Björk’s “Atopos” Lyrics Meaning
Even if you don’t know any of Björk’s songs specifically, you’re likely aware that she’s akin to, shall we say an artist with a spiritual/metaphysical slant. So it is with this song, which can also be deemed philosophical in nature.
The title originates from the Greek language. It translates to the term “unusual” or the phrase “out of place”. “Atopos” points to the notion of what the vocalist harps on in the lyrics. And that is the subject of disconnection or, more specifically as put forth, ‘our differences being irrelevant’ in the grand scheme of things.
In other words, this is a unity song. And even though lyrically it is relatively terse, there’s a whole bunch of different ideas being tossed about.
But what it all boils down to is Björk saying something like we’re selling ourselves short by harping on differences rather than similarities, especially, it would seem, as far as close-interpersonal relationships are concerned.
According to Björk, the way to mitigate such an association becoming more fragmented than unified is to focus on the “hope” of the situation, or something like that.
Conclusion
Indeed it can be said that in a way, there’s more not being said there than there is being stated forthrightly. But at the end of the day listeners are still likely to get the gist of the song, which is that a relationship cannot survive and thrive if the participants are focused on what they don’t have in common and/or doing their own thing.
Björk talks about “Atopos”
According to Björk, the lyrics of “Atopos” shed light on how irrelevant our differences are. Owing to this, we as humans should rather put our differences aside and unite as one.
Björk
Björk is undoubtedly someone you’ve heard of before. Actually she can be considered the most-popular and definitely longest-tenured musician, as far as the mainstream goes, from Iceland. In fact her first studio album, which was a self-titled effort, came out all the way back in 1977.
Release of “Atopos”
“Atopos” came out on 6 September 2022. It is the lead single from Björk’s 10th studio album which goes by the title “Fossora”. The whole project was backed by One Little Independent Records, an entity Bjork has been associated with since around the early 1990s.
Credits
The colorful music video to this song was directed by one Viðar Logi.
The featured artist on this track is Kasimyn. Kasimyn is part of an Indonesian musical duo known as Gabber Modus Operandi. This is an act which Bjork has acknowledged as having had a major influence on the entirety of “Fossora”.
Björk produced this track herself. Furthermore, she is also credited as one of its two writers. The other is Kasimyn.
