Posts Tagged ‘bjork’

Top Ten Countdown – The Story Song (Toughest gig in songwriting) # 3

Posted: August 29, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
11

(Click here for parts 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 and 1)

Authored by Dale Nickey:

Sailing in at NUMBER 3

“The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald“

Gordon Lightfoot (1976)

In November 1975 a cargo ship named The Edmund Fitzgerald sailed into a brutal winter storm on Lake Superior and sank. All 29 crew members perished. Canadian singer/songwriter/seafarer Gordon Lightfoot was sufficiently moved to write this dense, dreary tribute soon after. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a classic on many levels. It went to # 2 on the Billboard chart.  Details of the crew’s final moments will never be known. However, Lightfoot fills in the blanks with a likely scenario that makes full use of the artistic license granted to storytellers in the folk idiom. And, Lightfoot’s love and knowledge of sailing informs and authenticates his view of the tragedy.  Commonly cited as one of the greatest examples of the “story song” in pop history; the song was used as background music for a 2010 television documentary on the event.

In the early seventies, America’s Lyric Laureate, Bob Dylan was maintaining a low media profile. Anxious Rock journalists rung their hands and began a vigilant lookout for “The New Dylan”.  Gordon Lightfoot was among the names most often put forward.  This performance of “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” shows why…..

Top Ten Countdown – The Story Song (Toughest gig in songwriting) # 4

Posted: August 25, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
10

(Click here for parts 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, 2 and 1)

NUMBER   4

Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue (1975)

 In his early period, Dylan seldom fared well in relationship songs.  His snarky, nasal bray wasn’t the best mode of expression for an artist already too arrogant and full of himself.

However, by 1975 time and circumstance had beaten down his trademark whine into a world weary croon that suited his songs (and the audience) better. “Tangled Up In Blue” is story song about a red hot love affair driven into the ditch.  Dylan journeys from the “Great North Woods” down to New Orleans. He meets a lot of women, but his old flame never ‘escapes his mind’. We now had a Dylan that could share the guilt and feel the pain. Like many pathetic Bobophiles, I was sure “Tangled Up In Blue” was somehow telepathically speaking to me personally.

NOTE:

Bob is forever shape-shifting and tweaking his songs.  Forces of Nature seldom sit still.  As a result, his live performances can frustrate fans who worship a certain recorded version of their favorite song.  Here is Dylan messing with his own masterpiece to questionable effect…..

Top 10 Countdown “Story Songs (The-toughest-gig-in-songwriting) # 5

Posted: August 20, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
10

(Click here for Parts 10, 9, 8, 7,  6, 4, 3, 2 and 1)

NUMBER  5

FAMILY SNAPSHOT – (Peter Gabriel) – 1980

Peter  Gabriel  is an artist who grew up in public. His early work with Genesis could have been racked in the Children’s Music section of your local Tower Records.  His lyrics mostly resided in the fantasy world of knights, giant hogweeds, and wolf kings; culminating with his  urban fairy tale, “Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”.  He then left Genesis to find himself as a person and artist. However, his predilection for storytelling remained.  ”Family Snapshot” is his most chilling piece of work. Also, one of his finest. He probes the mind of a political assassin and the mechanics of  the killing in dispassionate methodical detail. Parallels to the Kennedy assassination are easy to draw and impossible to ignore. This epic “story song” is a glimpse into what might have been going on behind the “grassy knoll” oh so many years ago in 1963. A YouTube video of this tune matched to the “Magruder” film exists, but it’s a tough view.  More palatable is his “Amnesty International” performance.

TOP 10 COUNTDOWN – STORY SONGS (The toughest gig in songwriting) # 7

Posted: August 2, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
12

By Dale Nickey:

(Click here for parts 10, 9, 8, 6,  5, 4, 3, 2 and 1)

NUMBER – 7

Lola – The Kinks (Songwriter Ray Davies)

For most people my age, Lola was the first introduction to transgender culture. Head Kink, Ray Davies tells this shaggy dog story about a chance encounter with a hot trannie at a Soho club. Confusion, self-examination and romance ensue. One of those Classic Rock lyrics most boomers could recite from memory if they really sat down a gave it a try,  Ultimately, the verdict of this mini morality play falls on the side of love and  acceptance. Further, Ray sings it with a conviction that makes one wonder if this story was fiction or reportage.

j

TOP 10 COUNTDOWN – STORY SONGS (The toughest gig in songwriting) #10

Posted: July 24, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
11

By Dale Nickey:

(Click here for parts 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1)

The story song is the toughest gig in songwriting. The song lyric format is taylor-made for the cut and paste Felliniesque’ imagery of a Dylan; or the run and gun pop couplets of The Beatles and  The Beach Boys.  However, constructing a story with a beginning, middle and satisfying ending; with rich characters and a good tune in the span of a few minutes? YOU try it. I have yet to succeed. I’ve written a wedding song and a Christmas Song. Both forms are childs play compaired to the story song. Here are some of the best…..

