Show Me Your Palms

Björk “5 Years”

I’ve only seen Björk perform once, at the Capitol Ballroom in Washington, D.C. in 1998 on the Homogenic tour. I still have some very clear memories of this show, and one of them surfaces every time I hear this song: When she got to the chorus and sang “you can’t handle love,” she would wave her hands, as if to say to the audience – “no no no, YOU can handle love, I’m singing about this other lame dude.” It has always struck me as a very charming and generous gesture.

“5 Years” is about feeling totally exasperated by someone’s fear of commitment, and pitying them for it. I like that as contemptuous as this song gets, it’s rooted in genuine concern for this man: “You’re the one who’s missing out / but you won’t notice til after 5 years / if you live that long! / you will wake up all loveless.” There are a lot of songs, particularly over the past decade and a half, that are brutal and petulant in how they address rejection, and a lot of the time I just think “Well, I can see why that didn’t work out.” But “5 Years” comes from a place of emotional maturity, and it’s less about telling someone how awful they are, and more about being completely disappointed by a person you actually love.

Björk’s performance on this track is so wonderfully expressive, especially as it goes along and she puts this guttural growl into emphasis words: “I’m so BORRRRRED with COWAAAARRRDS!!!” I love the way she refuses to blame herself for this guy’s fears and flaws, and how the song is just her impatiently waiting for someone to get on her level. Like most of the songs on Homogenic, the track juxtaposes lovely strings with deliberately ugly electronic noise that sounds jagged and violent, and this mirrors the feeling of lyrics and vocal perfectly – simultaneously gracefully serene and furious. By the end of the song, she’s demanding to know what’s so scary about love, and daring him to give it a shot. It’s so emotionally raw, but it’s also as self-possessed and self-respecting as a “baby, come back!” sentiment can get in a pop song.

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