Bjork - Medulla

Bjork is one of the most recognized stars in the world. She has sold millions of copies of her groundbreaking albums, she is an icon of cutting edge style, and she has received worldwide acclaim as an actress. Medulla, Bjork's first new studio album in three years, finds her delving deeper than ever before into her haunting and exhilarating sound and vision. Innovative as always, Bjork has this time built the songs on Medulla entirely from vocal tracks, with no instruments appearnig on the album, creating a soundscape unlike anything you've ever heard before. Special guests include Rahzel from The Roots, Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, an Inuit throat singer, an Icelandic choir, the world's greatest human beatboxes and more

i don't know what to think about this

bjorkappella

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Also: "ew, mike patton"

Sunshiney Sunshine: A free album by Jad Fair

Think how fortunate you are that you found what you wanted on allmusic.com

In fact, from what I've heard, THIS is how the hideous Vespertine should have sounded like, considering the concept Bjork was going for. Anyhow, marked improvement over that.

"Pleasure is all mine" is an instant favorite.

Nah, that was pretty gross, it looked like she hadn't bathed in days.

I just like massive-sounding choirs and orchestras playing sleepy, "stereotypically" pretty melodies along with glitchy percussion. It's got some rough spots ("Heirloom" is terrible, the second-to-last one is rather dull and trying too hard), but overall I think she accomplished what she set out to do, I enjoyed it, and I don't think people are willing to accept that it's [i]supposed[/i] to be v"frozen"-sounding.

And "It's POP, that makes it okay!" isn't gonna work.

has she ever looked like she has?

And Vespertine is seriously underrated, yeah.

That is such a cop-out, Sansai. There isn't such a thing as an objective "good" in music, technical complexities aside.

What I find interestingly amusing is the fact that Mel and I were two of the very few people in the planet who despised Vespertine outright. And now that we're finding this to be a noticeably marked improvement over the latter, everyone's kinda "meh" about this one. Ah, musical preferences. Such a complex subject.

UNDERRATED? In what planet? Did you miss the sea of praise? Did you know that it's her best-selling album yet?

If anything, Vespertine is an extremely overrated, formulaic un-effort.

maybe the mainstream critics liked it, but very few others did.

"Everytime" is kind of a nostalgia thing for me. It has the same piano tone as a lot of old Enya songs that I liked when I was like 8. It has that dumb overused Pachelbel's Canon structure to evoke emotion. And it's so quiet for a big pop ballad. There's no big swelling moment. I think it's its quietness that gets me. It sounds so small and broken coming out of the radio.

As for all those Björk songs? I feel nothing. I can barely remember them. And I've heard them so many times. The prettiness of Vespertine is so vacuous. I love strings. I love choirs. But not layered on like colored frosting on an angelfood cake. The album just makes me feel physically ill, as if I've just gorged myself on packages of nutrasweet.

Is that true? I find that quite bizarre. Who was left to cross over to?

I used to be play the timfinney in the symphony.

2. for the first year vespertine was out, i tended to veer towards melissa's interpretation - it seemed structurally elaborate but ultimately kind of hollow to me. i eventually realized that, with the exception of a few extraneous songs which remain numbingly boring (both "sun in my mouth" and "an echo a stain" just kind of droop, and certainly stop the album's momentum dead), that was part of its charm. hearing the ensuant remixes (herbert, ensemble, etc) helped a lot, maybe because they served to underline how malleable those melodies and song structures are. compared to debut and post (both of which contain some of bjork's most *songful* moments), vespertine seems a bit like a shell, but that's kind of the point - it IS a shell, or a casing, or a cocoon, or whatever cheesy analogy you want to apply. bjork said while she was making the album that she wanted to make music that people could listen to around the house, which i think was her way of saying she wanted to make as ambient (cf. eno's definition -> wallpaper) a record as she could possibly make. i think it's misunderstood as an album b/c it has no formal ties to the songful verse-chorus-verse bjork circa "army of me," "it's oh so quiet" etc but it's also obv. not nearly wallpapery enough to even come close to proper, formal ambient. that said, i do think there's a lot there - certainly more than is given credit for - and i find it hands down her most *inhabitable* record, for whatever that's worth

3. 'diminishing returns' applies to medulla as well. the playfulness and bravado that comes with the album's gimmick (NO instruments, everything is vocal, although a lot of them are vocal samples mulched, rearranged and digitally sculpted to SOUND like instruments, so expertly and faithfully that you end up wondering what the point was) wears off over time. not surprisingly, this record is about bjork's voice more than any other has been, which is saying a lot, and may explain my adverse reaction to it - there's a part of me that wishes she'd been canny enough to do a kid a and obscure her vocals beyond recognition, but she doesn't have the kind of self-doubt required to necessitate such a move

(radio rips)

I pretty much agree with this.

I don't mean badass in a "uniformly dark and ominous" way, if that's what you mean. More of a limited means "watch me blow up this tank with a stick of chewing gum" way. Oceania makes Hyperballad's strings and beats seem wasteful and silly.

I just don't know why it didn't get mentioned more. I think "Where is the line" is a terrific pop song.

http://www.uploadandgo.com/reg/images/6413bjork-pdiddy.gif

Hello. This sounds wow

First heard this year, resurrected my interest in Bjork, which had disappeared in like '99.

the harmonies/textures are intoxicating

This album is one of the most self-indulgent things ever recorded.

I dunno, it's a little bit too collaborative for that label.

i find self-indulgent as a descriptor vague - it is often best to indulge yourself when it comes to creativity, in any event.

This album is one of the most self-indulgent things ever recorded.

-- HI DERE, Saturday, August 4, 2007 6:36 PM

correct. the album is also awesome.

My favorite Bjork album for sure. Mouth's Cradle is like a synthesis of everything I like in pop music. It's a perfect song.

yes

wow

dan perry = career wrong-ist

"how am i going to make it right"

really this album is quite hooky. and i just love these beautiful choral underpinnings.

The combination of throat singers, traditional choruses, Gregorians and Rahzel is astounding. This really is one of the sexiest, most textured records of the decade. Only Bjork album to make a top 10 list of mine; only one that I listen to regularly, though Post comes out once in a while.

that's what's so surprising about it for me is the breadth of the texture. i didn't expect that. it really floods my heart. which sounds really corny but feels right!

where is the line is really, really pretty

bjork's effect is so physical on this album - it hits beneath the skin. and it's comforting.

hehe i love how soulfully ridiculous i get with my posts. so i'm just gonna keep listening to this album, yep, that's the plan.

btw ever since someone pointed it out up thread i just can't enough of that "i want to be flexible" line in "where is the line."

mhmm.

Can we get this thread truncated and moved to a new Surmounter-only board?

Perhaps on the oink forum

what is that one with the crickets -- you know it sounds like nighttime and she's repeating some line

i'm sure i've mentioned it by name before but i couldn't think of it when it came on

oh right this:

"how am i going to make it right"

-- Surmounter, Saturday, August 4, 2007 7:02 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

she gets really excited

I kind of hate that song, though there's one choral remix of it which improves it.

i find it quiet and powerful

years on, "Ancestors" is still hilarious

it really is

new one biophilia reminds me of this