Number 10….. (Phantom 309)

Phantom 309 is a song written by Tommy Faile and released as a single by Red Sovine in 1967. Definitive version by Tom Waits (1995).

Ice Road Truckers meets The Twilight Zone. A great story song suitable for paranormal geeks and Nascar goons alike. Me, I like Tom Waits version of the song. You can imagine Waits’ scruffy persona slumped at the counter of an all night truck stop at about 3:00 a.m., Chesterfield King in one hand, cup of hot, black  joe in the other, slowly spinning this yarn about a poor clueless hitchiker picked up by a benevolent ghost trucker. Plotline is so universal and durable, it was tweaked and borrowed for a subplot in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”. Remember Large Marge?

They’re ooky and they’re spooky….”MATMOS”….The Addams Family of Rock

Posted: July 7, 2012 by Dale Nickey in Band Spotlight, List
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Authored by Dale Nickey:

It’s the pioneers who make life interesting for the rest of us. Back in the 60’s scientists advised us of all the practical technological goodies we would enjoy as perks pursuant to our space program. Lazers, computers, and tele-communications innovations for the masses would make the billions spent worthwhile. Many thought it was a come-on to justify the expense of a manned moon flight; but ultimately, science delivered the goods.

I remember when Synthesizers were a space age instrument for the rich, privileged, fringe music makers. It didn’t take long for disco producers to dumb it down for the mainstream. A few hardy, industrious, innovators absorbed the guffaws and blank stares so that future musicians might thrive and create….or stagnate….as they chose.

So what do we do when technology has provided for all our immediate sound chasing needs and we find ourselves looking for the next mountain to climb or the next new sound? Matmos has broken down any limits that good sense might have imposed on the normal music maker. They’re not above taking a violin bow to a rat cage…. Or sampling, looping and magnifying the snipping and sucking sounds of cosmetic surgery and liposuction as the basis for an album,  A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure

Who and/or what are Matmos?  Well, they’re a San Francisco couple (M. C.  Schmidt and Drew Daniel). Openly gay and affectionate to the world. They look like they came right out of central casting. That is….if you’re casting a movie version of “The Geek Squad” from the student body of BYU. Wearing their horn-rims and pocket protectors like badges of honor, they boldly go where other musicians can’t or won’t go; and probably shouldn’t. But, Matmos makes their weirdness work. Not content to be merely abstract, they make music that is suprisingly listenable from the most unlikely sound sources.

Matmos had been plying their outsider art in happy obscurity since 1995. In 2001 they came to the attention of the world as the backing band (or should I say…sound designers) for the Icelandic high priestess of pop, Bjork. Handed the intricate beat structures and loops that were the backbone of her repertoire, they put them up on the blocks like an old Rambler and gutted and restored the chassis. They swapped out the massive big beats with an assortment of skittering, polyrhythmic, micro beats while still maintaining the clean lines of the vehicle. On Bjork’s groundbreaking “Vespertine” tour, they could be found manning the laptops in addition to providing sonic surprises by stomping around in a box of rock salt for percussive effect, shuffling a deck of cards into a microphone, or sensuously rubbing each others bodies with a contact microphone to add the resulting static electricity to the overall mix.

When not sampling melting rivers or crayfish nervous systems, they can also make evocative, and beautiful sounds with more conventional tools like percussion instruments.

click here to hear Matmos-so-percussion-

You have the vanguard, then you have the vanguard of the vanguard. That is where Matmos plants it flag. We will always need a Matmos to forge a path for the rest of us who are too blinkered by convention and conformity to forge one for ourselves.

