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Rating: "Like blood, but even deeper and darker".
A human being, a body in motion. Veins, capillaries, tendons, muscles, and bones. And voice. Björk herself had hinted at wanting to create something extremely human, viscerally almost annoyingly so.
In the years leading up to the release of Medúlla, the little Icelander had scoured China, America, England, and Iceland with the goal of gathering all the most bizarre and capable voices of the most animalistic verses and guiding them in her ambitious project of extreme humanization of music. In this album, instruments are almost completely absent. The melodies are densely woven, giving rise to a thick tapestry of voices, making the presence of instruments seem superfluous.
From the very first song, Pleasure Is All Mine, it's clear that we've been introduced to something completely new, never heard before, yet... intensely familiar. Tagaq's sighs and guttural sounds blend with Björk's unmistakable voice, and when the choir inserts itself into the fabric to fill the gaps between one note and another, a true journey into the simple human essence begins.
In the following track Show Me Forgiveness, Björk's voice ventures completely unaccompanied into a cold and vast silence, shaping a solitary and hypnotic chant.
The album's tone maintains the same atmosphere until the appearance of the twisted Öll Birtan, where Björk's incredible vocal abilities peek through obsessively whispered words and hypnotic overlays of the singer's own voices in an episode of pure compositional madness.
However, Björk's passion for electronic sounds prevails in tracks like Desired Constellation, a song of rare brightness and purity, which clashes with the rest of the album and would undoubtedly have blended better in an album like Vespertine.
The album's climax, the song summarizing all of its contents, is the spectral Ancestors. Which, as it happens, is the only track featuring a real musical instrument: piano notes, bare and solitary. Tagaq's breathy sigh that opens the song gradually transforms into a rasp, while Björk weaves sweet and distant litanies in an excruciating falsetto, eventually degenerating into an explosion of astonishing high notes interspersed with genuine frenzied growls. All accompanied by a melancholic piano that abruptly stops to leave the stage to the multiple voices of the two singers intertwining more and more densely in a breathtaking crescendo.
The understanding of this album starts precisely after listening to this track, which reminds us of our origins, our "human" side, in the strict sense of the term.
In my opinion, once again Björk has managed to perfectly hit her target of communicating to the human soul sensations that are otherwise inexplicable, given the absolute inadequacy of human language to express those emotions you feel in your skin, under the skin, too close to the core that generated them to be externalized in any way other than music.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Show Me Forgiveness (01:23)
Show me forgiveness
for having lost faith in myself
and let my own interior up
to inferior forces
the shame is endless
but if soon start forgiveness
the girl might live
04 Vökuró (03:14)
Bærinn minn
bærinn minn og þinn
sefur sæll í kyrrð
fellur mjöll
hljótt í húmi á jörð
grasið mitt
grasið mitt og þitt
geymir mold til vors
Hjúfrar lind
leynt við brekkurót
vakir eins og við
lífi trútt
kyrrlátt kalda vermsl
augum djúps
útí himinfyrrð
starir stillt um nótt
Langt í burt
vakir veröld stór
grimmum töfrum tryllt
eirðarlaus
óttast nótt og dag
augu þín
óttalaus og hrein
brosa við mér björt
Vonin mín
blessað brosið þitt
vekur ljóð úr værð
hvílist jörð
hljóð í örmum snæs
liljuhvít
lokar augum blám
litla stúlkan mín
05 Öll birtan (01:52)
hal... hal... hal... hal... hal(tu, tu)
hal... hal(tu,tu) hal... hal(tu,tu)
euk birtan beleu stan moosep
benlae dan pine liddae tiddie flaybu in
euk grave euks stan
06 Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right) (03:57)
His embrace : a fortress
it fuels me and places
a skeleton of trust
right beneath us
bone by bone
stone by stone
If you ask yourself
patiently
and carefully:
who is it?
who is it?
Who is it - that never lets you down?
Who is it - that gave you back your crown?
and the ornaments are
they're going around
now they're handing it over
they're handing it over
handing it over
Who is it - that never lets you down?
