Björk – Medúlla

what a strange record - in substance, in intent and within somebody like bjork's back catalog. for those living under a rock over the last several years, or perhaps born in the 1990s, this record is bjork's attempt to eliminate all musical instruments from the recording process. yes, it is the actualization of the worst nightmare of musician unions everywhere, the creation of a fully developed record using nothing but a voice and computer.

of course, none of that is actually true. several voices are used on this record and they come from a rather broad "underground" background including mike patton from mr. bungle & faith no more and robert wyatt from soft machine. peter hooke, of joy division and new order fame, also makes an appearance as do several more modern record producers: mark bell and matmos most prominently. furthermore, the record is extremely heavily programmed in one way or another; whether the sequencers are using voice snippets or synthesized drums is in many ways not particularly relevant. this is an idm record first and an a capella disc second.

the juxtaposition of very dour and minimal electronic beats with traditional icelandic throat singing is at times bluntly startling, particularly when it takes on nationalist political undertones. bjork's politics are often lost in her stage persona and her persistent interest in pushing the envelope of what could be considered to be "pop music". she seems to primarily be interested in the coalescence of geographically isolated populations into unified, independent voices. the implication is that her ideal global framework is one where nations are small and insulated but, by extension, have equal voices. if you can imagine a united nations with 1000 seats, each one representing a unique culture as opposed to a diverse country, then you are getting close to a vague picture of bjork's ideal world.

i find the ideal to be noble but unrealistic and perhaps a little too strongly rooted in cultural identity at the expense of global identity. on the one hand, a single world culture would take away the most powerful weapon that the elite has: xenophobia. without the ability to spread propaganda based on xenophobia, the war economy could not burn and war could not exist. yet, bjork seems to have an aversion to this ideal in the sense that it destroys identity, it would leave the world a rather dour and boring place where everybody is the same. is that a realistic analysis? within nations, are we not all unique? so, why maintain the negative aspects of nations?

it was easy to label this as a classic when it first came out as it was so unique in it's intent that it was clearly going to carve a unique niche for itself. however, sometimes these kinds of projects simply don't hold up to too much scrutiny and i'm afraid that this appears to be the case with this record. first, it suffers from "hit single syndrome". "hit single syndrome" is the preventable condition of feeling forced to include a marketable track on an album-length concept record. i've heard too many full concepts articulated, and, yes, even recently, through major label contracts and wide distributions to believe that the label is really behind the "hit single syndrome" to any measurable degree. sure, there are some exceptions, but the only legitimate examples of label intrusion that i've ever seen are at the record level. it's never "include this single". it's always "don't release this record.". it's hard to contemplate how they would have let this record out at all if they didn't think it was marketable. so, you really need to pin the "hit single" thing on the artists themselves.

on this record, the hit single is "who is it". it just doesn't work on the record, especially not after you've heard it several times. the track is just weak; it's a great pop song and little else. the other problem is that the more you listen to the disc, the "icelandic throat singing" starts to sound more and more like "christian hymning". i'm sure there's all kinds of influence flowing around all kinds of different ways. yet, the hymning gets a little tiresome after a while.

you have to give her points for being brave and you have to ire the concept. overall, it is an intriguing listen and it's great to toss on once in a while. yet, the material is just not strong enough to let it flow well enough to allow it to carve out a niche. the quintessential mic/machine disc that eliminates all musical instruments and must be heard by all has yet to be written.

There's no doubt that in every Björk release you will observe an evolution in her style, however in my opinion Medúlla is not an evolution but mutation indeed. Do not expect the melodic tunes and sing-along songs from her previous albums but a musical experiment. Submarine is the best track in this album but the other tracks difer much from what Björk used to sound.