() - Sigur Ros > Reviews > Skandis of the century!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Not applicable
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Sound is out of this world
Disadvantages:	"Hopelandic" can make songs sound a little similar

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Sigur Rós- Iceland's answer to everything:

The band consists of jón þor (jónsi) birgisson (vocals, guitars), kjartan (kjarri) sveinsson (keyboards), orri páll dýrason (drums) and georg (goggi) holm (bass). They create a remarkable sound considering the basic instruments used. Jónsi often uses a cello bow to play his guitar, resulting in an effects-laden, atmospheric, totally unique sound. His voice is probably the most unique thing about sigur rós. a falsetto somewhere between thom yorke and a choir boy. the band have released three albums so far, plus one remix album (von brigði - recycle bin). the first album, which has not been released outside of iceland, is called von (hope) and is quite experimental and ambient.

This offering was recorded at their new studio in Alafoss that they converted from a swimming pool. It has no words as such, not even Icelandic ones, as it's recorded in "Hopelandic", which is the combination of nonsense words and sounds that Jónsi uses to sing along to the band when they haven't worked out any vocals yet, but are trying to find the vocals tune for when they do.

The sound ranges from a grand and imposing room-filling ambient, almost tactile collection of melodies to single piano riffs that evoke more than anything the bleak and barren but beautiful Icelandic landscape, as they intended.

For this kind of music, it is necessary to have either a good sound system with a large range of frequencies, or good headphones. In my mind, playing this sort of gloriously all-encompassing upliftingly large music on something like laptop speakers is a travesty, and should be punished severely. this is the only album I've bought for many years that has moved me to tears and has sent shivers down my spine from its haunting beauty.

It is far darker and less accessible than their previous albums, and has a slightly harsher edge to it. It's the sort of music that you can listen to without doing anything else, and become so drawn into the music that unless your CD player's on "repeat" you return to earth with a mighty bump when the final song ends.

There is a 36 second silence after track 4, that marks the division between the "soft" section and the "heavy" section of the album. This feels to me like a necessary break, so that the feelings invoked by the "soft" section can have time for you to understand them and allow them to disperse, ready for the new style.

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The tracks are as follows:
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1.Untitled 1 - Vaka 06:38 mins
2.Untitled 2 - Fyrsta 07:33 mins
3.Untitled 3 - Samsketyi 06:33 mins
4.Untitled 4 - Njósnavélin 6:56 mins
5.Untitled 5 - Alafoss 9:57 mins
6.Untitled 6 - E-bow 8:48 mins
7.Untitled 7 - Dauðalagið 13:00 mins
8.Untitled 8 - Popplagið 11:45 mins

They mean:

Vaka: the name of Orri's daughter
Fyrsta: The First Song
Samsketyi: Attachment
Njósnavélin: The Spy Machine
Alafoss: The Band's studio
E-bow: Jónsi's effect with using a cello bow to play his guitar
Dauðalagið: The Death Song
Popplagið: The Pop Song

As can be seen, the tracks are uniformly quite long, but there is no Pink Floydian excess here; each song seems to be perfectly crafted and seems to be sent out exactly as it was supposed to be (it should be - they had to remove part of the roof of the Alafoss studio so that a crane could get their mixing board in because it was so big!)

I could listen to this CD for an awfully long time, and I can sense that it's one of those albums that, like Massive Attack's offerings, you never finish listening to, because there's always something that makes you sit up and take notice, as you're sure you've never noticed a particular nuance before.
this is not music for those that require a catchy chorus. In fact, some songs, like E-bow, have a feel to them that's almost like British Sea Power's song "Lately" (The Decline of British Sea Power album), in that it continues completely differently just whe you thought it had ended, and you like the new incarnation better than the last.

There is a lot of variation in the styles of the songs, not just from grandeur to intimacy, but from rock to almost neo-romantic at one point in "Vaka", when Amina's strings take the song to a whole new level of familarity. This is an album where the songs are different, but have a string of familiarity running through their hearts - in other words, a wonderful buy - I've now become addicted to them, and am going to buy all their other albums when I can find some money somewhere!

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Credits
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Written, produced and performed by Sigur Rós

engineered, mixed and co-produced by Kenneth Vaughan-Thomas

Assistant engineering by Marco Migliari

Strings and arrangements by Amina (an icelandic string quartet)

Mastered by Mandy at the Exchange

Recorded at Alafoss

Album artwork mainly by Sigur Rós