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Bjork album leak: Vulnicara available on iTunes two months before scheduled release

The Icelandic singer's first album in four years emerged online at the weekend

Jess Denham
Wednesday 21 January 2015 05:29 EST
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Icelandic singer Bjork has been forced to release her album early after an online leak
Icelandic singer Bjork has been forced to release her album early after an online leak (Getty Images)

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Bjork has become the latest victim of an online leak after her new album appeared online over the weekend.

The Icelandic singer-songwriter quickly made the decision to rush release Vulnicara, which is now available on iTunes despite not being due for two months.

Yesterday, Bjork told fans and “websitefolk” that the album would be released worldwide “within 24 hours”, despite its existence only being announced last week.

The 49-year-old also took the opportunity to explain Vulnicara’s break-up theme, writing in a Facebook post that she feared her first album in four years “would be too self-indulgent”.

“Then I felt it might make [heartbreak] even more universal,” she said. “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.”

The vinyl and CD formats of Vulnicara are being kept back until the original release date, which was timed to coincide with her retrospective exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on 7 March.

Bjork’s leak follows that of Madonna’s shortly before Christmas, whose response was rather more dramatic. The US singer branded the leak of Rebel Heart “artistic rape” and made six songs officially available in December.

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