Who is it - that gave you back your crown?
and the ornaments are
they're going around
now -- they're handing it over
handing it over
He demands a closeness
we all have earned a lightness
carry my joy on the left
carry my pain on the right
If you ask yourself
now patiently
and carefully:
who is it?
Who is it - that never lets you down?
Who is it - that gave you back your crown?
and the ornaments are
they're going around
and I'm handing it over
handing it over
handing
Who is it - that never lets you down?
Who is it - that gave you back your crown?
and the ornaments are
they're going around
now I'm handing it over
handing it over
07 Submarine (03:13)
When will it be time
to document
- do it now!
this submarine behaviour
- do it now!
when time?
to return
- do it now!
- do it now!
shake us out of the heavy deep sleep
- shake us now!
- do it now!
- do it now!
shake us out of the heavy deep sleep
- do it now!
08 Desired Constellation (04:55)
It's tricky when you feel someone has done something on your behalf
It's slippery when your sense of justice murmurs underneath and is asking you,
How am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
With a palm full of stars
I throw them like dice, repeatedly
On the table, repeatedly
I shake them like dice
And throw them on the table, repeatedly
Until the desired constellation appears.
How am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
And did you hear, how am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
How am I going to make it right?
A fit memory.
09 Oceania (03:24)
One breath away
from Mother Oceania
your nimble feet make prints
in my sand
You have done
good for yourselves
since you left my wet embrace
and crawled ashore
Every boy is a snake is a lily
Every pearl is a lynx is a girl
Sweet like harmony
made into flesh
you dance by my side
children sublime
You show me continents
I see the islands
You count the centuries
I blink my eyes
Hawks and sparrows
race in my waters
stingrays are floating
across the sky
Little ones
my sons and my daughters
your sweat is salty
I am why
I am why
I am why
your sweat is salty
I am why
I am why
I am why
11 Ancestors (04:08)
I'll pick you
I'll take you
I admit
he said
I did it
I'll play the fool
Underneath
Me
I
You
But, I told
And undo
And say, undo
Live
I say
And will
And we all
13 Miðvikudags (01:24)
Performed by Björk
Programming: Björk, Jake Davies
"I just nicknamed it "Miðvikudags", which means wednesday...s, it was basically because I did it on a wednesday -- sometimes you don't know what to call them, you know. This is similar to me with "Öll Birtan" -- that it's like a little interlude and maybe shows where this whole tree came from, that it's from me being 18, or even younger - being like 10, and having two rubbish tape recorders and recording my voice into one, and then recording on the other one, the tape recorder and me, adding a voice on top, and then back, playing with a teaspoon on an ashtray or something. Kind of just back to that, and there's no words in this one either, it's just gibberish." (Björk, XFM 25aug04)
14 Triumph of a Heart (04:10)
The nerves are sending
shimmering signals
all through my fingers
the veins support
blood that gushes
pulsively towards
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The stubborn trunks
of these legs of mine
serve as pathways
for my favourite fuel
heading upwards towards
my kidneys
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
Smooth
soft, red
velvety lungs
are pushing a network
of oxygen joyfully
through a nose
through a mouth
but all enjoys
all enjoys
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
The triumph of a heart - that gives all : that gives all
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Other reviews
By janis
A truly subtle army of voices leading to atmospheres of devastating peace and profound restlessness.
A delightful discovery, appreciated especially because it is pleasant to reconsider things and abandon resignation for genuine complacency.
By Adil
Only Björk, muse of psychotic directors and anti-pop icon par excellence, could have created an album so unbearably snobbish in its disarming simplicity.
Bjork never repeats herself. All this for the (joy?) of her loyal listeners.
By Me Myself & I
Medulla is a masterpiece of modern music, an avant-garde work.
The music tries to communicate through its absence, where there is an attempt to find greater simplicity in art.
By The_dull_flame
"Medúlla is not a mere experiment, it’s poetry."
"Medúlla is the artistic peak of this small great Icelandic woman."
