I'm still studying this music very deeply, and four things seem most important:
 
1) The instructions for her method of composition and arrangement are right there in the lyrics- plain as day. Exactly the opposite of what they teach you at music school- (And she was a child prodigy, sent to the music conservatory to study classical music at the age of 5. Made her first album at 11.)

2) True Music (with a capital M) is not about technique. Well, not nearly as much as you and I thought it was. This is the biggest lesson here for me, and a HUGE lesson at that. I have been hung up on technique for DECADES. That's why I say Vespertine is the most important record I think I've ever heard. See #1. The album took me a little bit of time to grasp because it really went against my in-grained sense of what good music was. (Finally, a couple of weeks of on and off listening- and after two weeks, with headphones and the lights out-- big frontal lobes BIG BANG). Now, once that lesson is learned--- most of the bulls**t and limitations drop away, and the possibilities then become infinite, and you're free to play SOMETHING besides NOTES.
 
Miles had it very very right-- space is key. I don't think Coltrane ever really got what he was saying. He just got more and more hung up on notes, and I didn't find his music spiritual in the least near the end of his career- but then, again, maybe you had to be there then.

3) Take what is expected, and turn it upside down, and THEN make it musical. Be unpredictable.
 
If music fails to surprise you, take you someplace new-- it is dead. That's why I can't listen to the radio or anyone else's music for more than a few minutes these days--- I've heard it a million times already, I've read that book. She's a pioneer in a land where everybody else is just trying to be successful, or different alone. She's done a great job of balancing chaos with beautiful melody.
 
Almost without exception, in every one of her recordings there is something that has broken the mold, something of GREAT surprise and unpredictability- the CHAOS FACTOR, and this breathes life into her music that allows repeated listenings-- she tickles my frontals-- its a puzzle I'm still figuring out. I would guess that most people don't even try--- they like Ensure Pre-Digested Music in a Can.
 

Her sense of melodic rhythm and interplay of various rhythmic elements almost defies complete logic- often teetering on the edge of randomness- but then she does exactly the same phrase again, and you realize it is perfectly constructed and planned to be this way. And this makes it even more beautiful.
 

4) Contrast, contrast, contrast. I think much of the power of her music comes from sheer contrast of elements-- things you don't think musical play against sweetly pure musical elements, and the contrast makes the total more powerful.

This is all basic to GOOD ART... and we have such little of that going around.
Neil
 

UNDO
From the album Vespertine

A VERY frontal lobes piece of music.... you might substitute "click forward" for "undo", but undo is beautifully poetic and simple

Here's the link to listen streaming Real Audio--- this is temporary, because it's copyrighted music-
I just want to turn on Brain Explorers to this great musician

 
http://www.neilslade.com/audio/bjork.ram
 
 
Here's the lyrics
 
UNDO
 
Its not meant to be a strife
It's not meant to be a struggle uphill
 
You're trying too hard
Surrender
Give yourself in
You're trying too hard
 
Its not meant to be a strife
Its not meant to be a struggle uphill
 
Its warmer now
Lean into it
Unfold in a generous way
Surrender
 
Its not meant to be a strife
Its not meant to be a struggle uphill
 
I'm praying
To be
In a generous mode
The kindness kind
To share me
Quietly ecstatic
 
Its not meant to be a strife
Its not meant to be a struggle uphill
 
Undo if you're bleeding  undo
If you're seating  undo
If you're crying undo
 
Undo

Okay, here's another--- I prefer the live version on Live At Cambridge - a mind blower.... but this studio cut ain't bad either...!

http://www.neilslade.com/audio/bjork3.ram

 "All Neon Like"

Not 'til you halo all over me
I'll come over
Not 'til it shimmers 'round your skull
I'll be yours

I weave for you
The marvellous web
Glow in the dark threads
All neon like

The cocoon surrounds you
Embraces all
So you can sleep
Foetus-style

And they will assist us
'Cause we're asking for help
And the luminous beam
It feeds you,
Henh-yeah!, henh-yeah

The soft distortion
Fills you up
Nourish nourish
Your turtleheart

And they will assist us
'Cause we're asking for help
And the luminous beam
It feeds you
Henh-yeah!, yeah!

Don't get angry with yourself
Don't, don't get angry with yourself
I'll heal you

With a razorblade
I'll cut a slit open
And the luminous beam
Feeds you honey, heals you

Don't get angry with yourself

I'll heal you, i'll heal you
luminous, i'll heal you