Volta is the seventh studio album by Icelandic singer Björk, released in May 2007. It was produced by Björk, Mark Bell, Timbaland and Danja. The full album was accidentally made available on the UK iTunes Store at midnight on April 23, 2007 for a total of six hours, two weeks before the album’s official release date. This led to the album being leaked online the following day. It has been certified Silver in the United Kingdom.
The album attracted attention due to the inclusion of three tracks co-produced by R&B record producer Timbaland. The album was highly acclaimed on its initial release and continues to be praised by critics. Volta spent nine weeks at number one on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums chart and in the first three months of release sold over half a million copies worldwide. The lead single, “Earth Intruders”, reached number 67 on the UK Official Download Chart, and number 78 on the main UK Singles Chart, while the remix EP later released charted on its own at #150. In the United States, the song debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 84 in the issue dated April 28, 2007, her second entry on that chart (after “Big Time Sensuality”). Björk went on an 18-month tour in support of the album, which was her first tour in four years.
I´m always looking for a word that has some sort of energy. Usually the name just comes, from a newspaper or something. I had been working for a year on the record and no name. In the text, the name voltage and voodoo are mentioned, what I thought is overused. I´ve always tried to pick titles from latin or something. But I thought Volta… I can´t remember how it came up, but then I googled it and found out that it means a name of a scientist in Italy that discovered the battery, and also a river in Africa and a lake that has the name Lake Volta. And other stuff came in there. I´m not going to name anything but people can guess what it is. Also there is a dance that has this name. So I had many things for that name : dance, river and the battery. So okay- it fits.
Source: (22/03/2007)