A thing about the Björk & Dirty Projectors thing that people keep talking about...

Recently Björk and (the) Dirty Projectors released an EP or short album, Mount Wittenberg Orca, comprised of collaborations. We mentioned it briefly (and humorously) because we are MAJOR BJÖRK STANS, but unfortunately it's taken us a bit longer to form a coherent opinion, as is often the case with projects of this ilk. Just before we start wittering on like crazies we need to get some things out of the way: you can go to the album's official website here and, just so you know, all proceeds from digital sales will "go to the National Geographic Society for the project of creating international marine protected areas" (so says fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia). So basically it's for charity and you're not supposed to badmouth charity projects, but we're not planning on doing any badmouthing, just a little wittering. Here is what we have to say:

Often in popular music there is a great chasm 'twixt an artist's imagination/ambition and their talent/skill level. This is the way of pop, and many of the artists contained therein. Even Madonna's greatest fans (so: us) would admit that her success lies in her visionary knack for creating iconography and cherrypicking ingenious collaborators, not her musical talents. Par exemple. Unfortunately Dirty Projectors (who we had the... erm... good fortune to see live at Latitude Festival) seem to have such disproportionately mismatched imagination/skill level, it's almost blood-boilingly frustrating. They have a set of 'avant sensibilities' and feverish dedication to unusual time signatures/musical textures/harmonies that should be wildly exhilarating, but band founder and lead singer Dave Longstreth has an uninspiring and often-flat voice, and a slightly bothersome preoccupation with jangly guitars and spindly cod-calypso beats and rhythms.

This is all very well 'on record', but live, the band's shortcomings became painfully clear. Almost everything was out of time, mistakes were made consistently throughout and transitions between a patchwork of jarring and mismatched styles/sections were so far removed from smooth one would be forgiven for thinking a song had been abandoned half-way-through and another struck up immediately. Now for the positives: on their own, Dirty Projectors may seem too rough-around-the-edges and wilfully frustrating for Shiny & New but with Björk - who adds narrative, shape, feel, lushness and nuance (all much needed) to their set-up - their work is much more satisfying and brills.

So basically: this EP is well worth downloading, not just because it's for charité but also because Björk lifts the sound of Dirty Projectors from 'ambitious but flat' to 'intriguing and sparky'. We're not saying Dirty Projectors should recruit Björk permanently as their lead singer (although lord knows, it's the only way we might become fans) because we want her to RELEASE A NEW SOLO ALBUM BEFORE WE DIE, but that this is worth looking into even if you've been deterred by what you've heard from the Dirty Projectors before, because it's a bit better, or something.

Just download it.