looking back

I listened to it when we did the surround mixes of it like two or three years ago and I have to say I was kinda surprised how the odd spastic thing of the album had actually aged well. I was very aware of it at the time that I needed to be musically promiscuous and have almost every song [a] different mood/style and so on. The picture on the cover is me on Piccadilly Circus (Times Square of London) too excited, too many things, Bright Lights Big City kinda thing, and me eager to consume. So my musical heart was scattered at the time and I wanted the album to show that.

For me, Volta is a similar album in that sense. The style of it is all styles, sailing around the world going to new places making new friends. It is a beginning of a new period. Then Homogenic — that came after — was something more stable. Post was looking, Homogenic was what I found. Volta is definitely looking, and I can feel my next one is going to be more centered.

If you went back, would you do anything differently ? Sequencing ? Song selection ?

Not really. You do the best you can at the time. That’s all you can do. You only get one shot.

The Stereogum Interview, March 2008