HEADPHONES (To Graham)

by Björk Gudmundsdóttir
(Excerpt from POST, Elektra Entertainment, 1995)

genius to fall asleep
to your tape last night

so warm

sounds go through the muscles
these abstract wordless movements

...move... move ... move...

they start off
cells that haven't been touched before

these cells are virgins
waking up slowly

...waking ... waking...wake them...

i like this resonance
it elevates me
i don't recognize myself

this is very interesting

my headphones they saved my life
your tape
it lulled me to sleep...
...to sleep...

POST is Björk's second solo release, a very successful one according to reports. This song also appears on the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE soundtrack (Polygram 1996), as a song "inspired by" MI, because it is not in the movie. Headphones, of course, are an important MI prop, about which several of the film's characters could say "they saved my life." Björk's style is described as eclectic, techno and "experimental," and "Headphones," which closes POST, is a contemplative ending to an otherwise energetic work.

The lyrics suggest the transformative effect of the intimate sound from headphones - when the listener is tired and receptive to new ideas. The resonance stirs "virgin" cells throughout the body that trigger this spiritual transformation. She observes herself changing from one being to another, discarding a precarious self for a more enlightened one that allows her to rest, to sleep and become renewed.

There has been some debate as to the song's dedication:

I wrote ['Headphones'] in Iceland when me and Graham [Massey] kept sending each other tapes - he would just save my life! I would wait 'til the evening, put my headphones on, and listen to the songs. And it would be so nurturing to fall asleep to the music.... 'Headphones' is a lot about that.

- Björk Gudmundsdóttir, POST