FABULOUS FIRSTS – Debut Albums that shook my little world

Posted: June 19, 2012 by Dale Nickey in Album Review, List
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Authored by: Dale Nickey

Kate Bush (The Kick Inside)

Until Kate came along, you had to make do with archetypical female musical artists. Janis Joplin was the unapologetically loud, horny, stoned, soul mama. Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro gave us our liberated, erudite, (Dylan with a vagina) fix. However, if a woman was too smokin’ hot, they were automatically relegated to the vacuous show-biz preserve where the Olivia Newton Johns and Juice Newtons reigned supreme. Kate took a mortar and pestle and mashed up all the stereotypes. She had a music geek’s appreciation for prog and an ethnomusicologist’s ear for British Folk.  On Kick she took her Minnie Mouse soprano, formidable piano chops and applied them to subjects as diverse as menstrual cycles, suicide, incest, Lolita complexes and ghosts. She sang, wrote, played, danced and had an entire nation salivating at her nineteen year-old feet. She then chucked it all for quiet domesticity and the occasional block buster album. The Kick Inside is her first and best. Kate denies it because it was the album she had least control of. But, it will always remain her masterpiece. Every song is eye-watering, and wrapped in a package that launched a million masturbatory fantasies.

Luka Bloom (Riverside)

Luka managed to paddle in on the first tidal surge of the New Celtic boom. Two years after Van Morrison And The Chieftains breakthrough album and four years before Riverdance came this unfussy, echo-drenched little gem. The core of the album is Luka’s masculine brogue and his clean hyperactive electro-acoustic strumming. What decoration there is on the album only serves to strengthen and support its main character. The songs are sturdy and straightforward and are not begging to be liked. The emotions range from mature whimsy, “You Couldn’t Have Come At A Better Time” and “Delirious”, to aching, moody reportage, “Gone To Pablo”. “Rescue Mission ” is one of those songs that any good songwriter wishes they had written. Stardom seemed possible but never materialized. Luka faded further into obscurity with each successive album. He never again reached the bar he set for himself on Riverside .

Suzanne Vega 1985:

Timing is everything. By 1985, record companies had taken a lengthy sabbatical from all things singer songwritery. U2 and The Clash had held sway over music business long enough. Punk’s wimpy spawn (New Wave) was rapidly wearing out its welcome. Ear fatigued music consumers were clearly looking for a pallet cleanser. Enter Suzanne Vega with her Manhattan coffee-house monotone and a clutch full of thoughtful and tuneful loft-pop ruminations. Rooted in folk music; Vega had the Dylanesque’ knack for dishing out lyrics that didn’t really spell out what they were about but sounded full of meaning anyway. Songs like “Small, Blue Thing”, ”Some Journey” and “Marlene On The Wall” reek of quiet desperation – American Style. The 80′s were a weird decade. Anybody with brains knew the party was over. The 60′s were a crock. The 70′s were a let down. The 80′s decade was the first act of the last gasp. Vega’s songs perfectly captured the feeling of isolation one feels when surrounded by a buzzing city of lost souls. Vega would go on to greater fame and compile a solid and impressive discography, but this one has the tunes and gestalt in abundance. Too bad the cover art is so blah…… 

Pink Floyd (Piper At The Gates Of Dawn) :

Gee, I wonder where The Beatles dreamed up all the weird and wonderful psychedelic ideas that gave us “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Clum Band”? I guess it was just a coincidence that Pink Floyd was the technocolor toast of London and were recording their first album just down the hall at the same time The Beatles were entering there most musically adventurous phase. Pink Floyd entered Abbey Road studios with LSD addled leader Syd Barrett and recorded an album of wacked-out yet tightly focused ditties and acid jams that changed music forever. Anything was possible after this paradigm shifting debut. Pink Floyd not only established its brand; but it codified a whole new genre and gave us a Rock and Roll icon for the ages (Barrett) in one shot. Pretty good for a rookie combo.

THE DOORS:

My mom bought me my first Beatle album.  But, when it came time to stump up my own hard un-earned allowance on my first record, it was a momentous and difficult decision.  Value for the money was the primary concern. The Doors debut was a safe bet.  I had listened to it already at a friend’s house and there wasn’t a weak track on it. Even the novelty throw-away, “Whiskey Bar” seemed essential to the narrative flow of the album. “Crystal Ship” is still the greatest drug ballad ever written.  This album found Jim Morrison in a spunky, beautiful, well-groomed phase of his life. He would soon morph into the bloated, bearded, embarrassing anti-Elvis that we have all grown to loath. The Doors would do more good work;  but nothing as unassailable as their stunning debut.

