978. Medulla

Medulla
Bjork
2004

Tracks
1. Pleasure Is All Mine
2. Show Me Forgiveness
3. Where Is The Line
4. Vökuró
5. Öll Birtan
6. Who Is It (Carry My Joy On The Left, Carry My Pain On The Right)
7. Submarine
8. Desired Constellation
9. Oceania
10. Sonnets/Unrealities XI
11. Ancestors
12. Mouth's Cradle
13. Midvikudags
14. Triumph Of A Heart

Finally a concept album where I am interested in the concept. Bjork makes an album that is almost entirely composed of human voices, without any instrumentals. Which would be interesting even if the execution wasn't great.

Fortunately, it's Bjork so it turned out really well. I will always find her voice fascinating, and making it the focal point of the album was a great idea.

Our last Bjork album on the List, and I am much more sad to see her go than Morrissey. 

RATING: 5/5

627. Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler

Tank Battles: The Songs of Hanns Eisler
Dagmar Krause
1988

Tracks
1. Song Of The Whitewash
2. You Have To Pay
3. Ballad Of The Sack Slingers
4. Perhaps Song
5. Mankind
6. Song Of A German Mother
7. Bankenlied
8. Und Endlich Stirbt
9. Mother's Hands
10. Genvieve/Ostern Ist Ball Sur Seine
11. I Read About Tank Battles
12. Chanson Allemande
13. Mother Beimlein
14. Bettellied
15. Change The World It Needs It
16. Failure In Loving
17. Ballad Of (Bourgeois) Welfare
18. Berlin 1919
19. Rat Men The Nightmare
20. Homecoming
21. To A Little Radio
22. Lied Von Der Belebeden Wirkung Des Geldes
23. Legende Von Der Entstehung Des Buches Taoteking
24. And I Shall Never See Again
25. Wise Woman And The Soldier

I have been praising many female vocalists lately so I suppose the List felt obliged to prove to me how insufferable they can be. Point taken.

It's difficult to get a definitive track listing on this one; I think there are a few versions floating around out there. The version I listened to was on YouTube and was well over an hour long, so maybe I could have spared myself some suffering by choosing a shorter release. Is "Mother Beimlein" the creepiest song that ever was?

Well, that was just awful and weird. It sounded like German Propaganda: The Musical. There's nothing to distract you from Krause's harsh vocals, although I did enjoy the songs that were actually in German more. 

Long and grating. A solid yikes.

RATING: 1/5