358 episodes
- Adam and Steve use their human voices to discuss Medúlla by Björk.
The exploration of the career and music of Björk reaches her fifth studio album, released in 2004. Adam and Steve dig into how the album was written and recorded, the inspirations and influences behind it, and the musical landscape at the time it was released, before starting their track-by-track analysis.
They consider the meeting of tradition and modernity, the boundaries of a concept album, how an artist goes “back to basics”, and what that means for Björk. Along the way, they touch on school trends, missing world events, David Lynch touching a hot car, intense speeches, and midnight mass.
Meanwhile, Steve wrestles with form and function and Adam struggles with beatboxing… all on this week’s episode of What Is Music?
The discussion on Medúlla continues next week!
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Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod to explore our Album Club, help us compile The Ultimate Playlist, and listen to bonus episodes every month! You also get instant access to every episode of those shows and What Is Music? - that’s more than 500 episodes! You can also join your hosts and fellow listeners in our subscriber-only Discord!
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Support the show - Lucas makes a big announcement, but first, The Big Mates discuss Gollum, Keith Allen, Dev Patel, and take time to reflect on Björk.
Adam, Steve, and Lucas pause their dissection of Björk's career and follow her lead by looking back. They take a look at her Greatest Hits and the releases surrounding it, discuss her tour after it, and explore the tracks they had yet to encounter.
Then they look back at the albums they've already covered, consider what they found most challenging and enjoyable, and attempt to place Björk's career so far into a wider context. They then find time to rank the albums and reveal their Top 10 Björk songs so far!
Lucas' announcement, for the curious, can be found at 2:20:00.
Who invented fish and chips? What is the limelight? Will Coldplay release a Greatest Hits in time for Christmas? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?
Our next episode is out next week!
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E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com
Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including our album club and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!
Support our show when starting your own podcast!
By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379
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Lucas Way will return in
On Her Christmas’s Christmas Service
Support the show - The Big Mates provide an acrobatic kind of audio accompaniment for a variety of clips from the Vespertine era of Björk’s career.
Head to YouTube to watch along by clicking here!
Or don't watch along - the episode works fine either way!
Our next episode comes out Monday October 19th!
Join the conversation on:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatismusicpod.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@whatismusicpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpod
E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com
Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including our album club and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!
Support our show when starting your own podcast!
By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379
Check out our merch!
https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.com
Donate to our podcast!
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Support the show - The Big Mates discuss Pro Tools, music boxes, ocarinas, and Vespertine by Björk.
Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their dissection of Björk's fourth album by looking at how she wrote and recorded it, the collaborations she sought to help her, and her goals for the album.
They look at how the album was received when it came out, how it's regarded today, and they finish up their track-by-track analysis, exploring the composition, sound, lyrics, meaning, and context for each song in turn - all from three differing perspectives, from being deeply into music and analysis, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between!
What will we make of the second half of the album? What will the scores be? How do you remember the difference between stalagmites and stalactites? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?
Our next episode is out next week, Monday October 12th!
Join the conversation on:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatismusicpod.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@whatismusicpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpod
E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com
Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including our album club and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!
Support our show when starting your own podcast!
By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379
Check out our merch!
https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.com
Donate to our podcast!
https://ko-fi.com/whatismusic
http://whatismusic.buzzsprout.com/
Support the show - The Big Mates discuss Mr. Burns, activity times, ASMR, and Vespertine by Björk.
Adam, Steve, and Lucas begin their dissection of Björk's fourth album by looking at how she wrote and recorded it, the collaborations she sought to help her, and her goals for the album.
They also find time to explore the world around Björk, how she processed the events surrounding Dancer in the Dark, and how this record started as a hobby, before starting the track-by-track analysis, exploring the composition, sound, lyrics, meaning, and context for each song in turn - all from three differing perspectives, from being deeply into music and analysis, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between!
What was Björk’s initial vision for the album? Where is the hidden place? Sex? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?
Our next episode is out next week, Monday October 5th, and will continue the deep-dive into Björk's fourth album!
Join the conversation on:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatismusicpod.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@whatismusicpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpod
E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com
Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including our album club and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!
Support our show when starting your own podcast!
By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379
Check out our merch!
https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.com
Donate to our podcast!
https://ko-fi.com/whatismusic
http://whatismusic.buzzsprout.com/
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About What Is Music?: A Music Podcast About Music
A podcast that dives deep into discographies - one artist per season. Hosts Adam, Steve, and Lucas go album by album, track by track, exploring how context shapes our experience of music, why fans become obsessed, and what music really is. With three hosts coming from wildly different levels of musical knowledge, expect sharp analysis, wild tangents, hot takes, and more information about the artists (and the hosts) than you ever asked for. Current focus: Björk. Previous seasons featured Manic Street Preachers, Muse, Billie Eilish, Radiohead, Lauryn Hill, R.E.M., and Arctic Monkeys.
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