Björk - Live Box (2003)

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Björk - Live Box (2003)

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Live Box is a set of 4 live CDs, a live DVD and a 36-page booklet by Icelandic musician Björk, released in August 2003. Each live CD roughly corresponds to one album in her (at the time of release) four album solo discography. The 4 live CDs were later released separately in June 2004.

When Björk was pregnant with her daughter Ísadóra in 2002 she decided to start sorting through the hundreds of hours of live recordings she had collected from her tours. Assisted in the process by the head of Smekkleysa, Ásmundur Jónsson, they decided on the best performances from each of the tours to include on the live albums. This release of live material was initially confirmed by the inclusion of live tracks on the "It's in Our Hands" single in 2002, credited to the "Forthcoming album Vespertine Live". This was followed by an announcement in 2003 of a distribution-deal with US record company Navarre that would include "both CDs and DVDs". Björk's official website later confirmed the release of a box set containing live recordings, not only from Vespertine but from the past ten years of Björk's solo career. Björk only started to have soundboard recordings of her live shows from the Homogenic tour onwards, so the first two discs (Debut Live and Post Live) are made up primarily of the audio from the corresponding live DVDs. Shortly before the official release, a free download of "Hyperballad" from the Post Live disc was made available on the Abercrombie Vintage website. The originally announced track listing for Post Live included 18 tracks (the final version has 13), and so would have included nearly the full audio from the Live at Shepherds Bush Empire DVD, from which the album takes most of its material.

The box set also includes a 36-page booklet featuring numerous photos and an in-depth conversation with Björk and Ásmundur in Björk's home, discussing her career, her recordings and her live tours. The box set was originally announced as a limited release of 30,000 copies, although it is still available for purchase. The individual live discs were later released separately in May 2004.

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Björk - Live Box (2003)

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*The original versions of all of the tracks can be found on Debut. Two songs from Debut are missing: "There's More To Life Than This" and "Play Dead", although "Play Dead" is strictly speaking not on Debut, but is included as a bonus track on the re-release. Indeed, neither of the two songs were performed on the MTV Unplugged performance from which this disc takes most of its material, but the latter was performed on the Debut Tour after its single release.
*All songs except "Venus as a Boy" are from MTV Unplugged in 1994. The original broadcast (and subsequent bootlegs) of the MTV concert featured "Venus as a Boy", so it is unclear why that version could not be included here.

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*Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12: Original versions on Post. "Cover Me" and "You've Been Flirting Again" are missing, although "You've Been Flirting Again" appears on 'Homogenic Live' and "Cover Me" only received its first performances during the 2007–08 Volta Tour.
Tracks 3, 9 and 13: Original versions on Debut
Track 8: Only found the Japan edition of Post and on Isobel single.
*Songs performed on the Post Tour but not featured on the CD include: "Human Behaviour", "Venus as a Boy", "Crying" and "Violently Happy" from Debut, "You've Been Flirting Again", "Sweet Intuition" and "Charlene" from the Post era, and "5 Years" from Björk's then not-yet-released album, Homogenic. Live versions of "Venus as a Boy", "You've Been Flirting Again", "Human Behaviour", "Crying" and "Violently Happy" were officially released on VHS then later on DVD in "Live at Shepherds Bush Empire", a recording the a post-Post Tour show given for free to members of the Björk fan club on 27 February 1997.

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*Tracks 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14: Original versions on Homogenic. "Unravel", "Alarm Call" and "All Is Full of Love" are missing, although "Unravel" and "All Is Full of Love" appear on 'Vespertine Live'.
Tracks 3, 4 and 6: Original versions on Post
Track 10: Bonus track from the Japanese edition of Post
Tracks 8, 12 and 16: Original versions on Debut.
Track 1: Original version on "Possibly Maybe" single (traditional Icelandic song).
Track 15: Original version on "Jóga" single.
*Songs performed on the Homogenic Tour but not featured on the CD include: "Venus as a Boy", "Violently Happy", and "Play Dead" from the Debut era, "Headphones" and "Hyperballad" from Post, and "All Is Full of Love" and "Alarm Call" from Homogenic. Live versions of "Play Dead" and "Alarm Call" were officially released on the "Live in Cambridge" DVD, a visual document of the Homogenic Tour.

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Björk - Live Box (2003)

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*Tracks 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15: Original versions on Vespertine. The tracks "Sun in My Mouth" and "Heirloom" are missing, of which "Heirloom" received its first performance on the subsequent 2003 Greatest Hits Tour, and "Sun in My Mouth" was first performed live for the Átta Raddir concert broadcast on Icelandic television in February 2011 in a celesta version of the song, played by Jónas Sen, and made its tour debut in 2015 on the Vulnicura Tour.
Track 1 is mistitled as "Frosti", which is on the album too, but it is actually the music box version of Pagan Poetry found on the Cocoon single.
Tracks 3 and 7: Original versions on Homogenic
Tracks 2 and 8: Original versions on Selmasongs
Track 16: Original version on the "It's in Our Hands" single.
Track 10: Original version found on the "Hidden Place" single and as a bonus track in Japanese pressings of Vespertine.
*Songs performed on the Vespertine World Tour but not included on the CD include: "Human Behaviour", "Venus as a Boy" and "The Anchor Song" from Debut, "Army of Me", "Hyperballad", "You've Been Flirting Again", "Isobel" and "Possibly Maybe" from Post, "Joga" and "Bachelorette" from Homogenic, a cover of Meredith Monk's song "Gotham Lullaby" and the debut of "Who Is It", which would be released on 2004's Medulla. Live performances of "Possibly Maybe", "Isobel", "Hyperballad", "Human Behaviour" and "Jóga" were officially released on DVD in "Live from the Royal Opera House", a video recording of one of the last Vespertine World Tour gigs.