Endangered Species – Top Five “Singing Drummers”

Posted: June 13, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
7

Authored by Dale Nickey:

First guy I ever saw sing and play drums was Ringo.  The Beatles introduced the world to a lot of new and strange ideas.  Soon Gary Lewis And The Playboys followed and then …The Carpenters.  So now a tribute to that strange sub-genre of musician, The Singing Drummer.

Here are the top dogs:

Levon Helm (The Band)

Levon’s recent passing had me scurrying to my “Last Waltz” DVD. Levon is the most involving of the “Singing Drummers.”  It’s a tough brief to sing while coordinating the separate movements of  all four limbs. Levon ups the ante’ by playing funky, syncopated parts that have very little connection to the vocal line.  He does all this while maintaining an emotional commitment to the song that is the hallmark of a great lead singer. Levon’s seamless merger of voice, instrument, and body is approached only by Hendrix on guitar. However, Helm’s genius is best explained by watching the epic DVD, “The Last Waltz.”

Ringo Starr (The Beatles)

The Beatles phenomena was alien enough. Moreover, Ringo playing and singing “Boys” on the Shindig TV program was America’s first real sighting of the “singing drummer.” The Beatles looked, played, sang, dressed and talked different from the rest of us. Now a drummer that sang? Wild stuff. Ringo was always undervalued as a musician while in The Beatles. However, any songwriter could appreciate his unwavering sense of time and feel in an era before the click track; not to mention, his total commitment to the song. How many stickmen took a crack at the vocal mike due to his example? Listen to his stupendous (live in studio) version of “Boys” off the first album “Please Please Me.” It rocks as hard as any other cut on the record (yes….that includes “Twist And Shout”). Ringo had his share of solo success as well.

Roger Taylor (Queen)

Taylor was a twofer. He was a consummate drummer who could rock as hard and fast as any speed metal stickman and also play with the delicacy required of Queens nuanced arrangements. But Taylor also shouldered the heaviest onstage burden when it came to singing the difficult and omnipresent high harmony backup vocals. Remember, this is Queen we’re talking about. A band that could fill up a 24 track console with vocals alone. The fact that Queen could even approach their recorded sound onstage is astounding and a tribute to Roger Taylor’s amazing talent. Check out Taylor’s performance on the “Queen Rocks Montreal” DVD. It’s a clinic.

Phil Collins (Genesis/Solo)

Ringo was the prototype but Phil took the roll of the singing drummer to a stratospheric level. First, as Peter Gabriel’s vocal foil in Genesis mark II.  Then, as Gabriel’s replacement in the Mega Stadium incarnation of the band. He pushed his star even further and surprised the world as a platinum selling singer/songwriter/solo artist with a capital A.  He achieved a level of success previously unheard of for a ‘drummer gone solo.’ His workaholism cost him. He has had debilitating back problems the last decade that has all but silenced his drumming.

Don Henley (Eagles/Solo)

Probably the least imposing instrumentalist on the list. Henley still stands out as a triple threat singer/drummer/songwriter. Leading the Eagles was no easy task and Henley gave them the solid, economical foundation that the Eagles virgin-tight arrangements required. Unique from the others on this list due to the fact he was his band’s leader and visionary from the get go.  And frankly, his best solo efforts were more compelling than any of the lightweight offerings of The Eagles.

Rock & Roll Hall Of Shame – Top rockers who deserve better (Pt. 1)

Posted: May 16, 2012 by Dale Nickey in List
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
5

Author: Dale Nickey

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame carries a stink. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner is also co-founder of the R&R Hall. And it is common knowledge that his personal musical taste dictates the nomination list. The list fails to include some of the more accomplished British and Canadian Bands or any artist he ‘don’t cotton to’.  He seems to have a particular distaste for British artists in the progressive wing of rock music.

So there’s a Yankee/Limey divide now. In 1964, The Beatles and the Stones took our wimpy ass and kicked it around the block a few times. The Brits were harder, smarter, sexier, hipper, funnier and more talented than their American counterparts in the big bang year of 1964. The Beatles even made Elvis look doofussy and out of touch. They made our entire culture look flaccid and bland. We never forgave them. That’s why Bobby Darin is in the Hall Of Fame and T.Rex isn’t. When we couldn’t grow our own we had to build a factory prototype (The Monkees). Even then, we needed to import Brit (Davy Jones) to make the thing fly.

