Here’s a novel idea: Get a bunch of record company people together to talk about music. Yeah, music. No SoundScans, marketing plans, or various deals with the devil we like to refer to as “strategic initiatives.” Seeing as Medulla is kind of a big-deal release, we thought we’d hold a listening party where we play the record and share our thoughts. We paused the CD every three songs and recorded our unscripted, unpolished commentary. Here’s what folks said about Bjork’s latest, a strange and haunting work involving stacks of vocals and not a lot of instruments.
Jeff: It seems like it’s alternating. There’s an a cappella number -- just her -- and then there’s stuff with her with the choir and programmed stuff.
Glenn: There weren’t any instruments on that last song, were there?
Mac: I think she smoked a little doobie before she started making this album.
Sonja: It almost sounds like Mozart or something. It’s very symphonic. It goes all over the place. It’s really cool.
Saori: It’s kinda dark compared to the rest of her stuff, which is more uplifting.
John: Not exactly accessible thus far.
Jeff: It’s really cool. God bless her for following her own path. I would love to have been in the room when she presented this to the record company.
Glenn: I think it’s just as accessible as the last album [Vespertine].
Randy: What kind of TV program would you put a song like this to?
[somebody says Buffy The Vampire Slayer]
Glenn: The last song ["Where Is The Line?"] reminded me of The Wizard Of Oz -- the oweeoweeo-oh part with all the deep voices.
Saori: It’s perfect for a rainy day.
John: Yeah, not exactly top down on PCH.
Mac: Unless you’re being chased by the law.
Mike: I liked the machine-gun, rapid bass drum electronics, but then the slower, weaving back and forth orchestral-vocal interplay.
John: Pretty bottom heavy.
Kate: If that [“Submarine”] had a different arrangement, it could totally be a hit. The lyrics are great. There’s such a hook in there, but they just have it arranged in such a way that it’s Bjork-like and not Top 40.
Mac: Thank God for that track.
John: Yeah, I was ready for a hook or two.
Craig: A couple of you guys said that it seems like a dark album. I agree with that, because it’s being conveyed by the artist as that, with the text [in the booklet] all being in black, and she’s kind of behind a mask. And some of the songs are from long ago, when she did some of the songs in native tongues. It’s almost to me like an experiment in history. Also that’s she’s found her voice as an instrument. I really liked the Vespertine album and “Hidden Place” and the electronica sound, so I was glad to hear that last track going back in that direction.
Glenn: That fourth song ["Vokuro"] reminded me of my Torah reading at my Bar Mitzvah… And that made the fifth song ["Who Is It?"] more disconcerting, when she started going, “Heil, heil, heil” at the beginning.
Randy: You hear things, and a lot of it is Scandinavian classical. It’s got that feel, that sort of Grieg and Sibelius… That one had the same kind of chords you hear in Russian music. It almost sounded like the national anthem to some breakaway republic.
Saori: It almost sounds like an opera, like different chapters within a song.
John: We’ll wait and see if there’s any verse/chorus/verse action going on in any of these.
Kate: I thought that second all-a cappella track was pretty amazing. You hear, ‘Oh, there are a cappella tracks on it,’ but you don’t think about 12 tracks of her on top of each other.
Craig: She seemed to save a lot in recording costs. [laughter]
Jeff: Each track is astonishing, I think. In each one, something happens where you’re just, ‘Whoah, where did that come from?’
Glenn: I like the use of heavy breathing -- it’s like an instrument. Like an obscene phone call, but it works.
Sonja: It’s interesting, because it verges into that territory but it doesn’t go all the way there. It’s kind of tactful that way.
Jeff: I think it’s interesting that in some ways it’s very minimal, but it’s also very complicated, really layered, and there’s a lot going on. I keep thinking of tons of different musical references -- really disparate ones. It sounds like Bach and then it sounds like Fairport Convention. Just all over the place.
Randy: I was listening for mistakes, but I didn’t hear any. [laughter]
Jeff: There were, actually. That was kinda cool. There was a little glitch that was built in. It seemed like it stuttered, almost.
Mac: I like those Walt Disney voices on that last track [“Piano II”].
John: I like number eight [“Desired Constellation”] -- the ‘How am I going to make it right?’ vocal part. It struck me as a classic Bjork melody. And I like that rattle-y Radiohead thing as the only instrumental part.
Randy: It’s something that would’ve infuriated me years ago.
Subscribe to Feed
