Bjork to release album early after leak

NEW YORK - Bjork said Tuesday she would release her new album months ahead of schedule after she became the latest artist to suffer an online leak.

The Icelandic singer said her first album in three years, "Vulnicura," would be out within the next 24 hours and described it as a "complete heartbreak album" about a romantic breakup.

Songs from the album emerged on pirate sites Tuesday, several days after Bjork had announced that "Vulnicura" would come out in March and provided a list of songs.

In a message on Facebook and Twitter, Bjork did not directly comment on the leak but instead thanked her fans for their interest.

Bjork described the album as a "pretty much accurate emotional chronology" with three songs before a breakup and three after.

"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," she wrote.

"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," she wrote.

Internet leaks of albums have become increasingly common in an era in which reproducing music files requires little technical skill and pirate websites enjoy an eager listenership.

Madonna last month released six songs from her upcoming album months ahead of schedule after early versions emerged on the Internet. In contrast to Bjork, Madonna voiced outrage, calling the leak "artistic rape" and saying that the leaked tracks were not her final versions.

The leaked versions of "Vulnicura" feature Bjork's distinctive, wide-ranging voice over a lush orchestration of strings and a layer of electronic beats, a defining trait of Bjork's key works including 1997's "Homogenic." Bjork worked on her latest album with Arca, the Venezuelan DJ known for producing rapper Kanye West and the rising British trip-hop artist FKA twigs.

The album is Bjork's first since 2011's "Biophilia," a wildly ambitious production that used smartphone apps and other multimedia to explore the links between technology, music and nature.

Bjork last week announced a series of intimate New York concerts to promote "Vulnicura" including two nights at Carnegie Hall, one of the world's premier classical venues.

Bjork's work will also be featured in a retrospective exhibit in March at New York's Museum Modern Art.