So here then are just a few of the artists who are inexplicably excluded from the Hall of Fame, but occupy our record collections, and rule our airwaves none the less.

YES:  

50 million albums sold

I guess it’s not enough that they are the preeminent and most popular progressive rock band in the history of …well….progressive rock. Not to mention the 50 million albums they have sold worldwide. Their back story is compelling. They reigned supreme in the early to mid seventies. “Roundabout” and “Your Move/Seen All Good People” are classic rock staples right along with “Stairway To Heaven” and “Pinball Wizard”. They perfected the bloated, self-indulgent concept album with “Tales From Topographic Oceans”; cited by many journalists as their greatest folly (despite the fact it shot to #1 on both sides of the Atlantic upon release). They fell on hard times during the punk revolution only to re-invent themselves and conquer the world yet again in 1982 with a # 1 album and # 1 single “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”.  However, Genesis gets the Hall instead because Phil Collins is cuddlier.

Rory Gallagher:

30 million albums sold

The greatest white bluesman to walk the planet. God himself,  (Eric Clapton) runs a pale and distant second.  Don’t believe me?  Ask, the patron saint of cool, Slash (a Rory disciple).  Need more proof? When the chairman of the board, Jimi Hendrix, was asked by a nerdy journalist what it was like to be the greatest guitar player in the world, he is quoted as responding, “I dunno, go ask Rory Gallagher” Still not convinced? Gallagher was approached by the Rolling Stones to fill their vacant guitar slot…..twice! He was at the top of the list when Brian Jones passed as well as when Mick Taylor quit.  He was the first one called in after Taylor’s departure. However, he had a world tour to do and the Stones were in process of releasing the worst albums in their history. A successful solo artist who also recorded with Muddy Waters, Albert King and Jerry Lee Lewis; Gallagher respectfully recorded with the Stones a couple of days then went back to his day job. He also earns Rock and Roll points for refusing to  release  singles,  dumping an entire unreleased album master in the trash bin on a whim, and dying of liver failure. Best live performance Rory Gallagher

The Moody Blues:

70 million albums sold

Hits, zillions of records sold, classic rock evergreens (Nights In White Satin, Ride My See-Saw, Tuesday Afternoon, Question). Not enough to elbow aside The Dells I guess. Another band that was body slammed by Punk and New Wave in the late 70′s, only to pick themselves up in 1981 and answer with more hits and an updated sound “Gemini Dream”  and  ”The Voice”. Early purveyors of stoner rock, who issued very prescient and preemptive musical warnings about corporate rape and environmental disaster as early as 1970 “A Question Of Balance”. Traffic beats them in because Stevie Winwood had a slew of solo hits and swings a big dick in the American record industry.

Kate Bush:

12 million albums (est)

Like that “hands free” microphone that Michael Jackson and Madonna used? Write a thank you note to Kate Bush, she was the inventor. Kate pioneered the whole “multimedia rock concert” thing. Kate Bush is one of the original independent, idiosyncratic, songwriter, multimedia pioneers. Kate was plucked out of her parents home at the age of 16 by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmore and signed to a contract by old money aristocracy EMI Records. When EMI tried to dictate what song to release as a single.  She cried, argued and cajoled them into releasing “Wuthering Heights” instead.  It shot to number one and stayed there.  She was the first woman to ever release a self penned number one hit in Britain.  The old boys at EMI have been kissing her ass ever since. She became an icon and the most famous female in Europe for the next  decade. All this despite the fact she would only consent to one brief 1979 European tour and still refuses to remaster and reissue her back catalog on CD and DVD.  She sounds like nobody else and is a role model for all young women who seek to call their own shots and be the CEO of their own lives. Ask Kate Bush tribute artist Tori Amos about her influence on the music industry.WatchKate         

Brian Eno:

You hear his music every day of your life. Eno composed the six second startup sound for Microsoft.

