Björk Medulla

Here we have what amounts to a treatise on the possiblities of the human voice in all its permutations.  Björk.  Strange.  Weird.  Different.  Great!!  If you thought Björk just couldn't get any, ummmm, stranger...you ain't heard nothin' yet, pardner.  Picture The Manhattan Transfer on acid, perhaps...or Bobby McFerrin ("Don't Worry, Be Happy") flippin' out and being really good and meaningful.  Look out John Cage, Phillip Glass, Kate Bush, Kronos Quartet, Anonymous 4, and Gregorian chant...Björk has come up with an album of acapella choral chants and vocalese from the church of 'We Worship the Weird and Wonderful"! 

'Medulla' is all acapella Björk...accompanying herself or in combination with a male and female acapella chorus, with a very few bits of percussion, low end, and computer blurps thrown in.  (The legendary Robert Wyatt is also onboard.)  If you needed any further proof that Björk is undoubtedly the most original, talented artist working today...here it is.  She follows NOBODY.  Björk blazes her own wholly original trails, paying no mind to the latest trends in pop music - or any other genre of music.  She doesn't follow trends, she sets them.

I know I love Björk, that little imp.  And I'm pretty damn sure I'd like to visit Iceland, her homeland, and possibly our own little far-off planet from some other dimension come home to roost here on earth (or, it could just be something in the water).  Only someone from a place that unearthly could be this unapologetically original.  Her last, 'Vespertine' (2001), was a classic...all dreamy synth-modulated, light-weight drum'n'bass fairytales from the enigmatic musicbox dancer (and, as good as it is on CD, the DVD-A opens up the stereo mix to a multi-channel mix that reveals an entirely different, softer, more engaging experience - a must-hear!).  Totally original, it begged the question "Where will she go from here?  Back to the big-band show tunes of 1995's 'Post'?"  'Medulla' is our little stardust pixie's answer, and it is about as different as different can get.  With this departure, she's saying "This is what I'm doing next.  This is where I'm going.  Can you follow?"  (Quotation marks mine.)  In comparison, 'Vespertine' (which dabbled just a bit with what would morph into the sound of 'Medulla') sounds tame and "average" (if anything Björk does can be called "average').  Here, the human voice - the lips, mouth, tongue, cheeks, larynx...all of it - intertwine into human beat boxes, old country's own "eephin'", off-kilter gregorian chant, oral cascading waterfalls...the list is endless, and mesmerizing.  It might take a listen or three or four, but it'll grab you...but good!

This is very strange music...musical performance art of the highest order.  Mouth music from some place so far out in left-field it might as well be from another planet (there's that "other-wordly" reference, again).  And it works.  Wonderfully!  It is safe to say that you have never heard anything like it.  The music of the human mouth is the message here...the lyrics are puffs of light-hearted wonder that serve the music, the mood.  If you're a hard-core fan of meat-and-potatoes verse-chorus-verse-and-out, 'Medulla' is probably not for you.

If you like to explore, to try new things...if you said "no thanks" when they were passing out those myopic blinders, or, if you're just plain sick of the same ol' same ol', I can't recommend Björk's 'Medulla' highly enough!  Challenge your mind, the status quo...hell, let's shake this mutha up!  Björk freakin' rules - and rules the freakin'!  Weird is the new great.  Strange is the new power.  'Medulla' is the new music.  Björk is the new queen!  And 'Medulla' is one of the year's best!

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Release Date: August 31, 2004
Tracks: 14 - Time: 39:35
Produced by: Björk & Mark Bell
Format: CD
Website: www.bjork.com

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Bjork:

Björk - Vocals / Guitar / Organ / Harmonica / Harmonium / Mandola
Eric Ambel - Guitar / Vocals
David Angell - Violin
Kelly Looney - Bass / Vocals
Will Rigby - Percussion / Drums / Vocals
Emmylou Harris - Vocals
David Henry - Cello
Dr Edward O. Henry - Violin