Medúlla

Offbeat, off-kilter and all over the place, but performed so well that none of that bothers me at all. Björk is one of a kind, this could actually be my favorite album that I’ve heard of hers so far, it’s tight between this and Vespertine. I’m not necessarily listening to her in my own spare time, but it’s still a treat to check out her work. I've had both Where Is The Line and Who Is It stuck in my head all day.

There a phases of bjork you must experience. They may not all be serene and easy to listen too, but they will all move you in different ways for better or worse. Your mum had to switch this off because it made her angry, that’s not to say it’s an angry album. If music should make you feel something, and Bjork takes you on a journey through it all. Give it a go on some headphones, listen back and see how it makes you feel.

Bjork is one of those artists that are so singular that they got massively popular despite always doing their own thing. I wonder if that can even happen anymore in the age of the algorithm. Anyway, this is not the Bjork record I would ever reach for, but I also can't deny that this is compelling stuff with true vision. Bjork makes music that all but forces you to pay attention. We need more of that.

I think it's hard to underestimate the genius involved in the use of the backing/"music" vocals here. A virtuso display of ideas. Could possibly be done in a more "pop" way, but where's the fun in that?

I just can't with this artist. I couldn't even get all the way through a single song, and I stopped trying after 3. Just terrible ⭐

This is where she went off the rails really

Концептуально вся хуйня Но я бля не вижу в этом нихуя

Not my cup of tea, but the fact that it almost completely vocal is so impressive.

Should have rated other bjork album lower too

I'm wary of anyone whose name begins with BK and ends in ork, rhymes with dork and stork (another weird looking bird). This album is doolally, primarily vocal, with sparse instrumentation. It fails as backround music because every 30 seconds or so, out of nowehere, she'll roar like a stuck pig and fringten the bejaysus out of you. She disappeared up her own hole while making this record.

No m'ha agardat gens.

Basically what I expected

2.3 Bjork just aint for me

Delightfully weird

Woo, today’s record is a Bjork album that I'd never heard before that has Matmos and Robert Wyatt and indigenous throat singers on it, it's my lucky day! I listened to it with headphones and spent much of it staring open-mouthed at the ceiling. I was very surprised by this album, and like it much better than her more radio-friendly stuff. It's all vocals with electronica, some of it feeling like it came from a church, or a windswept coastline. Some reminded me of the Dirty Projectors, a less willfully quirky version of Dirty Projectors. Some like the Nordic music I like best, the kulning and wild singing. The Icelandic songs on here are the best - I would love it have an album of her only singing in Icelandic. I think this is my new favorite record. Add it to the list of albums I bought because of this project.

Awesome - I love Bjork but had never listened to this one before. This must be the least annoying a cappella album of all time. Pentatonix just needed a screaming Icelandic woman and maybe a throat singer or two.

Mmmm.

The a cappella is a cool experiment, I generally liked all of it.

Bjork's music evolved into a whirlwind of "what ridiculous crap can I record that people will buy", and Medulla is the high watermark of this philosophy. 1/5.

Pleasure Is All Mine - Can't listen around the kids 3/5 Show Me Forgiveness - Minimal 2/5 Where Is the Line? - Interesting 2/5 Vokuro - Pious 2/5 Oll Birtan - Vocal Layers 2/5 Who Is It (Carry My Joy On the Left, Carry My Pain On the Right) - Voices 2/5 Submarine - Acapella 2/5 Desired Constellation - Sure? 2/5 Oceania - Okay? 2/5 Sonnets / Unrealities XI - I don't even know what to say 2/5 Ancestors - Dynamics and throat singing! 3/5 Mouth's Cradle - Dark 2/5 Triumph of a Heart - Crazy and crazy good 4/5 Thoughts that come to mind: "I don't know anything from Bjork." "This is interesting and I don't hate it, but do I like it?" "She seems to favor vocal runs, but not like R&B vocal runs. They're different." "Lots of voice as instrument behind her singing the lyrics." "I don't think I've heard any traditional instruments, so far. Very avant garde." "Wow. Much choir. Very beatbox. So vocoder. Such layered." "I don't think I've ever heard anything like this." "Is anything an instrument? It all kind of sounds like voice." "Still trying to figure out if I like this. I don't hate it." "I'll have to listen to this again." "Maybe this is growing on me?" "Hey, this sounds like Whitesnake. Oh, because the album ended and this is Whitesnake." 😂

This is a 4.5 album for me. It is brilliant, beautiful, unique, and both pushes and challenges the listener while being somewhat familiar. It's classic Bjork with a new approach.

Desperate to like Björk but she keeps pulling stunts like this. I tried to appreciate the artistry of the vocals but the aversive barrage of mouth sounds, borborigms and miscellaneous turntable noise continues to put me off.

