I just heard the Medúlla album yesterday (7/26/04) at the Universal Music Spanish offices. Since I got to hear it completely I thought it would be of interest to share some of my impressions with all of you.
The album contains 14 songs, some of which sound as if they were improvised. The basic idea behind the album - I think - is an exploration of the different sounds and effects that can be done with human voices: from choruses to percussion, from 'voice trombone' to sampled chorus voices given a strong mod-wheel treatment.
The tracks that I found most interesting were: "Pleasure Is All Mine", "Where Is The Line", "Vökuró", "Desired Constellation", "Oceania", "Mouth's Cradle and Triumph Of A Heart". BTW, the first single - at least here in Spain - is to be "Oceania".
"Oceania" is a sensual ballad that features a strong voice-based percussion and plays a lot with the background voices. The last phrase, I believe, sums up all the sensuousness of the song, "your sweat is salty, I am why".
Probably the heaviest/most intense track is "Where Is The Line", which is - I believe - in 12/8 time. It features voice percussion, whistling and Simmons-type drums.
The most 'classical' sounding song in Medúlla, which, as was to be expected, is quite an artsy album, is "Vökuró", where she is accompanied, as in a few other tracks, by The Icelandic Choir. Almost Gothic.
In the whole, the voices seemed to be mainly spread out on the front stage throughout the album with some echo reflection information on the back channels, although I seemed to notice some parts where certain voices would pan from the front left to back left channel.
I hope this information gives you a slight idea of what this new album is all about.
