Björk, full name Björk Guðmundsdóttir. It seems that uou either love her, or you hate her, and there's no room for any middle ground. She's always been apart from the pack as far as musicians go; she was from Iceland before it was cool to be an Icelandic musician, and she's always been noted as something of an eccentric. Unlike most eccentric musicians though, she wasn't creepy or bizarre like, say, Michael Jackson, her peculiar behaviour mixed with her diminutive, childlike voice was in fact, rather charming. This odd behaviour is continued musically onto her latest album, "Medulla", which, as you've probably heard by now, has no instruments on it whatsoever.

Actually, that's a lie, since apart from Björk's voice, there is also lots of various percussive noises on the album, as well as vocal samples that have been so thoroughly mangled through computers that they're unrecognisable. So, my initial fears that this would be nothing but unaccompanied singing didn't come to fruition. In fact, on tracks like Where Is The Line, which features a cavalcade of vocal samples and other noises which are still technically acapella, you don't even really notice the absence of any instruments.

The problem with this album is the same problem that pretty much all Björk albums have; everything is so peculiar and strange that it's hard to get a solid grip on it. I realise that purposely creating music designed to be as alienating as possible is part of her appeal, but this of course means that for people unfamiliar with her eccentricities, this record is not going to be accessible at all.

There is an impressive list of guest stars on this album though, so even people who an't stomach the extremely abnormal nature of the music might get a kick out of trying to identify everyone. Mike Patton of Faith No More drops in and growls a lot on the aforementioned Where Is The Line, and Japanese artist Dokaka drops in on Triumph of a Heart. The songs without big names making vocal contributions are varied, ranging from the upbeat intertwining beats of Who Is It to the minimal, distant Oceania.

Albums like this are nearly impossible to judge on the usual scale of how many hooks it has, how good the songwriting is, and the like. "Medulla" absolutely oozes artistic credibility, and you have to give credit to Björk for taking a gamble with something so perpendicular to the mainstream as this, when she probably could have knocked out another album of It's Oh So Quiet knockoffs. With that said, an album that is only going to appeal to a very narrow section of the listening public is an album that is only going to appeal to a very narrow section of the listening public. Even if you're adapted to her previous works, this is probably an album that you should listen to, before you fork out to buy it.