I remember this being the first Björk album where for me the concept massively outstripped the output. Really cool idea that I wanted to get into, but I found the final thing quite alienating and overall just didn’t land for me. There are several absolutely stunning songs, and in lots of places the full vocal arrangements sound amazing, but in lots of others I feel the concept is laboured to the point of heavily detracting from what could have been really beautiful songwriting an production and sounding like a bit of a corny gimmick. The beatboxing really pulls me out of being able to enjoy it, and a lot of the choral backings sound very am dram (a problem I frequently find with experimental choirs) It’s a shame because listening again now I’m quite taken aback by how great so many of the songs are (obviously, it’s Björk!). Would love a reproduced version of it with different instrumental arrangements… does that exist?? 4 stars for the writing 4 stars for the vision in the concept 2 stars for the execution

Never fail to be amazed at Bjork talent and ability to be creative

The end of her incredible run Debut to Vespertine (the final album of which was her masterpiece), this had it's moments but was such a disappointment at the time. Experimental Bjork beat her other sides here and melody would become a rare thing in her music going forward, which has been quite a sad thing. Bonkers that this and Vulnicura would be here and not Homogenic or Post.

It may not be her most popular album but it might be her most interesting, and I am definitely in favour of this list having interesting albums and not just the 'best' ones. I also very much like hearing a successful artist just doing her own thing regardless. The idea of exploring what you can do just with the human voice is intriguing, and Björk is obviously well-equipped to do it. It is not completely a capella, but instruments are barely present while Björk’s own voice is supplemented with choirs, beatboxing, throat singing and a ‘human trombone’. It is a strange listen, and it took a couple of listens to decide if I like it or not, but overall I do (except possibly Ancestors). At a time when I wonder how much we are displacing ourselves with our own AI creations, it was good to hear a celebration of something so purely human. I was also amused to learn that when the International Olympic Committee commissioned her to write Oceania they asked for something like Ebony & Ivory or We Are The World. I am not quite hearing a resemblance

All Bjork is good Bjork, but I find this one a little less gripping than most. A bit floatier and directionless for my taste, although having said that, I think Who Is It might be by second or third-favorite Bjork song.

Björk is a musician I’ve wanted to listen to more of. Her music is weird, but I can’t tell if it’s a kind of weird I like. After listening to this album I’m still not sure.

World’s strangest glee club. A truly amazing musical achievement to release a synth pop dreamscape album done entirely by vocals. I was enthralled through the whole thing and though it was truly something. I couldn’t help but thinking of the words of Dr. Ian Malcom about whether you should do something. Still, she did it lol.

A bridge too far. And I have a bunch of Laurie Anderson albums.

Not my favorite Bjork album... A little too much Bjork...

Listened before? No Familiar with the artist? Yes Thoughts: - I really like Bjork in general, though I've only heard 1 or 2 of her albums in full. This one is weirder than even her usual, but I am glad I've heard it. - Wasn't really into the first 2 tracks, but "Where is the Line" is a vibe! - Seemed to go back and forth between tracks I love, and ones I'd have a hard time making it through again. I think it depends on what kind of mouth sounds you're ok with, lol. I love the beatboxing, not so much the breathing noises. Favorite track(s): Where is the Line, Who Is It

An interesting use of vocals and limited instrumentation. I didn't enjoy it as much as I anticipated. Bjork always surprises me but this one did not hit the mark for me.

Love me some Björk

Bjork is just so interesting. This whole thing using voice as instrument. Glad I listened to it.

Björk vermindert m'n haat voor beatboxen niet geheel, wel een beetje

Hou zo veel van Björk maar dit is misschien mijn minst favoriete Björk plaat na Volta. De a capella gimmick is leuk maar verveelt naar mijn mening sneller dan dat het album voorbij is. Een paar mooie melodietjes weten er toch doorheen te schitteren: vooral Where Is The Line is echt heel vet. Matige Björk, maar nog steeds een prima 3 sterren.

New My Singing Monsters update is pretty cool

idk man

2026.10.27

Хороший альбом. 3-1-(5)

I'm sorry, she's cool (I hope) but I just can't deal with her voice.

Pleasure Is All Mine 3 Show Me Forgiveness 2.4 Where Is the Line 2.3 Vökuró 2.7 Öll Birtan 1.2 Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right) 1.4 Submarine 2.3 Desired Constellation 2 Oceania 1.8 Sonnets / Unrealities XI 2 Ancestors 2 Mouth's Cradle 2.5 Miðvikudags 2 Triumph of a Heart 2.2 Score: 2.128571429

Not listening

IL GELO, LA NOTTE E LA SOLITUDINE ISLANDESE HA CREATO QUESTO ALBUM. MI SONO SDRAIATO IN POSIZIONE FETALE E HO ASCOLTATO. MEGLIO DEL PREVISTO. 3/5

Not a Bjork fan...

