On record: Bjork Homogenic One Little Indian TPLP71CD

Usually, that "difficult third album" problem results from lack of direction and paucity of material; with Homogenic, the opposite is more the case. Both Debut and Post impressed partly through their sheer variety - Bjork, it seemed, was brimful of ideas which wormed their ways into your affections. With Homogenic, she appears to have settled upon a formula, with most tracks featuring just a few orchestral flourishes, a shimmer of synthesiser and a drum track behind her vocals.

The album is apparently a kind of audio-synaesthetic impression of Bjork's return to her native Iceland, with the rhythm tracks designed to echo the cracking sounds made by thawing glaciers, etc. LFO's Mark Bell has programmed most of the beats and synth backdrops, and the restrained, elegantly energised results allow Bjork's lyrics to dominate the tracks - though these, too, seem more homogeneous.

Being Bjork, she brings new slants to bear,but fails to find the particularity of each song. Perhaps a couplet from the opening track, "Hunter", provides a clue: "I thought I could organise freedom," sings Bjork. "How Scandinavian of me."