Björk's new album, Biophilia, is finally out this week, in North America via One Little Indian / Nonesuch Records on CD tomorrow, with vinyl to follow on October 24. To mark the occasion, Björk was featured today on NPR's Morning Edition. She spoke with NPR's Laura Sydell about the new album and its many multimedia components, including the Biophilia App suite also available this week in the iTunes App Store. You can listen to the Morning Edition piece at npr.org.

Björk spoke with the Associated Press about the project as well. The AP's David MacDougall says "Biophilia's music is vintage Björk ... With titles like 'Virus,' 'Crystalline' and 'Solstice,' the album embeds nature at its very heart—an enduring feature of Björk's work." Read the article via ABC News at abcnews.go.com.

In the UK, where the album is out today via One Little Indian, the Financial Times calls Biophilia "a triumph," giving it a perfect five stars. "Björk herself resembles a force of nature," says reviewer Ludovic Hunter-Tilney. "Biophilia reactivates a sensation I thought I’d lost: Björkophilia."

The Daily Telegraph names Biophilia CD of the Week and gives it a perfect five stars, calling it "surprisingly accessible, hypnotic and beautiful if you give it time and concentration." Reviewer Helen Brown concludes that, with that concentration on the album, "you might begin to feel a marvellous connection to all kinds of universal forces." Read the five-star review at telegraph.co.uk.

It is also CD of the Week in the Observer, which gives the "ground-breaking album" four stars. With all of the different facets of the project, one could reasonably wonder, "does it work as an album of, y'know, songs?" Reviewer Kitty Empire answers with a resounding: "Hell, yeah." Empire says that "what emerges here is hope, in new ways of doing things that don't abandon the old, untamable, pre-digital world," defining "this intricate album's simple raison d'être: a sense of wonder." Read the review at guardian.co.uk.

The Daily Mirror names it a CD of the Week and gives it four stars, as well.

"Biophilia is a thrilling record, an artist not just at the peak of her vocal power and knowledge, but rapturously and soulfully engaged with life and the still beautiful possibilities music offers in a benighted age," raves reviewer Gavin Martin. "Even in Björk’s catalogue there’s nothing that’s been as spectacularly unconventional and wholly successful as Biophilia ... Every so often an album comes along that not only justifies its hype but outweighs it."

Read the review at mirror.co.uk.

---

In Canada, where Biophilia is out tomorrow, the Globe and Mail gives the album three-and-a-half out of four stars. "Bjork’s incantatory style of delivery gives almost every tune a feeling of ritual discovery," says reviewer Robert Everett-Green, "as if some cosmic requirement were being satisfied by these words and this singing." Read the complete review at theglobeandmail.com.

---

Consequence of Sound gives the album four-and-a-half out of five stars. "Biophilia fits in snugly with the rest of her venerable back-catalog, if for nothing other than continuing her streak of wholly iconic records," writes reviewer Möhammad Choudhery, who concludes that "there’s little doubting it’ll stand as one of the more rewarding albums of her storied career." Read the review at consequenceofsound.net.

---

PopMatters gives the album an eight out of ten.

The App "complements the experimental and ahead-of-its-time qualities of Björk’s music well," writes PopMatters Music Editor Arnold Pan. And yet, even through the album on its own, one can "admire and become transfixed by what might be Björk’s most immersive album since Homogenic. Certainly, it’s her most diverse collection of songs since her eclectic breakthrough Post, with elements of everything that came after it woven together, threading Homogenic‘s rapid-fire beats, Vespertine‘s intricate symphonics, and the bright world music accents of Volta into its sonic fabric. But it’s all done with a delicate and deft touch—indeed, the irony of Biophilia is that Björk’s boldest artistic statement yet is one that’s so intimate and even understated."

Through the multimedia Biophilia project, says Pan, Björk show that, once again, "she’s breaking new ground few others know is out there to begin with."

Read the complete review at popmatters.com.

---

To pick up a copy of Biophilia in North America, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album available to download starting tomorrow.