I listened to this going in and out from Montreal. Overall pretty impressive. Who is it was a bop, and there were other great tracks as well. I didn't care for ancestors but appreciated the art. Great album. 4/5

Not keen on the using voices as instruments but Byork certainly has talent

Even for bjork this one is pretty whacky. It’s quite entrancing though, and for how unique a concept it is she pulls it off

Pleased people experiment and make albums like this. Will never listen to it again.

Weird shit

Of the what feels like hundreds of Björk albums on the 1001 this one can be cut. I respect the avant garde nature of it, especially in songs like Oceana, with the odd vocal inclusions, a strange instrumentation, but this one doesn’t quite seem as well structured or formulated as some of her other work. I did really enjoy the song Who Is It, as it felt consistent and very meditative. Somehow, that song fit in the album, but still sat out away from it. I actually really enjoyed Björk, but I also recognize not every album she does is a gold winner.

Random thoughts: * Oh great, another Bjork album. * Where is the Line was funky, upbeat, and interesting in a good way. * Vokuro sounded like church. I'm not saying it was bad but it sounded like being in church. Reverence. * There are too many "human" noises on here like the breathing and grunting especially on the opening track and "Ancestors". I don't like it. * Triumph of a Heart was fun and with some beat boxing/vocals. * So apparently this was created with almost exclusively human voices/sounds. Which in itself is an interesting and worthy concept. * It does strike me that Bjork's music is more like a symphony or opera in that it requires much more concentration than that of pop/rock music. * I'd probably listen to this one again as there is enough to keep me interested even if there were parts I clearly didn't appreciate upon the initial listen.

Bjork at her Bjork-I-est

Medulla is an album that shows just how badly one aspect can ruin an entire album. In this case, the mouth sounds, primarily Bjork's rough breathing. I can commend Bjork for trying something new with this album but the issue is it was not executed well at all. It's too bad too because if a lot of these sounds were removed, The album would have been fine. The ambient sounds were nice to listen to and Bjork's voice (when she wasn't doing her mouth sounds) was as good as ever. It honestly hurts to tank an album so much because of just one bad aspect but in this case, the bad aspect seriously drowns out all the good aspects and makes this album really unenjoyable to listen to. Best Song: Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right) Worst Song: Ancestors

Truly completely awful...

Damn 😵‍💫 Als experiment kann ich das voll wertschätzen und es showcased natürlich mal wieder Björks krasse stimme, jedoch hat das für mich überhaupt kein Replay-value. Aber es ist irgendwie trotzdem verdammt cool wie eine so weltbekannte und geliebte Musikerin wie Björk so ein Risiko eingehen kann und auf einmal ein reines Acapella Album rausbringen kann, einfach weil sie es will.

This is the second Bjork album I've listened to on this list, and my God I'm becoming obsessed. She's just fantastic

not for me i didnt like it

Quirky, fearless but heartfelt

An interesting album. I have listened to plenty of other Bjork music, but never this whole album before. I will have to give it another listen in the future when reviewing others of hers.

Björk rules. This isn't necessarily one of her best and there is no need for her to have 4 albums on this list.

What the everliving fuck is this. Reminds me of letting a 5 year old loose on a keyboard on DJ mode.

Four Björk albums, Dimery? FOUR? That's insane.

Mind blowing

Do I like Bjork? Honestly still don't know after all these years, Do I like this album? Not particularly. No shade to Bjork, this album is just not my cup.

6.5/10 - Probably my least favorite of the Biork albums I have listened to, but she sets a really high bar. I didn’t like how electronic this one was, but I rate the fact that she did something adventurous and creative. It was interesting, but stylistically not my favorite.

Some absolute bangers on here, but it's a bit inconsistent with a couple of duds. 7/10

4/10

I just don't get the hype around Björk. I know people love her but it isn't for me!

If Bjork was in Pitch Perfect, her team would win the competition. I'm giving this a high 3. Definitely my least favorite of hers so far, but it's still decent.

If we're being honest, it's a 3. But I have to be complicated. If we take a look at what it represents, as an artist making art. here we see Bjork (the Human) using the most human instrument, the voice. She had a vision and executed that, and did so well. I give it an extra star for creativity, uniqueness and the human sounds of this human album.

Creative and original and I didn't hate it, but it also never really connected for me. I was also probably not in the best headspace to appreciate this. 2.5

If I settle in, I can really enjoy. Is it performative? Ab-so-lutely! But, is there some wild, cool joints? Fo Sho!

I’m done with bjork. Tried too many times with the same result so approaching the definition of insanity. Had to cut it off specifically after Ancestors since it seems designed to induce a panic attack.

why bjork why

Weird for the sake of being weird

Very interesting album. Can never deny Bjork makes some very interesting stuff

I will absolutely give Bjork her due, she is unique, iconic and certainly never boring. When the opening track began, my immediate thought was that the stripped back vocal-led sound was an interesting approach. Unfortunately, an entire album of it proved tough-going. I don’t hate it like some have, but I can’t imagine going back to it.

