Icelandic musician Björk is back. The 52-year-old singer and composer has collaborated with the likes of Sir David Attenborough and is known for appearing on stage wearing some of the craziest outfits this side of Lady Gaga.

Always on the forefront of technology, she has plenty of “firsts” in the bag. Biophilia (2011) was released as an “app album” with each song linked to an interactive app. The music videos for her last album, Vulnicura, were a series of virtual reality films.

Utopia is her tenth studio album and, in many ways, it’s one of her most accessible. She brings an orchestral sensibility to a style of music that is uniquely and defiantly her own. Harps, flutes, choral arrangements, and loon calls meet industrial electronica, all tied together with that voice. It defies classification. It’s just Björk.

Lyrically, this album has a lot of love to share, but doesn’t shy away from big subjects, presenting instead a more complex version of paradise. On “Tabula Rasa” she sings to her children: “It is time for us women to rise and not just take it lying down / It is time: The world is listening / Oh, how I love you / Embarrassed to pass this mess over to you”.

The world is indeed listening.

— Matt J. Simmons