Midvikudags

Medulla is probably my favourite Bjork album after Homogenic – I know, weird – but I can see why it drives many people around the bend. Most of her previous albums had ten or eleven tracks, and Medulla, with its fourteen tracks, definitely feels about two or three tracks too long. “Midvikudags” is one of these extra tracks (I’m not even going to try to do the “correct” lettering). There’s nothing irritating about it – it’s a pleasant bit of a vocal warm-up on Bjork’s part, and the harmonies between the layered Bjork vocals are nice, as you would expect Bjork harmonizing with herself should be. But it’s definitely a fragment of a better idea, and a less indulgent Bjork would have relegated this pretty, harmless warmth to a B-side. I do think, though, that her reluctance to let it go indicates how much of Bjork’s heart – aren’t I punny! – is in Medulla, and that this song, as ridiculously forgettable as it is, is a clearer document of her person than anything off of her first two albums.