"Who Is It" (sometimes "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)") is a song recorded by Icelandic singer
Björk for her fifth studio album ''
Medúlla
''Medúlla'' is the fifth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 30 August 2004 in the United Kingdom by One Little Indian Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. After the release of her electro ...
''. It was released as the
lead single
A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
Release s ...
from the album on 18 October 2004 by
One Little Indian Records
One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In t ...
. Björk wrote "Who Is It" during the recording sessions for her previous album, ''
Vespertine
''Vespertine'' is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Independent Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album ...
'' (2001), when it was known as "Embrace Fortress"; she left it off the album it as she felt it came from "a different family". The final version features throat singer
Tanya Tagaq
Tanya may refer to:
* Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi.
* Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name
* Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946)
* List of Mortal Kombat characters#T ...
and beatboxer
Rahzel
Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots.
Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and his ...
, and lyrics reflecting the dialogue between mother and child.
Critics praised "Who Is It" as exuberant and catchy. It peaked in the top five on the single charts in Spain and reached the top 30 in Italy and the United Kingdom. The
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
was directed by
Dawn Shadforth
Dawn Shadforth is a British director of music videos, TV, and film and a visual artist. She was originally a fine artist making work with objects, light, video and sound. She won the Whitworth Young Contemporaries Award for the installation "Swe ...
and shot outdoors in Iceland, and features Björk in a bell-shaped dress designed by
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashio ...
. During the promotional campaign for ''Medúlla'', Björk performed the song on a number of occasions, such as ''
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews (usually three per show) ...
'' and ''
L'Album de la semaine''. She performed it on subsequent tours. It has been covered by
Bon Iver
Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.
Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...
and
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. He sang in cho ...
.
Background
The initial version of "Who Is It" was written with artist
Bogdan Raczynski
Bogdan Raczynski (born 1977) is a Polish-American electronic musician. Associated with the intelligent dance music (IDM) movement, Raczynski's work draws inspiration from the chaotic breakbeats of jungle and hardcore rave as well as traditio ...
. Björk approached him during a show in London in 2000, and months later, they met in New York and wrote a song titled "Embrace Fortress" during the final recording sessions for her fourth studio album ''
Vespertine
''Vespertine'' is the fourth studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 27 August 2001 in the United Kingdom by One Little Independent Records and in the United States by Elektra Entertainment. Production on the album ...
'' (2001). She decided not to put the song on the album, because she felt it was from "a different family"; according to Björk, ''Vespertine'' was "introverted and shy and not a very physical record", and she felt this was a physical song that she wrote when she was feeling strong again.
Raczynski also said he did not want his version of the song to be available. He said "It was a beautiful thing we did together, but for that reason alone it should be left in the clouds. People need mystery and romance".
However, it eventually received a limited vinyl release by
Rephlex Records
Rephlex Records was a record label launched in 1991 in Cornwall by electronic musician Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) and Grant Wilson-Claridge. The label coined the term ''braindance'' to describe the output of Aphex Twin and fellow artists ...
.
Björk then approached the song again during the recording sessions for ''Medúlla'' and renamed it as "Who Is It".
Electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
duo
Matmos
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their per ...
also contributed to the song – they did "fruit-machine-noises" that are in the choruses with synthesizers that she later imitated with her voice.
It was also the first song that
Rahzel
Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots.
Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and his ...
sang, doing the beat in one take. Björk said that after he recorded, "we just all fell on the floor, we couldn't believe it. There's no overdubs, no treatment – this is it. I felt quite proud – if you're gonna have a human beatboxer, at least get the real thing".
Composition
"Who Is It" features contributions by throat-singer
Tanya Tagaq
Tanya may refer to:
* Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi.
* Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name
* Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946)
* List of Mortal Kombat characters#T ...
and beatboxer
Rahzel
Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots.
Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and his ...
.
Some lyrics of "Who Is It"—"Who is it that never lets you down?"—may be understood to reflect a "mother's unconditional love" in a dialogue between mother and child.
[ The echo effects in "Who Is It" may additionally reflect the "scattered sense of self the mother may experience as she carries the burden of constant care for her child".] Ethan Brown from '' New York'' magazine considered the line "Who is it that gave you back your crown?" as a kind of feminist self-validation. According to ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
''s Laura Sinagra, the "child-welcoming" song "nods to "world music" warmth with its throat-sung yelps". Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
's Dominique Leone
Dominique Leone is an American musician and writer based in New York City. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on December 29, 1973, and grew up in the Dallas, Texas area.
Leone began writing music reviews for Pitchfork Media in 2001, and was ...
said "Who Is It" reminded him of "Alarm Call
In animal communication, an alarm signal is an antipredator adaptation in the form of signals emitted by social animals in response to danger. Many primates and birds have elaborate alarm calls for warning conspecifics of approaching predator ...
" from ''Homogenic
''Homogenic'' is the third studio album by Icelandic recording artist Björk. It was released on 20 September 1997 by One Little Indian Records. Produced by Björk, Mark Bell, Guy Sigsworth, Howie B, and Markus Dravs, the album marked a styli ...
'' (1997), in the way it "applies Björk's idiosyncratic performances to a traditionally pleasant sounding template", though he felt 'Who Is It' featured a "much more interesting" chord progression during the verses, and an "altogether incredible rhythm track". John Mulvey from Yahoo! Launch
Yahoo! Music Radio (formerly known as LAUNCHcast) was an Internet radio service offered by Clear Channel Communications' iHeartRadio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré, ...
noted that the song recalled the "kind of strident hook that Björk favoured during her commercial heyday of the mid-'90s".
