The song “Oral” about salmon farming by Björk and Rosalía is really good

Björk and Rosalía save pop music And fish.

On Tuesday, the musicians released their highly anticipated collaboration, “Oral,” to raise awareness about the environmental dangers of net-pen salmon farming in Iceland. Proceeds from the single will be donated to the non-profit Aegis; At the start of the clip, a title card states that “all funds raised will be used to support the protesters’ legal costs.”

In October, the same day she announced her duet, Björk joined more than 2,000 farm workers and citizens in a demonstration in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, to protest in support of Norwegian fish farms in her country original. According to a press release from ‘Oral’, ‘these genetically modified and diseased salmon regularly escape from the enclosures and travel upriver to the Icelandic highlands, where devastating genetic mixing is occurring and endangering the future of the Icelandic wild salmon population.”

In an Instagram post on Monday, the “Hyperballad” singer called the industrial phenomenon “horrible for the environment.” She wrote: “Farmed salmon are going through immense suffering. And this is causing serious damage to our planet. This is an extraordinarily cruel way of preparing food. The fight against the open net pen industry is part of the fight for the future of the planet.

She also thanked Spanish singer Rosalía for her contributions on “Oral,” complimenting her “amazing voice” and “experiments with the genre.”

As two remarkable genre-bending artists, a collaboration immediately seemed like a recipe for success. So what does Björk and Rosalía’s fish song sound like after all the hype?

In short, it’s really good. If listeners were expecting an angry protest song, this certainly isn’t it; as you might have guessed from the title, the underlying theme is much more sensual. “It’s really that moment when you meet someone and you don’t know if it’s friendship or something more,” Björk said. rolling stone last month. “So you become, I guess, excited. And you become very conscious of your lips.

“Is this the right thing to do? / I just don’t know / I don’t know,” the two women sing in a euphoric chorus. The song was first written between Björk’s 1997 album Homogeneous and the years 2001 In the evening (“Oral” seems to belong to the first). Co-produced by Sega Bodega, it’s a mid-tempo dancehall-style track with an intoxicating string arrangement on par with Björk’s songs “Unravel” and “All It’s Full of Love.”

The infectious melody perfectly captures the metaphorical butterflies of discovering a crush, almost completely outweighing the anxiety and skepticism of the lyrics. And Björk’s raspy but cheerful voice pairs perfectly with Rosalía’s silky, angelic soprano.

Of course, their social media stances, hyperbolic as usual, decided that the trail had already saved Icelandic marine life.

Hopefully this won’t be the last joint project between these two: if “Oral” is any indication, a full album with these musical goddesses could deliver a barrage of bops, or even save all the wildlife.