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Impressions:
First thing I need to say is that everyone might need to take this post with a pinch of salt. For whatever reason, I don't seem to 'get' Bjork albums until a couple of years after they're released, when I suddenly and unexpectedly fall in love with them. Witness the whole Vespertine thing, where I've just spent the last twenty days listening to it and not much else, coming to the conclusion that it's the best record she's released. And I've not given Medulla anything like the listening time it deserves yet.
The 'all vocals' tag is a bit misleading. Sure, every sound on here originally came from a human mouth, but you can take any noise and manipulate it to sound like any other. That Matmos appear on the credits should go some way to backing this comment up.
Unlike Vespertine, there are a couple of real duffers here. Where Is The Line? is one of those songs that irritates straight from the off, being dull and plodding, with a really heavy, simple, repeated bassline forming the entire melody. Imagine heavy, boozed-up Basement Jaxx bass slowed down a bit and you're pretty much there. Submarine is also annoying - starts off soundling like one of the Bowie/Eno tracks from Low or Heroes, which would be fine on either of those albums but is seriously out of place here. Picks up in the second half of the track, but that's mainly because it's not until then that Bjork's own vocals enter the mix.
Other than those two, it's well worth purchase. Well, Ancestors will split people into two camps, but otherwise there's much to enjoy. Pleasure Is All Mine floats along like a wave lapping a beach, Vokuro (I realise that there should be accents on those vowels, btw, but can't be arsed fiddling around to get them) sounds like a choral prayer, Who Is It is as excellent as its alternate take was on the telly - sharp beats and an absolutely top class tune - Desired Constellation is a gentle trance with a bit of a throb in the background, Oceania is a pretty tune that could have come off Vespertine if it weren't for the rising and falling vocals in the back and is probably going to sound amazing with Kelis on the single version, Sonnets/UnrealitiesXI is another beautiful choral piece, Mouth's Cradle is alright but sort of passes you by without doing anything amazing, as does the next track, Midvukadags (which is just a loop of the same five seconds over and over). Finishes with Triumph of a Heart, which is a real stormer of a dance track. Or would be, if it used traditional instrumentation - as it is, it doesn't sound a million miles away from something I'd expect Missy Elliot to produce, what with all the odd noises thrown into the mix with some relatively sharp-edged beats.
A hit! |
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