Björk ****
'Biophilia'. Nonesuch.

The Icelandic singer began this record as a project for National Geographic. These ten tracks of haute soul are largely played on clever, invented instruments like a Tesla-coil keyboard, which crackles deep beneath ‘Thunderbolt’. When the latter chimes away, seemingly at random, you consider that behind the scampering pattern lies programming and a brain.

It’s nerdy, sure, but rooted to the heart by Björk, whose voice remains the greatest force of nature. There’s something motherly and comforting in the way she purrs her Rs. ‘Cosmology’ shows how creation myths and astrophysics are equally strange and wonderful. Björk is often painted as some quirky sprite, but her fantasyland is our own world.