The pure pop for now (and then) people of Toothpaste 2000 seems to take a minimalist turn with Bachelorette. The opener, "Baby, Let's Rock!," is so tightly compressed, it's almost as reductionist as the Ramones. From there, however, they spring back to their usual selves, sometimes adding more colors (as when "Miss Marcy Brown" brings in digitized keyboard horns to great effect) to the guitar-bass-drums format that's been their staple. As usual, Frank Bednash's songs rock more, like the excellent "Jimmy," while guitarist Donna Esposito keeps a sensual slinkiness to her material, as on the slightly wistful title tack. That they know how to write strong pop songs is beyond question -- they've been doing it for a long time, and some of the tracks here are among the best they've written. What hurts this disc more than anything is the production, which leaves quite a bit to be desired. Esposito's vocals sometimes vanish into the mix -- which can be quite muddy -- and the crispness that would give their music an extra kick is missing, doing them no favors at all. It would be nice to hear these songs re-recorded in a better studio (and perhaps with a better budget). Until then, Bachelorette is great pop, but needs a fairer presentation. ~ Chris Nickson, All Music Guide
The song is emotionally charged and theatrical, following the album's theme of "beats and strings". Björk herself describes the song's story as "Isobel goes to the city."
Music video
The surreal music video was directed by longtime Björk video collaborator Michel Gondry, and is an exploration of self-reference. It features Björk as "Bachelorette", a woman who finds a book buried in her garden that begins to write itself, describing what Bachelorette does as she describes it; the book is entitled "My Story". She takes the book to a publishing house, "Clark Publishing", in an unspecified large city that may be Chicago, and she and the publisher fall in love. (It becomes obvious, seeing and hearing excerpts from the book, that the book tells the story of how Bachelorette found the book, travelled to meet the publisher, and fell in love with him.) The book becomes incredibly popular (at one point, all of Bachelorette's fellow passengers on a subway are seen reading it), and is turned into a musical, featuring Bachelorette as herself. The musical version includes the story of the musical itself, so at some point a mini-theater is shown on the stage, featuring actors dressed as a small audience. At some point later in the musical this mini-musical features an even smaller version of itself, with an even smaller stage audience. The publisher, who is in the actual audience, becomes disgusted with seeing so many versions of himself, and breaks off the relationship; later, his character in the original musical does as well. The book becomes unpopular, and the original copy begins unwriting itself. Because of this turn of events, a chain reaction occurs in the nested theatres, causing each to be nullified and revert back to nature. Ultimately, the entire city de-evolves into the garden that appeared at the outset. The unwritten book finds its resting place buried in the ground once more, and Bachelorette ends up dancing and surrounded by wildlife.
The video was based on an original idea by Björk, who saw "Bachelorette" as a continuation of the character portrayed in "Isobel" and "Human Behaviour". As Gondry describes it, "this character is leaving the forest and she decides to go to the city to have a normal life. She tries her best and it doesn't work out and she comes back to the forest and she is happier there."[1]
"Bachelorette" is the third part of a song cycle that includes "Human Behaviour" and "Isobel". And as with the latter two its lyrics were written by Björk's longstanding co-writer Sjón.
The song has been covered by Turkish singer Müslüm Gürses and artist Voltaire. Tori Amos has also covered the song in concert, though not to be confused with another song written and performed by herself which shares the title.
