exuberant songs — such as Hyperballad and Big Time Sensuality (here in a pneumatic remix by Fluke) — which can still induce an urge to dance oneself giddy. Thankfully, It's Oh So Quiet, her dabble into swing-era show tunes, isn't here to frighten the cat — or distract this collection from being a comprehensive exhibition of Bjork, true pop artist.

Label: One Little