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‘It should be out in summer’: Bjork gives album update

Björk has penned “a whole new album”, which she hopes will be released in the summer.

In October, the Icelandic legend revealed she had made a record for “people who are making clubs at home in their living room”, amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

And in the latest update on the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s ‘Utopia’, the 56-year-old artist revealed she loved the chance to focus entirely on the album without having to travel.

Björk explained how she relished being at her beach home in Reykjavík, Iceland, instead of being on the road when concerts were cancelled due to the spread of coronavirus.

In an interview with LA Weekly, the ‘Hyperballad’ star was asked about the pandemic interfering with her ‘Cornucopia’ tour, to which she replied: “Yes, this has never happened before. I’m kinda excited about it.

“Usually, once you commit to a tour, it seems to lock into a grid which is most often fun but at worst can become conveyor-belty. So to put something on pause for two years and write a whole album and then come back to it is going to be interesting.”

She added: “Well, the lifestyle changes in COVID were not that huge in Iceland. I live on a beach in Reykjavík, the capital, and even in the tightest lockdowns I could walk up and down it. Then of course, hikes in the mountains… we spend a lot of time in nature here. And even in town, most things stayed open. I managed to write a whole album without travelling breaks, which felt absolutely delicious! I haven’t stayed so much home since I was 16 – loved it!”

Björk didn’t divulge any details about the theme of the new record, but she plans to release it this year.

She said: “I’m finishing [the new album] now, and it should probably come out in the summer.

“It’s always really hard for me to describe the album while I’m still making it.

“It isn’t until a few months later that I can look in the mirror and pretend there was a logic to it the whole time.”

In a separate interview with The Mercury News, she noted that the release date “depends on the speed of publishing in 2022. It’s sort of out of my hands. But I would say summer. That’s a rough estimate.”

‘Utopia’ received wide acclaim from critics and fans alike upon its release, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.