Eno started out in the early 70′s as a glam peacock/keyboardist for Prog-Glam crossover band Roxy Music. He soon left to carve out his own unique and highly intellectual niche in the rock and roll firmament as a solo artist. He used idiot energy, random cut and paste methodology(before computers), unorthodox production,  and the best musicians of the day (Robert Fripp, Phil Collins, John Cale, Robert Wyatt, Percy Jones, etc….). In the mid-seventies, Eno crafted four totally left-field, free-radical solo rock albums that were eons ahead of their time. Then he went cold turkey on rock music and singlehandedly brought the word “Ambient” into the rock vernacular by releasing a string of pioneering and successful albums embracing the virtues of quiet, space and environment (Music For Airports). New Age and “The Wave” radio format can be traced directly to Eno’s innovations in sound and compositional approach.  Co-wrote (with David Bowie)  the greatest Emo-rock anthem yet written “Heros”.  Oh yeah, he introduced Devo to the world by producing their first album.  Oh wait…..yeah… that’s right, he started producing U2 at the precise moment they crossed over from hockey arena rock gods to sociopolitical Mega-Stadium blowhards.  Produced Talking Heads during their heyday.  However, Brenda Lee gets in first because…ah…well,….I don’t know why the fuck Brenda Lee got in!

Lost Treasures – Bjork’s “Medulla” Revisited

Posted: May 7, 2012 by Dale Nickey in Album Review
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

There’s a huge difference between viewing the video of a baby’s birth and witnessing the squalling, chaotic, fluid spewing event up close and in person.  Bjork’s Medulla peels off some layers and allows us to move a little closer to the act of creation. Missing are the  lush orchestrations she usually employs to frame her muse. Bjork maintains her aesthetic despite the fact she takes a 180 degree turn away from orthodox instrumentation. Medulla strips instrumentation away and leaves us with a record equipped only with the most primal tool of human expression; the voice.  Not just an a Capella exercise, Medulla (in typical Bjorkian fashion) redefines the voice’s function as a musical delivery medium.  Many artists before have tried their hand at the ‘all vocal’ album. But, none have succeeded as Bjork has on Medulla.  Her mission is to not just celebrate the voice, but to subvert, distort and manipulate it into a third entity.  Part human, part synthetic, and 100 % unique . Even the drumbeats on the album are produced by vocal slight of hand.

Before Medulla, the trajectory of her studio work was admirably logical. Every album was a consolidation and advancement over the one previous. Post (Bjork’s brilliant second album), took Debut’s fusion of organic and electronic elements and pumped up the drama by accenting  the electric and eclectic.  On Homogenic (Bjork’s third album), the Icelandic String Octet shared  the spotlight with massive electronic beats to help define a new genre (Icelandic Neoclassical Soul/Pop).  When Bjork followed up with Vespertine, the strings had expanded it’s role to a grand, orchestral scale augmented with a full female choir; the big beat replaced by a shower of skittering micro beats buzzing around the stereo spectrum like flying audio insects.  After Vespertine Bjork was at a crossroads artistically.  She chose to roll the commercial dice and challenge her audience.  There are some remarkable highlights on Medulla.

“Where Is The Line With You” is the most ‘off the wall’ track on Medulla. For me,  it carries the benign menace of a 50′s science fiction movie but manages to do it with a smile and a wink.  It doesn’t really matter if you don’t know what she’s carrying on about.  It’s a meticulous cacophony.  The joy of noise for it’s own sake. Special mention to Faith No More frontman Mike Patton for adding extra menace and color to this amazing track.

“Oceania” is the prettiest track on the album.  A female chorus swirls around the main melody like glissando piano runs.  However, the result is otherworldly. On this track–like most of Medulla—you will hear sounds you’ve never heard on a record before .Bjork – Oceania

“Triumph Of A Heart” is the closest thing to a commercial single on the album.  It’s catchy and wacky.  Japanese vocalist Dokaka is allowed to have his way with TOAH and leaves his indelible mark on the track.  And like any strong seasoning, a little Dokaka goes a long way.watch toah 

“Mouths Cradle” is an ambitious track.  More than any other track, “Mouths Cradle” seems the most comfortable in its skin.  Both extremes of Medulla merge seamlessly on the track; the organic and technological.

At times the tracks on Medulla are so raw and immediate, you get the feeling the writing process ended mere nanoseconds before the record button was pressed. At other times it seems you’re eavesdropping on an artist in holy communion with her muse.  If you want to hear the true essence of Bjork, this is the album to own. It’s hard to call this album her masterpiece. The overall excellence of  of her early period is hard to dismiss.  However, on a creative level,  Medulla could very well be her greatest achievement.

Older Entries