Well, this sounds familiar: after an iconic artist’s new album leaks way ahead of schedule, she decides to make lemonade out of lemons by skipping the waiting period and putting her new music on iTunes right away.
Bjork’s Vulnicura wasn’t supposed to come out until March, but it leaked over the weekend — just days after the Icelandic singer announced the project. On Tuesday, Björk revealed in a quintessentially Björk note addressed to fans and “websitefolk” that the album would be available worldwide on iTunes within 24 hours. (Vulnicura doesn’t appear to be on the U.S. store yet, only the U.K. one so far through this link). She also explained the album’s origins as a breakup album (copied below as written on Björk’s profile):
i guess i found in my lap one year into writing it a complete heartbreak album . kinda surprised how thoroughly i had documented this in pretty much accurate emotional chronology …. like 3 songs before a break up and three after . so the anthropologist in me sneaked in and i decided to share them as such . first i was worried it would be too self indulgent but then i felt it might make it even more universal . and hopefully the songs could be a help , a crutch to others and prove how biological this process is : the wound and the healing of the wound . psychologically and physically . it has a stubborn clock attached to it .
Björk’s situation is not unlike Madonna’s, who put up six songs from the album Rebel Heart, due in March, on iTunes in December after various versions of the album sessions leaked online.
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com