Critical reception
"Who Is It" received positive reviews from music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
. Michael Paoletta from '' Billboard'' magazine called the song "exuberant", whilst John Mulvey from Yahoo! Launch found it "euphoric". Melanie Haupt commented that Björk's "trills in her native Icelandic work well on "Who Is It," which underscores this disc's experiment in taking the raw power of the human voice". '' Time Out''s John Lewis stated that "Who Is It" has a melody that Cathy Dennis
Catherine Roseanne Dennis (born 25 March 1969)Gregory, Andy (2002) ''International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002'', Europa; , p. 133 is a British singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She was the vocalist for D Mob, which had the s ...
would kill to write. Spence D. of IGN Music
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
said that despite the "strangely haunting" intro, the song was the most "straight forward, accessible number" on the album. Jennifer Vineyard from MTV News shared a similar sentiment, stating that despite its "cumbersome title", it was the "most immediate and catchy number, with a pure sense of seize-the-day joy: If there is to be a single released from the album, this should be it".
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s Michael Cragg stated that its verses "melt into a big, melodious chorus that showed that despite her disappearance from daytime radio, Björk still knew how to make something resembling a crowd singalong". Matthew Gasteier of ''Prefix'' magazine was also positive, calling the song a "mostly typical Bjork anthem", replacing her previous electronic sound with the "concept-appropriate but still conventional human beat". AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's Heather Phares noted that the song, along with promotional single "Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
", "have an alien quality that is all the stranger considering that nearly all of their source material is human (except for the odd keyboard or two)". Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' stated that, along with " Where Is the Line", "Who Is It" is a "wide open ong Ong or ONG may refer to:
Arts and media
* Ong's Hat, a collaborative work of fiction
* “Ong Ong”, a song by Blur from the album The Magic Whip
Places
* Ong, Nebraska, US, city
* Ong's Hat, New Jersey, US, ghost town
* Ong River, Odisha, ...
with complex superstructures, catchy but ghostly, and they probably haven't seen their final incarnation". BBC Music
BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network.
Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...
's David Hooper called the song "enjoyable", citing it as one of the only "really immediate tunes" on ''Medúlla''.
Chart performance
In the United Kingdom, "Who Is It" debuted at its peak of number 26 on the UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
on the issue dated 24 October 2004. It became her highest-peaking single since " Hidden Place", which reached number 21 in 2001. The song also obtained the same position in Italy, on the issue dated 2 December 2004, but fell to number 40 the next week, before falling off the chart. In France, "Who Is It" debuted at its peak of number 62, before spending two other weeks and falling off the chart.
Music video
The accompanying music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
for "Who Is It" was shot in early September 2004 in Hjörleifshöfði, Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
and directed by Dawn Shadforth
Dawn Shadforth is a British director of music videos, TV, and film and a visual artist. She was originally a fine artist making work with objects, light, video and sound. She won the Whitworth Young Contemporaries Award for the installation "Swe ...
. It premiered at the grand opening of the "Islande de glace et de feu" event at the Palais de la Découverte, in Paris, France, on 27 September 2004. For the video, Björk approached her friend and collaborator Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashio ...
to design a dress she would wear for it. She asked him for an outfit "that looked like a bell". He then did a brief outline sketch of the shape, and after Björk approval, it was sent to Iceland for the shoot, with no other discussion or fittings. Their close relationship made Björk feel secure that his dress would work. She accessorised the outfit with leather boots and a mask made from hair.
The video is divided into scenes in the day and night in a desert, with Björk wearing the bell-shaped dress designed by McQueen, dancing playfully to the song. At some moments of the video she can be seen playing bells and holding two Siberian Huskies. Throughout the clip, several children can be seen playing bells and dressed in clothes covered in small jingle bells. The bell choir was formed by Júnia, Salka, Kaktus, Örnólfur, Daði and Gabríel of The Bústaðakirkja Bell Choir. The version of the song played in the video is different from the album version, removing almost all the vocal music and replacing it with bells. The bell-shaped dress was shown in Björk's MoMA retrospective in 2015. It was sold for £44,000, as part of Kerry Taylor Auctions "Passion for Fashion" sale in London, in June 2016.
Live performances
Björk first performed "Who Is It" on the 2001 Vespertine World Tour
The Vespertine World Tour was a tour by the singer Björk that focused on her album ''Vespertine''. She also performed songs from ''Debut'', ''Post'', ''Homogenic'' and ''Selmasongs''. She performed 35 shows on this tour and 31 different songs. Th ...
during her stops in Parma and Rome, Italy, in November. During the promotional campaign for ''Medúlla'', a bell choir mix of "Who Is It" was performed with Rahzel
Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots.
Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and his ...
and an English bell choir at BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, two days later. The song was also performed at
's ''L'Album de la semaine'' in France on 15 October, along with other tracks from ''Medúlla'', airing some days later. "Who Is It" has been performed on the
in 2007 and 2008. Additionally, the "Bell Choir" version was performed using the gameleste on the
.
live session. In 2015,
released a cover version on his album ''Passion World''.
;UK CD1
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Radio Edit) – 3:04
# "
) – 2:55
;UK CD2
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (
Dattasette Mix) – 4:15
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Fruit Machine Mix) – 3:23
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Bell Choir Mix featuring The Bústaðakirkja Bell Choir) – 3:49
;UK/European DVD
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Video) – 3:52
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Choir Mix) – 7:42
# "Mouth's Cradle" (Cortejo Afro / Ilê Aiyê Mix) – 4:00
;European/Japanese CD
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (C2n Dattasette Mix) – 4:15
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Fruit Machine Mix) – 3:23
# "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)" (Bell Choir Mix featuring The Bústaðakirkja Bell Choir) – 3:49
# "Oceania" (featuring Kelis) – 2:55
Credits adapted from ''Medúlla'' album booklet.