Bjork is so opaque that a single listen makes it very difficult to appreciate her brilliance.

madly disappointing. Sounds like yoko ono

Overall: 8/10 Definitely shouldn't work as well as it does considering acapella music is generally not my thing, but Björk is such a singular and unique talent that she manages to make it beautiful and less annoying than usual. I'd even say this is one of her best albums, I really dig what she's got going on here. Fav Song: Where is the Line

Just like any other Bjork album one needs to be in an altered state of mind on a different astral plane to be enjoyed.

Before listening to this album, I only knew Björk’s Debut and Post albums, with Post being one I have listened to a lot. Medúlla is quite a departure musically from those albums except for “Who Is It” which ended up being the track I am most likely to go back to. I love a capella and found Björk’s voice stripped down in that format was really fascinating. She had some cool collabs on this record and her lyrics stood out to me more without her usual electronica-style distracting me. “Where Is the Line?” and “Desired Constellation” really struck me, but other songs like “Ancestors” and “Miðvinudags” were a little too out there for me, even if I could appreciate their artistry. I want to give this album a 4 for technique and experimentalism and musical creativity, but I don’t know that I’d listen to it in total again, so I am giving it a 3.

5.9/10. Björk is weird dude. That is by far the strangest album I've ever heard, and it wasn't good or terrible. I don't know how to describe it other than that it had far more beatboxing than I would have liked, so yeah. I honestly have no idea if I'd listen to it again, but her vocals are solid when intelligible, and the underlying beats still make something interesting. Not her best work, I think, but it could be far worse if it didn't have the master vision of Björk behind it.

I went through a pretty big Bjork phase for a while there. I consider 'Vespertine' to be basically perfect. I remember being cautiously optimistic about this one when I heard about the 'mostly vocals' concept, but I always felt like this album is more interesting in theory than it is listenable.

I don't mind Bjork. Debut was good. Post is fantastic and I look forward to the day it comes up on this list. But this... Just not for me. Very Radiohead B-Side soundscape music. Her vocal eccentricity would suit it one would think, but it is jarring and knocks loose the little coherence the music had. I'd rather hear FKA Twigs sing these songs.

Feel lucky not that I started with Debut. If this is the first Björk album the generator gives you then it gets better. Some interestin/challenging stuff here. 3/5.

All of these one star reviews in a nutshell, “Why does art have to be challenging? Why can’t all art be accessible to everyone?” Some musical artists just want to make art, some artists just want to make money, and some can find that balance between the two. Björk has found a sweet spot where she can make challenging art and be extremely successful. She stays true to her art and she’ll always get five stars from me.

Meh

Doesn't do anything for me.

My Singing Monsters vibes

4/10 Muy raro, no me gusto

This is #day777 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... here's to my only second Björk album so far. The first one, ironically Debut, popped up all the way back on #day17. Crazy how long ago it was. This is my first time hearing this particular record, and all I can say is it's fucking weird, even by Björk standards. I prefer more "conventional" numbers, like, say, "Oceania," though. What I can't comprehend is the selection of her albums on this list. How on earth are Post and Homogenic not here? Let it be a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day778.

Medulla is an album I appreciate, but rarely find myself returning to in Björk's discography. Really enjoyed this revisit, which encouraged me to reconsider my feelings on it, though I still don't think it's among her top tier - more like a 3.5 for me

Alors, je ne suis pas tout à faire sûr de ce que je viens d'écouter Björk, c'est très spécial et en plus, elle change du tout au tout d'un album à l'autre, si j'ai bien compris. Cet album était très bizarre, dans le bon sens du terme. Il s'est écoulé une bonne heure depuis que j'ai fini mon écoute et ça me laisse un impression très floue et bizarre. Il y avait plusieurs personnes au chant, des effets électroniques bizarres, du beatboxing et Björk qui chante parfois en anglais, parfois en islandais et heu... plein d'autres trucs, franchement, il me faudrait deux trois écoutes supplémentaires pour faire le tri. L'album est presque entièrement composé de pistes vocales avec une instrumentation très réduite et je dois quand même dire que la démarche est poussé jusqu'au bout, elle crée des textures sonores complexes et riches avec les nombreux invités. C'est quand même très fort ! Alors c'est pas que j'ai adoré, mais l'approche était super originale et créative, j'ai trouvé que c'était un très bon album.

*2004. *Björk is very slightly growing on me, in the sense that I know what to expect. *Still a 2 star experience. RATING - 5.5/1-

Raar

If a hangover was an album...

Na herbeluisteren ben ik toch mee