An explosive, complex, and layered opener, Björk likens her first kiss with someone to a rapidfire activation of all of her senses. Given to Arca as a gift, “Arisen My Senses” samples one of her first released songs “Little Now A Lot”, cementing their musical relationship in our first taste of Utopia.

“Arisen My Senses” proves a sheer contrast to that of Björk’s previous album, Vulnicura, which she details in an interview with Pitchfork:

Looking back now, the melodies on Vulnicura are very sad, and there’s short spaces between the notes. It’s kind of paralyzed. The first song I wrote on this album, the opening song, “Arisen My Senses” is the opposite. The melody’s like a constellation in the sky. It’s almost like an optimist rebellion against the normal narrative melody. There’s not one melody. It’s like five melodies. I really loved that.