Homogenic was originally to be produced in her home in London, but was halted due to media attention from Björk surviving a murder attempt by a stalker.

After an extensive tour in support of her 1995 album Post, Björk returned to her home in Maida Vale with an urgent need to write new songs as a form of therapy.

[6] The progress of Homogenic in these sessions was halted due to a media sensation caused by the suicide of Björk's stalker Ricardo López.

[9] To record in privacy away from the sudden unwanted media interest, Björk's tour drummer Trevor Morais offered his studio in Spain.

[10] Before returning to Spain to record, Björk was sidetracked by a two-week worldwide press tour for the promotion of her remix album Telegram, which had just been released.

[12][13][14] Björk had intended to produce the album alone, but sought collaborators including Dravs, Howie B, Guy Sigsworth and LFO's Mark Bell.

[12] Most of the melodies on the album were created by Björk, who then composed string sections on a Casio keyboard and brought them to programmers who would add rhythmic patterns.

Tiny Mix Tapes considered that "Björk has managed to create something so refreshingly unique that trying to categorize and label the music is rather dubious.

"[24] Writing for Beats Per Minute, Cole Zercoe felt Homogenic represented a pinnacle work of trip hop, forming part of "a sort of holy trinity of this musical aesthetic" along with Massive Attack's Mezzanine and Portishead's Dummy.

The song "5 Years" appeared in live form a few weeks after her breakup with musician Tricky and music journalists considered it a response to it.

Dressed by McQueen and photographed by Nick Knight, who shot the Homogenic cover as well, Aoki wears a pink funnel-necked dress with her skin cast in a blueish metallic hue, one eyeball blankly white, a large safety pin closing a slash through her forehead, and her hair pulled into tight buns as she challenges the camera with a direct gaze.

I had 10 kilos of hair on my head, and special contact lenses and a manicure that prevented me from eating with my fingers, and gaffer tape around my waist and high clogs so I couldn't walk easily.

[44] Promotion of Homogenic started on 8 June 1997, when Björk performed several songs from the album at the Tibetan Freedom Concert held at Downing Stadium in New York City.

[46] In the United Kingdom, Björk performed the lead single "Jóga" on TFI Friday on 19 September,[47] and Top of the Pops on 3 October.

[52] In France, Björk performed "Bachelorette" with "Jóga" on Nulle Part Ailleurs on 11 February,[53] and with "Hunter" on Hit Machine on 20 June.

[19] The tour started at the beginning of September with a backing band that consisted only of Mark Bell and made stops in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Spain, and England.

[56] In late November, Björk was diagnosed with a kidney infection and while she was still healthy she was advised to take a three-week rest and was forced to cancel her American tour.

[56] In 1998, a North American tour with Radiohead was announced but canceled later due to difficulty of changing the stage between performances of the acts.

[61] Its mostly computer-animated accompanying music video was directed by Michel Gondry and focuses primarily on different Icelandic terrains and landscapes with Björk's presence only in the beginning and towards the end.

[64] Its accompanying music video, directed by Paul White, features a close-up of a bald Björk singing into the camera as she morphs into a polar bear and then back to her original state.

[74] Neva Chonin of Rolling Stone cited it as "one of the boldest – and most exciting – albums of the year",[26] while Los Angeles Times critic Richard Cromelin wrote that it "affirms [Björk's] stature as one of pop music's most uncompromising adventurers".

[76] NME's Ted Kessler praised Homogenic as Björk's best album and "her most emotional, highly charged and groovy record, as well as a stinging triumph for the spirit of adventure,"[78] while The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked that it "boldly ventures into the techno future while never losing its intensely personal vision and human heart".

[79] In another positive review, Spin opined that with the album, Björk didn't "demonize the artificial and assign innocence to the natural.

Club, who said in contrast that "Homogenic is stylish enough, and it's as restlessly creative as you'd expect, but the album rarely gives Björk's songs a chance to assert themselves".

[91][92] At the next year's ceremony, Chris Cunningham's video for "All Is Full of Love" was nominated for the same award, but lost to Korn's "Freak on a Leash".

In a retrospective review, Heather Phares of AllMusic cited Homogenic as being more emotionally deep than any of Björk's previous work and called it a "seamless fusion of chilly strings, stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches like an accordion and glass harmonica.

[107] In 2003, it was placed at number 21 on the music webzine Pitchfork's list of the top one hundred albums of the 1990s, in which it was praised as "one of the most perfectly formed records of any era, and it is entirely possible that Björk will never approach this level of consistently enrapturing beauty again".

[21] The same year, Spin writer Phoebe Reilly called it Björk's "most sublime and vulnerable album" in a career retrospective.

[112] Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork described the album as impactful on Björk's own discography, stating: "In retrospect, it's easy to see the way that Homogenic paves the way for later career triumphs like Vespertine and Vulnicura: In its formal audacity and sustained emotional intensity, it represents a phase shift from Debut and Post, fine though they were.

"[112] Homogenic has also been noted to have had influence on Kanye West by various sources, as he departed hip hop in favor of a more experimental sound for his fourth studio album 808s & Heartbreak (2008).